When contemplating who the most hated college football coaches in the country are heading into the 2024 season, it struck me that this list would have been much different just 365 days ago.

Arguably Nos. 1 and 2 on the list just a year ago are no longer on Saturday sidelines anymore, as Nick Saban retired from Alabama after winning 6 rings and a zillion haters, and Jim Harbaugh bolted from Michigan to the NFL’s Los Angeles Chargers precisely one step ahead of the NCAA enforcement staff.

There are some coaches who just miss this list, guys like Kalen DeBoer at Alabama or Mike Norvell at Florida State. DeBoer misses simply because most of his hatred is residual from Saban — but give him time (and a title or two) to find his spot. As for Norvell, a winter’s worth of whining earned him much consideration, but he has had a tough enough week already … so we cut him a break.

Without Saban and Harbaugh, the top – or bottom, depending on your point of view – of this list is indeed much different. But one thing that doesn’t change is how a coach ends up on this list. To be hated is the elusive combination of success, longevity and a personality that grates on the haters.

All have some. Few have all. Behold, the 10 coaches college football fans love to hate the most:

10. Kirk Ferentz, Iowa

The simmering hatred of Ferentz has never truly reached a boil, but the Hawkeyes’ remarkable inability to produce actual offensive success has him despised by a goodly portion of his own fan base. Not sure if being suspended for the 2024 season-opener for allegedly tampering on the recruiting of Cade McNamara actually helped or hurt his cause here, either.

9. Ryan Day, Ohio State

Much like whomever coaches in Ann Arbor, the guy that coaches in Columbus automatically has an entire state – yes, that state that starts with M – hating him. Day also has to color that beard, which draws disdain from those of us who can only muster patchy facial growth. Winning all the time also falls in here somewhere as well.

8. Kirby Smart, Georgia

The current big, bad Bulldogs earn a bunch of enmity all on their own. Two national titles in 3 years will do that. But Smart gets an extra dose due to his seemingly cavalier attitude toward various traffic laws. In Fulmer Cup parlance, Georgia can practically field a team that would beat Vanderbilt with just players who have seen the blue lights in their rear-view mirror in the past year or so, and with Smart doling out second chances like Smarties — they’d be able to play in that game, too.

7. Lincoln Riley, USC

Earning the hatred of ESPN’s Paul Finebaum is certainly a factor, as is Riley’s remarkable fumbling of Caleb Williams in 2023. Plus, when you’re that handsome and seem to be making quite the career of failing upward, you’re gonna catch some heat. Oklahoma also seems to carry some residual angst about the circumstances of his departure, too.

6. PJ Fleck, Minnesota

Polarizing is the word that comes to mind with the perpetually-necktied Fleck. You either are rowing the boat with the majority of Gopher Nation, or you’re trying to pot-shot said boat full of holes with hopes it sinks into Lake Superior. There’s also been rumors of toxicity and as culture of intimidation within the program at Minnesota, which doesn’t help.

5. Hugh Freeze, Auburn

A terrific double-whammy of hatred here, as Freeze was first despised at Ole Miss for rampant cheating on the recruiting trail. Then, after some coaching rehab at Liberty, Freeze now inherits institutional hatred from all the people who just hate Auburn for being Auburn. On the plus side, folks who sell burner cell phones point to Freeze as a sort of unofficial ambassador.

4. Dabo Swinney, Clemson

Wins? Check. Loyal to Clemson? Check. Has a personality that is easily loathed by anti-Clemsonites? Check. Swinney seems to thrive in cultivating the “Rest Of Y’all” mentality that he feels his Clemson program lives in despite 2 national titles, which doesn’t exactly help his rating. Folks also seem to be grated by his outspoken Christian beliefs, which is quizzical, and there is a slice of Clemson’s fan base that doesn’t like his disdain for the transfer portal.

3. Brian Kelly, LSU

It is rare that a coach can be hated at multiple stops in his career, but here we are with Kelly. He was disliked while earning a modicum of success at Notre Dame (partly because college football fans hate just about every successful coach at Notre Dame, right?), and then has glommed himself onto the institutional hatred held by anti-LSU folks. That’s a neat two-step, and having seen Kelly try to awkwardly dance with recruits in social media videos, it is about the only dance move he is good at.

2. Lane Kiffin Ole Miss

Et tu, Joey Freshwater? Only the surging hatred headed toward Boulder keeps Kiffin out of the top (bottom?) spot. Kiffin’s occasionally outlandish commentary and recruiting bravado on social media earns significant ire, as does his almost-constant inability to be diplomatic. Ole Miss fans love, love, love Kiffin, just like FAU fans did – as Kiffin 2.0 seems to be more polished than the OG Kiffin who was brash at Tennessee and USC. Say this for Kiffin: He embraces the hate. Nobody gives it out as good as he gets it as well as he does.

1. Deion Sanders, Colorado

Why is Coach Prime at the top – or bottom – of this list? Your mileage may vary here, but feel free to choose between the constant self-promotion, the constant promotion of the Sanders sons and Travis Hunter, the remarkably thin-skinned attitude Sanders seems to have grown with local media in Colorado, or all the above. When you’ve lived in the spotlight as much as Sanders has, you’re gonna carry some hate from when you played with all the brashness built from a thousand spotlights shining directly on you. Or maybe a grown-ass man shouldn’t be calling himself by a nickname self-coined in college? Or maybe it’s telling your new Buffaloes team that you’re bringing your Louis Vuitton with you – only to go 4-8 with all the momentum of the Hindenburg?

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