Ranking the Top 25 offensive coordinators in college football for 2021
By Les East
Published:
There are a variety of ways for college teams to operate their offenses.
Some head coaches double as their own offensive coordinators.
Some install a system and groom a protégé to take over the controls of that system.
Some give complete autonomy to their coordinators to install and operate the assistant’s system.
Some divide the responsibilities between co-coordinators.
There’s only one right way to do it – the one that best suits an individual staff.
College football has been becoming more offense-oriented and offenses have been becoming more pass-oriented for years.
The best offensive coordinators are the ones who can recruit to their system, tweak their system to the talent on hand when necessary and consistently produce lots and lots of yards – and more importantly lots and lots of points.
Here’s one assessment of the Top 25 offensive coordinators in college football:
25. Ivin Jasper (Navy)
Sure, it takes a lot scrolling through the NCAA passing rankings to find the Middies, but there’s a reason Jasper is the 2nd-longest-tenured coordinator in college football (entering his 14th season). Navy’s run game is consistently elite and enables it to periodically hit big plays in the passing game.
24. Andrew Sowder (Kent State)
The Golden Flashes’ presence atop the NCAA yardage and scoring list last season was based on a small sample size with just 4 games. But when Sowder arrived in 2018, Kent State increased its scoring by more than 11 points per game and its yardage by more than 100 per game, and Sowder’s offense has kept rolling.
23. Joe Moorhead (Oregon)
Moorhead, a long-time successful OC at a handful of programs, guided the Ducks to averages of 412.9 yards and 31.3 points in his first season in 2020.
22. Darrell Dickey (Texas A&M)
In Dickey’s 7th stop as an OC with an FBS program, the Aggies averaged 439.2 yards behind the development of QB Kellen Mond last season. Dickey is in his 3rd season with A&M after 5 seasons leading Memphis’ high-octane offense.
21. Scott Satterfield (Louisville)
He followed up his impressive run as OC, then head coach at Appalachian State with 2 highly productive offensive seasons with the Cardinals, who averaged 445.9 yards (including 206.9 rushing) last season.
20. Rich Rodriguez (Louisiana-Monroe)
Rodriguez sat out last season after a sub-par season as Ole Miss’ OC in 2019. But the success of his offense as a head coach at West Virginia, Michigan and Arizona as well as his contributions as OC during Tulane’s undefeated season in 1998 form an impressive résumé.
19. Kenny Dillingham (Florida State)
Dillingham’s first season with the Seminoles, which coincided with head coach Mike Norvell’s first season, featured 4 starting QBs. Still, FSU gained more than 400 yards in 5 of their last 7 games under Dillingham, who was Memphis’ OC in 2018 and Auburn’s in 2019.
18. Eli Drinkwitz (Missouri)
Drinkwitz brought his offensive success at Appalachian State to Columbia and it helped make him the most successful of the SEC’s first-year head coaches last season (5-5). The Tigers averaged 402 yards per game against an SEC-only schedule.
17. Mike Bobo (Auburn)
He begins his first season on The Plains after 1 season as OC at South Carolina. Bobo followed a lengthy and successful stint as Georgia’s OC with a 5-year run as Colorado State head coach, which included 3 of the most prolific offenses in school history.
16. Mike Leach (Mississippi State)
Leach’s first season as the Bulldogs head coach in 2020 – and some of his teams at Washington State – didn’t produce numbers like his Air Raid offense produced during his remarkable tenure at Texas Tech. But he remains one of the better offensive coaches in the country.
15. Kendal Briles (Arkansas)
Briles, who had previous stints as OC at Baylor, Florida Atlantic, Houston and Florida State, increased the Razorbacks’ total offense average by 50 yards per game in his first season last season.
14. Graham Harrell (USC)
After 3 banner seasons as North Texas’ offensive coordinator, Harrell has elevated the Trojans’ offense during the past 2 seasons. Last season, USC led the Pac-12 in passing yards (319 per game).
13. Rhett Lashlee (Miami)
In Lashlee’s first season last year, the Hurricanes made a significant leap in several offensive categories, including passing yards, total yards and points. That continued a rate of success that Lashlee had as the OC with 5 other programs.
12. Andy Ludwig (Utah)
Ludwig enters Year 3 of his second stint as the Utes’ OC in the midst of a long successful run as a coordinator that included stops at Fresno State, Oregon, Cal, San Diego State, Wisconsin and Vanderbilt.
11. Zak Hill (Arizona State)
Hill’s third season in Tempe produced one of the more productive offenses in the country, continuing a trend he had in 4 seasons as Boise State’s OC.
10. Jeff Lebby (Ole Miss)
In Lebby’s first season working with Lane Kiffin last year, the Rebels set an SEC record for total offense in conference games (564). That came a year after Lebby guided UCF’s offense, which averaged 540 yards and 43 points.
9. Tom Manning (Iowa State)
Manning’s second stint with the Cyclones produced a school record for total offense (444.3) in 2019 and ISU’s second-highest scoring average (32.9) in 2020.
8. Jeff Brohm (Purdue)
The Boilermakers have averaged more than 400 yards and 27 points per game in Brohm’s 5 seasons, an opportunity he got in the wake of his successful run as Western Kentucky head coach and OC at Western Kentucky, Louisville and UAB.
7. Jeff Grimes (Baylor)
Grimes begins his tenure with the Bears after a successful run at BYU. The Cougars finished in the top 15 nationally in 10 categories last season, including tying for 1st in yards per play (7.84).
6. Warren Ruggiero (Wake Forest)
His record-setting 8 seasons with the Demon Deacons have followed 4 seasons as Bowling Green’s OC. Wake Forest had the 3 highest-scoring seasons in school history from 2017-19.
5. Phil Longo (North Carolina)
Longo’s second season with the Tar Heels last season produced school records for total offense (537.2) and scoring (41.7). Before joining UNC, Longo had significant long-term success as a coordinator with Sam Houston State and then in a short stint at Ole Miss.
4. Dan Mullen (Florida)
The Gators led the country in passing offense last season (378.6) in Mullen’s 3rd season as head coach. His success was consistent with his 4-year run as Florida’s OC and 9 seasons as Mississippi State’s head coach between his 2 tenures in Gainesville.
3. Kevin Wilson (Ohio State)
The Buckeyes were 7th in total offense and 10th in scoring offense last season, which is about where they usually have wound up since Wilson and head coach Ryan Day came on board as co-ccordinators. The offense continues to thrive with Wilson taking more command since Day was promoted.
2. Tony Elliott (Clemson)
Among the many notable accomplishments of Elliott’s offense is the fact that the 2018 and 2019 Tigers were the first group to score 650 points in consecutive seasons since the NCAA began official record-keeping in 1937.
1. Lincoln Riley (Oklahoma)
Bill Bedenbaugh and Cale Gundy are co-offensive coordinators, but Riley continues to call the plays for the most prolific offense in the country since his arrival as an assistant in 2015.
Les East is a New Orleans-based football writer who covers LSU for SaturdayDownSouth.com. Follow him on Twitter @Les_East.
