Way-Too-Early Top 25: Ranking every head coach in my preseason top 25

In most instances, off/preseason top 25 rankings are built around the teams that consistently meet expectations. They’re the safest options. They’re the biggest names, sure, but that also usually means they are led by the sport’s best coaches. 

Below, you will not find a ranking of the best coaches in the sport. You will find my preseason top 25, and a ranking of the coaches who make up that top 25. Kyle Whittingham and Eli Drinkwitz would make a coach ranking, but neither Utah nor Mizzou is in my preseason ranking, so they won’t be listed below. If it feels like I’m trying to hammer this point home, it’s because there will invariably be an email landing in my inbox about the disrespect I’ve shown to a guy like Lincoln Riley. 

On second thought, let the hate flow. Riley wouldn’t be in my coaching top 25 even if it were open to everyone. 

Anywho. You can find my top 25 teams for the 2025 season here. And, below, you’ll find the coaches for all of those teams ranked 1-25.

No. 25: Sherrone Moore, Michigan

Career record: 8-5 | Conference titles: 0 | CFP appearances: 0

I have no clue who Moore is as a head coach. He’s here only because his team is in my ranking. Moore was the offensive coordinator at Michigan for several years before landing the head coaching job and still had no plan for the quarterback spot once JJ McCarthy left. Well, I guess that isn’t entirely true. He had a plan; it just wasn’t a good one.

No. 24: Joey McGuire, Texas Tech

Career record: 23-16 | Conference titles: 0 | CFP appearances: 0

McGuire, 53, has had a meteoric rise in the FBS. He was a longtime high school coach in Texas, then coached tight ends at Baylor for 2 years, defensive ends for 1 year, and outside linebackers for 2 years. Then he got the Tech job. He has a pair of 8-5 seasons at Tech and 2 bowl wins. 

No. 23: Kalani Sitake, BYU

Career record: 72-43 | Conference titles: 0 | CFP appearances: 0

Sitake was on the hot seat going into 2024. The Cougars peaked at 11-1 during the 2020 season and they went 10-3 the following year. Prior to the 2024 campaign, those were the only 10-win seasons under Sitake’s watch. And a 2-7 record in Big 12 play during the Coogs’ first season in their new league left a bad taste in the mouth. BYU rebounded to go 11-2 last fall. It was a strong season, but I’m curious just how much variance played into it. BYU was the luckiest team in the FBS when it came to generating turnovers, and it was almost a game and a half better than expected.  

No. 22: Billy Napier, Florida

Career record: 59-31 | Conference titles: 1 | CFP appearances: 0

Billy Napier was dead in the water at Florida and then DJ Lagway came to the rescue. That’s an oversimplification of what happened, but that’s the 50,000-foot view. After consecutive 7-loss seasons, Florida fans were pining for change. Lagway’s insertion into the starting lineup provided a jolt, but I also think Napier’s staff did well to manage a full-on youth movement late last season.

No. 21: Mario Cristobal, Miami

Career record: 84-76 | Conference titles: 2 | CFP appearances: 0

Cristobal never lost fewer than 5 games as the FIU head coach. He went 12-2 at Oregon in 2019, but Duck fans were happy to be rid of him when he left for Miami in 2021. And the Hurricanes have seen why. He has won 10 games in a season 3 times in the last 6 years, so there’s obviously an ability to build a roster, but Cristobal’s late-game management is a legitimate concern.

No. 20: Shane Beamer, South Carolina

Career record: 29-22 | Conference titles: 0 | CFP appearances: 0

I think Shane Beamer is a tad undervalued when it comes to coaching. His teams fight hard for him, he helped Spencer Rattler put the pieces together, and he has a budding quarterback in LaNorris Sellers who could turn into a first-round pick. South Carolina has reason to expect a College Football Playoff push in 2025, so we’ll find out quite a bit about Beamer’s chops along the way.

