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The SEC has become synonymous with the postseason. Whether it’s conference championship games, bowl games or national championship games, the conference is almost always involved.
Here are the current SEC head coaches and their postseason records, including conference championship games, bowl and playoff games.
Alabama: Nick Saban (16-9) – Off to a slow postseason start, Saban was 0-3 as head coach at Michigan State but has won 11 of his past 12 SEC Championship and national championship games at LSU and now Alabama. He is 6-1 in SEC Championship Games and is a perfect 5-0 in national championship games.
Arkansas: Bret Bielema (6-4) — He went 2-0 in Big Ten Conference Championship Games with Wisconsin, but was just 2-4 in bowl games with the Badgers. However, he is a perfect 2-0 in bowl games since coming to Arkansas.
Auburn: Gus Malzahn (2-2) – Starting with a bang at Auburn, Malzahn’s Tigers won the SEC Championship Game in his first season in 2013. However, Auburn fell in the national championship game to Florida State and lost its bowl game the following year. Malzahn’s Tigers got back on the winning side in 2015 with a bowl victory over Memphis.
Florida: Jim McElwain (1-2) – A winner in his only bowl game in three seasons at Colorado State, McElwain’s Gators weren’t as fortunate this past season, losing the SEC title game to Alabama and then falling to Michigan in the Citrus Bowl to drop below .500.
Georgia: Kirby Smart (N/A) – This will be his first season as head coach, though he has been around championship teams in the previous nine years as an assistant under Saban at Alabama.
Kentucky: Mark Stoops (N/A) – In his three years as head coach, all at Kentucky, Stoops is still looking for his first postseason appearance.
LSU: Les Miles (10-7) – Only 1-2 in the postseason with Oklahoma State, Miles quickly turned that around with four consecutive bowl victories in his first four seasons at LSU, including the 2007 BCS championship. He is 2-1 in SEC Championship Games, winning the past two (2007, 2011) the Tigers were in. Miles is 1-1 in national championship games and his Tigers have won two of their past three bowl games.
Mississippi State: Dan Mullen (4-2) – Mullen has taken the Bulldogs to a school-record six consecutive bowl games. He led the team to a No. 1 ranking for the first time in 80 years. Mullen’s Bulldogs have won two of their past three bowl game appearances.
Missouri: Barry Odom (N/A) – Like his counterpart at Georgia, this will be Odom’s first stint as a head coach. He spent nine seasons at Missouri (2004-11, 2015) as an assistant coach.
Ole Miss: Hugh Freeze (4-2) – The Rebels have won three of four bowl games under Freeze, whose record includes a 1-1 mark in the NAIA playoffs as head coach at Lambuth in 2009. As head coach Freeze has led his teams to the postseason six consecutive times, including Lambuth and Arkansas State (2011). He was not a head coach in 2010 and left Arkansas State (for Ole Miss) before its bowl game.
South Carolina: Will Muschamp (1-1) – While at Florida, Muschamp took the Gators to bowl games in his first two seasons. It went downhill after that. He looks to turn that around in 2016, his first season as head coach at South Carolina.
Tennessee: Butch Jones (5-2) – A winner in each of his past three bowl game appearances, Jones has led the Vols to back-to-back bowl victories the last two seasons, including a 45-6 victory over Northwestern in the 2015 Outback Bowl. It was the largest margin of victory in a bowl game in the program’s storied history. Included in that three-game streak is a 2011 bowl victory as head coach at Cincinnati.
Jones also went 2-0 in Mid-American Conference Championship Games as head coach at Central Michigan.
Texas A&M: Kevin Sumlin (5-3) — Although he had his three-game bowl win streak snapped this past season, Sumlin has already matched the program record for bowl wins by a head coach, tying R.C. Slocum.
Sumlin won three straight in his first three seasons at College Station (2012-14).
Sumlin’s postseason record also includes a 1-1 mark in Conference USA Championship Games as head coach at Houston.
Vanderbilt: Derek Mason (N/A) — In his first two seasons as a head coach, Mason has not led the Commodores to the postseason.
Glenn Sattell is an award-winning freelance writer for Saturday Down South.
