Ad Disclosure
Counting down the top 15 college coaches — ranking Nos. 1 through 5
By John Brasier
Published:
We’re down to the final five in our countdown of the premier coaches in college football.
While winning championship is a measure of every coach, some coaches don’t have the resources to win titles every season.
Coaches are also measured by how much they make with the resources they are given. For example, it’s not fair to compare coaches at Alabama or LSU with their counterparts at Vanderbilt or Mississippi State solely on the basis of the number of championships their teams have won.
In selecting our list of top coaches, we considered achievement above and beyond expectations as well as victories and championships.
Below are our top 5:
Previous top 15-6: No. 15 Hugh Freeze, Ole Miss; No. 14 Bob Stoops, Oklahoma; No. 13 Jimbo Fisher, Florida State; No. 12 Dan Mullen, Mississippi State; No. 11 Chris Petersen, Washington; No. 10 Brian Kelly, Notre Dame; No. 9 David Cutcliffe, Duke; No. 8 Dabo Swinney, Clemson; No. 7 Jim Harbaugh, Michigan; No. 6 Art Briles, Baylor.
NO. 5: MARK DANTONIO, MICHIGAN STATE
Record as a head coach: 105-50 (87-33 at Michigan State)
Best season: 13-1 won Rose Bowl finished No. 3 in polls in 2013
Notable player: Kirk Cousins
The Spartans don’t have the reputation or impressive history that pulls top recruits into Big Ten rivals Ohio State, Michigan, Nebraska and Penn State. Instead, they are generally considered the No. 2 program in their own state.
Yet Dantonio’s program rivals Urban Meyer’s Ohio State program at the top of the Big Ten. Dantonio’s teams have won at least 11 games in five of the last six seasons, going 36-5 over the last three.
The Spartans do it with mostly three-star recruits. In the past four seasons, the Spartans are No. 28 in 247Sports composite recruiting rankings. Dantonio’s Spartans are especially good in big games, going 6-2 against AP top 10 teams.
A defensive back at South Carolina from 1976-1978, Dantonio worked for Jim Tressel at Youngstown State and Ohio State and Nick Saban at Michigan State. He took over at Michigan State after going 18-17 in three years as head coach at Cincinnati.
Known for fielding teams with a stingy defense and a passing game capable of beating tough opponents, Dantonio has made the Spartans a consistent winner with a 65-16 record the past six seasons and his program shows no signs of tapering off.
NO. 4: BILL SNYDER, KANSAS STATE
Record as a head coach: 193-101-1
Best season: 11-2, won Big 12 North, lost to Purdue in Alamo Bowl
Notable player: Jordy Nelson
No coach has accomplished more with less than the venerable Snyder, who took over the worst program in major-college football history and transformed it into a Big 12 powerhouse. Kansas State, 299-510 in 93 years before Snyder, is 193-101-1 with him on the sideline.
“He’s not the coach of the year, he’s not the coach of the decade, he’s the coach of the century,” said former Oklahoma coach Barry Switzer.
Before Arkansas joined the SEC, athletic director Frank Broyles was quoted that the Razorbacks were ready to replace Kansas State in the Big Eight.
Building his program at a school far from major cities, Snyder brought in overlooked recruits and junior-college transfers. His teams have featured tough running games, usually led by a hard-running quarterback and aggressive, stingy defenses.
A longtime assistant to Hayden Fry at North Texas and Iowa, Snyder took over at Kansas State in 1989. After four years of building, Snyder guided the Wildcats to 11 straight bowl games, averaging 9.9 victories per season.
In 1998, Snyder had the Wildcats on the brink of a national championship. But Texas A&M upset the 11-0 Wildcats in the Big 12 Championship Game. Overlooked by major bowl games, perhaps expecting Kansas State to represent the Big 12 in the Orange Bowl, the Wildcats looked disinterested in a loss to Drew Brees and Purdue in the Alamo Bowl.
How well regarded is the 76-year-old Snyder at Kansas State? He was voted into the College Football Hall of Fame and Kansas State’s stadium was renamed Bill Snyder and Family Stadium during an initial retirement after the 2005 season that ended with the school begging him to return in 2009. Leading a program that had slipped to 17-20 without him, he has a 57-33 record since coming back.
NO. 3 GARY PATTERSON, TEXAS CHRISTIAN
Record as a head coach: 143-47
Best season: 13-0, won Rose Bowl finished No. 2 in the polls in 2010.