No. 19: Rhett Lashlee, SMU

Career record: 29-12 | Conference titles: 1 | CFP appearances: 1

Lashlee led SMU to 11 wins and an American Athletic Conference championship in 2023. He kept his staff intact for 2024, jumped to the ACC, and went 8-0 against the new league in Year 1. The move from Preston Stone to Kevin Jennings was a ballsy one at the time it was made, but it paid off in a major way. Don’t forget, Stone threw for 3,200 yards and 28 touchdowns the previous year. Lashlee pressed all the right buttons last season, even when his team faced a 24-7 deficit in the ACC title game.

No. 18: Bret Bielema, Illinois

Career record: 125-80 | Conference titles: 3 | CFP appearances: 0

Bielema had a bad trip at Arkansas, but he has proven without a doubt he knows what it takes to win in the Big Ten. Winning consecutive Big Ten championships at Wisconsin is a special feat. Winning 10 games at Illinois might be his biggest accomplishment to date. 

No. 17: Josh Heupel, Tennessee

Career record: 65-23 | Conference titles: 1 | CFP appearances: 1

The 2024 Volunteers might not even be the best team Josh Heupel has had at Tennessee, but they broke through to make the College Football Playoff nonetheless. They got hammered by Ohio State, but losing to the national champ is nothing to be ashamed of. If Heupel can get the most out of Appalachian State transfer Joey Aguilar after a late quarterback mix-up, he deserves some major praise. 

No. 16: Mike Elko, Texas A&M

Career record: 24-14 | Conference titles: 0 | CFP appearances: 0

Mike Elko won 9 games at Duke. Duke! You might ask, “What’s the big deal? Manny Diaz just did the same.” To which I would point out that before Elko led Duke to a 9-4 campaign in 2022, the Blue Devils hadn’t won more than 8 games in a season in 8 years. The Duke team Elko inherited had gone 1-17 against the ACC over the previous 2 seasons. His debut season at Texas A&M went haywire down the stretch, with the Aggies losing 4 of the last 5 games, but A&M went into the month of November in the thick of the SEC title race. 

No. 15: Curt Cignetti, Indiana

Career record: 30-6 | Conference titles: 0 | CFP appearances: 1

The first of several extremely difficult placements on this list. Cignetti led James Madison to an 11-1 record in 2023, then imported the heart and soul of that team to Indiana and went 11-2. The Hoosiers only lost to the national champion and the national runner-up. Is Cignetti a 1-hit wonder? It’s possible. But winning 11 games at a program that hadn’t won 10 games in any of its previous 125 years is worth something.  

No. 14: Kenny Dillingham, Arizona State

Career record: 14-12 | Conference titles: 1 | CFP appearances: 1

I love Dillingham. I might be a little too high on him after just 1 season, but I love Dillingham. He took over an Arizona State program facing sanctions and then had his first ASU roster nuked by injuries. The young quarterback he’d hoped to build around jumped ship between Year 1 and Year 2 and Dillingham upgraded the position. ASU won the Big 12 in its first season in the league and maybe should have beaten Texas in the CFP quarters. The Valley has been activated. ASU has the exact kind of coach that will flourish in this era of college football. 

No. 13: Brian Kelly, LSU

Career record: 195-73 | Conference titles: 3 | CFP appearances: 2

I might be a little too low on Brian Kelly, whose 195 wins are the second-most among active FBS head coaches. But I just don’t feel like Kelly has elevated what he has had. He coached at Notre Dame for over a decade and couldn’t consistently compete for titles. He moved to LSU to do exactly that, and has produced 3 duds. The 2023 LSU season is hard for me to move past. The Tigers had 2 elite NFL receivers and a Heisman Trophy quarterback who would go on to have one of the best rookie seasons any NFL quarterback has ever had, and they ended their season in the ReliaQuest Bowl. Kelly is 4-8 against ranked opponents at LSU.

No. 12: Chris Klieman, Kansas State

Career record: 48-28 | Conference titles: 1 | CFP appearances: 0

Kansas State has won 3 conference championships since World War II. Bill Snyder, one of the greatest coaches ever, produced 2 of them. Klieman has the other. He has won at least 8 games in 5 of his 6 seasons with the Wildcats, with the only failure to do so coming during the COVID-shortened 2020 season. He’s 28-12 over the last 3 years at a school that hasn’t signed a top-40 recruiting class since 2008. Few do more with less than Klieman.

