Ranking the SEC coaching staffs by experience

Coaching staffs are constantly evolving. Head coaches and coordinators crisscross the SEC and the nation from sideline to sideline crafting careers that span decades.

The SEC’s current coaching staffs comprise 42 coaches and coordinators. All told, those units have compiled a staggering 993 years wearing headsets for a college or professional team. Of those 993 seasons, 292, or 29 percent, have come in the SEC.

Here is a list of the most-experienced coaching staffs (head coach, offensive and defensive coordinators) in the SEC, based on the amount of years serving on the sidelines of either the NCAA or NFL.

TEXAS A&M AGGIES

Staff: Kevin Sumlin, OC Noel Mazzone and DC John Chavis

Combined years’ experience: 102

Average years per coach: 34

Texas A&M has, far-and-away, the most-experienced coaching staff in the SEC. On top of that, 45 of those seasons have come as coaches with SEC schools, most of any staff in the conference. The king of all current SEC coaches might be Chavis. The defensive coordinator enters his second year with the Aggies, bringing his tenure in the SEC to 29 seasons — 21 with Tennessee.

LSU TIGERS

Staff: Les Miles, OC Cam Cameron and DC Dave Aranda

Combined years’ experience: 91

Average years per coach: 30.3

Miles and Cameron alone have coached for more years than the entire hierarchies (HC, OC and DC) of seven SEC squads. Miles and his offensive coordinator have seen 71 combined years of college or pro football, dating to 1980.

TENNESSEE VOLUNTEERS

Staff: Butch Jones, OC Mike DeBord and DC Bob Shoop

Combined years’ experience: 90

Average years per coach: 30

Jones and his staff have been around college or pro football for a combined 90 seasons. And while that’s good enough for third in the conference, the trio has spent just nine of those campaigns coaching in the SEC, tying them with Arkansas for the second-fewest.

ALABAMA CRIMSON TIDE

Staff: Nick Saban, OC Lane Kiffin and DC Jeremy Pruitt

Combined years’ experience: 84 years

Average years per coach: 29.0

Saban has the most coaching experience among all current SEC coaches and coordinators, spending his Saturdays or Sundays on the sidelines for 44 years. That’s more seasons than his own coordinators combined, as Kiffin and Pruitt each began their coaching careers in 1997 at Fresno State and Alabama, respectively.

MISSISSIPPI STATE BULLDOGS

Staff: Dan Mullen, C-OC John Hevesy, C-OC Billy Gonzales and DC Peter Sirmon

Combined years’ experience: 77

Average years per coach: 25.6

Mississippi State ranks high on the list of the SEC’s most-experience coaching staffs, mainly because co-offensive coordinators Hevesy and Gonzales account for 46 of those seasons. It balances out, however, when you consider that first-year defensive coordinator Sirmon has the fewest among SEC coaches or coordinators, with 2016 being just his ninth overall, third in the SEC.

KENTUCKY WILDCATS

Staff: Mark Stoops, OC Eddie Gran and DC D.J. Eliot

Combined years’ experience: 72

Average years per coach: 24

When you tally the combined years that Stoops and his staff have spent in the SEC, you find a coaching unit that has more experience within the conference than the likes of Florida, Georgia, and, even, LSU. Most of those years belong to first-year offensive coordinator Gran, who made coaching stops at Auburn, Ole Miss and Tennessee before arriving in Lexington for his 30th season as a coach, 16 of which will have been spent in the SEC.

FLORIDA GATORS

Staff: Jim McElwain, OC Doug Nussmeier and DC Geoff Collins

Combined years’ experience: 71

Average years per coach: 23.6

After Saban and Miles, Florida’s McElwain has the most coaching experience among SEC head coaches. Unfortunately, all but six of his 33 years coaching entering the 2016 season will have been spent outside the SEC. That said, there are only four teams with less SEC tenure than the Gators’ trio. Coordinators Nussmeier and Collins are long on coaching experience (39 total years), but short on time spent in the SEC (11 years).

GEORGIA BULLDOGS

Staff: Kirby Smart, OC Jim Chaney and DC Mel Tucker

Combined years’ experience: 70

Average years per coach: 23.3

How close is the Georgia-Florida rivalry? Smart and his new staff have one year less combined experience (70 seasons) than the Gators (71), who enter their second year together as a unit. Providing most of those years in offensive coordinator Chaney, who will be entering his 32nd year on the sidelines.

ARKANSAS RAZORBACKS

Staff: Bret Bielema, OC Dan Enos and DC Robb Smith

Combined years’ experience: 67

Average years per coach: 22.3

Despite much of the bravado, Bielema is one of the SEC’s least-tenured head coaches with his fourth season in the conference coming up. That ties him with Butch Jones and Marks Stoops as the head coaches at the bottom. It doesn’t get much better for Enos and Smith. Bielema’s coordinators have spent a combined three seasons in the conference entering the 2016 campaign. All told, however, their combined 67 years coaching — mostly in the Big Ten — merits its share of respect.

OLE MISS REBELS

Staff: Hugh Freeze, OC Matt Luke and DC Dave Wommack

Combined years’ experience: 68

Average years per coach: 22.3

Ole Miss’ coaching totals rise dramatically if you count the 13 years that Freeze spent coaching high school. Most of Freeze’s staff derives its experience from Wommack. The defensive coordinator has spent 37 years on the sidelines, tying him with Texas A&M’s Noel Mazzone for second-most years as a coach. Even without the high school games on Freeze’s record, the Rebels boast the third-most experienced unit in terms of seasons coaching in the SEC.

AUBURN TIGERS

Staff: Gus Malzahn, OC Rhett Lashlee and DC Kevin Steele

Combined years’ experience: 56

Average years per coach: 18.6

Malzahn and Lashlee have been virtually tied at the hip during their careers with 11 and 9 seasons on the college level between them (8 and 6 years in the SEC, respectively). Defensive coordinator Steele provides the bulk of staff’s experience, and then some, with 36 years at places such as Alabama, Clemson and Florida State, as well as with the inaugural Carolina Panthers’ squads.

SOUTH CAROLINA GAMECOCKS

Staff: Will Muschamp, OC Kurt Roper and DC Travaris Robinson

Combined years’ experience: 53

Average years per coach: 17.6

Only two SEC teams have fewer seasons than the Gamecocks. However, 36 of the trio’s seasons have come on SEC sidelines. That ranks fourth in the conference and tops in the SEC East with 12 more years than the next closest program in Kentucky.

VANDERBILT COMMODORES

Staff: Derek Mason, OC Andy Ludwig

Combined years’ experience: 47

Average years per coach: 23.5

Vanderbilt edges Missouri by one season for last place in the SEC in terms of the amount of total years coaching in college or the pros. That isn’t as bad as it sounds, considering that Mason is also the team’s defensive coordinator. Mason has one fewer year on his résumé than Ludwig (24 to 23), and also ekes out his offensive coordinator when it comes to seasons in the SEC (3 to 2).

MISSOURI TIGERS

Staff: Barry Odom, OC Josh Heupel and DC DeMontie Cross

Combined years’ experience: 46

Average years per coach: 15.3

If Missouri’s relatively young staff suffers any growing pains in their inaugural season in Columbia, the Tigers could be in for another long campaign. At 15 years combined experience in the SEC, though, Odom and his new crew still have more years coaching in the conference than the coaches at Arkansas, Tennessee and Vanderbilt.