Notable player: Andy Dalton
Beginning as defensive coordinator for Dennis Franchione then taking over as head coach, Patterson has led the transformation of a downtrodden TCU program originally considered unworthy of a spot in the Big 12 into a national power.
Prior to Patterson’s three seasons with Franchione beginning in 1998, TCU had only five winning seasons since 1966. The Horned Frogs have had only one losing season in Patterson’s 15 seasons.
Patterson has consistently taken three-star recruits and built championship-caliber teams. The former Kansas State defender has shown a tremendous ability to adapt his team to the specific talents of his players.
Early in his tenure, a stingy defense was the trademark of his TCU teams. In recent seasons, especially since 2012, when the Horned Frogs were accepted into the Big 12, Patterson’s teams have featured high-scoring offenses in a variety of styles.
Patterson has coached six teams that finished in the top 10 in the polls. Ten of his 15 teams have won at least 10 games, and nine have won at least 11. Patterson’s 2010 team finished undefeated, beating Wisconsin in the Rose Bowl, but did not earn a spot in the BCS championship game and finished No. 2 in the polls.
In seven seasons in the Mountain West, Patterson’s teams went 77-13 and won four conference titles. After going 11-14 in their first two years in the Big 12, Patterson’s teams have rebounded to go 23-3 the past two seasons, routing Ole Miss in the Peach Bowl after the 2014 season and charging back from a 31-0 deficit to beat Oregon 47-41 in this season’s Alamo Bowl.
NO. 2 URBAN MEYER, OHIO STATE
Record as a head coach: 154-27 (50-4 at Ohio State)
Best season: 14-1, beat Oregon in National Championship Game in 2014 season.
Notable player: Tim Tebow (at Florida)
Meyer has won at every level, going 17-6 at Bowling Green and 22-2 at Utah before attaining greater glory at Florida and Ohio State.
In only 10 seasons with the two power programs, he’s won three national championships and taken teams to six BCS or New Year’s Six bowl games. His first team at Ohio State in 2012 finished 12-0 but was ineligible for postseason play.
Meyer helped revolutionize college football with dual-threat quarterbacks making his offenses almost unstoppable. His 13-0 Utah team was led to a Fiesta Bowl victory by Alex Smith. At Florida, Tim Tebow played a major role in two national titles. A great recruiter, Meyer’s teams have playmakers on offense and defense.
He won a national title in 2014 with third-team QB Cordale Jones playing a starring role in playoff victories over Alabama and Oregon. Meyer’s 14 teams have lost more than three games only twice and they’ve never lost more than five.
He was 65-15 at Florida after taking over for Ron Zook and is 50-4 in four seasons at Ohio State. His teams have won division titles in seven of the last nine seasons.
NO. 1 NICK SABAN, ALABAMA
Record as a head coach: 191-60-1 (105-18 at Alabama)
Best season: Finished 14-0, beat Texas in BCS national championship in 2009.
Notable player: Derrick Henry
The Alabama coach is the best, perhaps the best ever. It’s tough to argue with four national titles (2009, 2011, 2012, 2015) in the last seven seasons and five titles overall. Saban has built a dynasty at Alabama after rebuilding LSU into a perennial power. He’s 5-for-5 in national title games.
Saban’s teams rarely have an obvious weakness, relying on a dominant running game and effective passing when needed on offense, and an athletic, unyielding defense.
Though he’s lost several top assistants during his tenure at Alabama — new Georgia coach Kirby Smart is the latest — Saban has kept the Tide on top in the nation’s toughest conference. He’s successfully rebuilt championship teams despite losing top players — many of them with eligibility remaining — to the NFL.
Saban’s tenure has produced the first two Heisman Trophy winners — Mark Ingram and Derrick Henry — in Alabama’s proud history.
From attracting the nation’s top recruiting classes through developing a steady stream of playmakers and preparing his team expertly for big games, Saban is the standard by which the best coaches are judged.
Saban’s success started long before he arrived at Alabama. Coaching Toledo to a 9-2 record in his lone season there, he moved on and gradually took Michigan State from a middle-of-the-pack Big Ten program to a two-loss Citrus Bowl team in the final of his six seasons.
At LSU, he revitalized the Tigers program, compiling a 48-16 record in five seasons and winning a 2003 national championship with a 13-1 record and a Sugar Bowl victory over Oklahoma.
