Curt Cignetti overtakes Kirby Smart in ESPN’s ranking of top coaches
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ESPN published an update to its ranking of the top head coaches in college football on Thursday morning.
Fresh off a National Championship run with Indiana, Curt Cignetti claimed the No. 1 spot in ESPN’s ranking. He bolted up to the top slot after being left out of the top 10 a year ago.
Cignetti bumped Kirby Smart from No. 1 despite another SEC title for the Bulldogs. Smart has 2 National Championships on his résumé, but Georgia hasn’t won college football’s top prize since 2022.
It was a close vote between ESPN’s panel of 10 college football experts — Cignetti received 5 first-place votes while Smart earned 4. Ohio State’s Ryan Day claimed the final first-place vote.
ESPN’s Max Olson made the case that Smart should still be considered college football’s top coach:
Cignetti has pulled off an absolute miracle in his two years at Indiana, and I have no issue with him sitting on the throne in these rankings. The argument for Smart is his program remains the gold standard for elite, sustained success even as the expanded CFP, the portal and NIL have in many ways made his job tougher. He has maintained an incredibly high standard at Georgia with no bad years, finishing in the top seven of the AP poll in nine consecutive seasons, with eight trips to the SEC title game. If you exclude the COVID year, Smart is averaging 12.6 wins over his last eight full seasons at Georgia. His SEC record is a ridiculous 40-5 since 2021. Sure, consecutive CFP semifinal losses in the Sugar Bowl have been disappointing endings for the back-to-back SEC champs, but I still think Smart’s track record of acquiring and developing blue-chip talent and consistently winning at the absolute highest level can’t be beat.
Georgia will be hoping to get back to the mountaintop in 2026. The Bulldogs are among the favorites to win the National Championship on Kalshi:
Spenser is a news editor for Saturday Down South and covers college football across all Saturday Football brands.