No. 11: Jeff Brohm, Louisville

Career record: 85-52 | Conference titles: 2 | CFP appearances: 0

College football’s quarterback whisperer won 9 games at Purdue and has 19 wins in his first 2 seasons with Louisville. Brohm’s ability to take overlooked and cast-off quarterbacks and turn them into winners is one of the best stories in college football. 

No. 10: Matt Campbell, Iowa State

Career record: 99-66 | Conference titles: 0 | CFP appearances: 0

Iowa State has won at least 8 games in a season 9 times as a member of the Big 12 (or Big 8). Campbell is responsible for 4 of those seasons. He has the only season in program history with at least 10 wins, and he got the Cyclones to the doorstep of their first conference title in over a century last fall. The 3-time Big 12 Coach of the Year is one of the great program builders in college football.

No. 9: Lane Kiffin, Ole Miss

Career record: 106-52 | Conference titles: 2 | CFP appearances: 0

It’s interesting to me that Kiffin’s method of roster-building is derided. When folks — media or anonymous coaches — talk about his program, we typically see comments that paint Ole Miss in a sub-standard light because it can’t recruit traditionally, therefore it scours the portal. My question: Did we not just watch an SEC coach stack elite high school classes and still fail? If Ole Miss can’t compete with Georgia for blue-chip prospects, then finding an alternative path to beating Georgia on the field should be celebrated. Lane Kiffin has made it work with a significantly less stable form of roster building. And he had one of the best teams in football last year as a result. 

No. 8: Marcus Freeman, Notre Dame

Career record: 33-10 | Conference titles: 0 | CFP appearances: 1

Notre Dame has improved each season under Freeman. The defense has been elite in each of the last 2 seasons, and I think the offense can be significantly better in 2025. I don’t think Notre Dame has had a real game-breaking quarterback in any of Freeman’s 3 seasons, and the Irish have managed 33 wins anyway. After coaching the Irish to a national runner-up finish in 2024, Freeman has Notre Dame positioned to be a CFP threat year in and year out. He just needs to root out the random “you should never lose that game” losses that have occurred. 

No. 7: James Franklin, Penn State

Career record: 125-57 | Conference titles: 1 | CFP appearances: 1

I am a noted Franklin skeptic. Since winning a Big Ten title in 2016, Franklin is 14-20 against AP ranked opponents and he is 0-13 against AP Top 5 teams. He can’t get over the Ohio State hurdle, but even beyond that, there seems to be a very clear ceiling Franklin has been unable to break through. All that being said, it cannot be understated how difficult a job Franklin actually has. Recruiting elite talent to University Park, Pennsylvania, cannot be easy and yet Penn State has consistently pulled in elite talent.

No. 6: Kalen DeBoer, Alabama

Career record: 46-13 | Conference titles: 1 | CFP appearances: 1

Kalen DeBoer is one of my favorite coaches in the country. Everywhere he has been, he has won. Following in the footsteps of Nick Saban is an impossible task. DeBoer was unfairly criticized last season. Blast the team for its no-show in Norman, but some of the extra stuff that fell on his plate was absurd. Alabama could be great in 2025. Washington was legitimately great in 2023. I watched the Huskies stumble their way through bad losses at UCLA and (a bad) Arizona State the year before starting 14-0. I trust DeBoer to figure it out. 

No. 5: Dan Lanning, Oregon

Career record: 35-6 | Conference titles: 1 | CFP appearances: 1

Lanning is simultaneously one of the sport’s best recruiters and one of its best motivators. That combination is deadly. He’s the prototypical coach for this era of college football and his only losses so far have come from either a national champion or an uber-aggressive decision that just went the other way. Oregon has every resource needed to be competitive, but Lanning has also proven capable of developing players — Josh Conerly Jr., Jordan James, Devon Jackson, Iapani Laloulu — and putting them in the right spots. 

No. 4: Steve Sarkisian, Texas

Career record: 84-52 | Conference titles: 1 | CFP appearances: 2

There was not a more difficult coach to place in this ranking than Steve Sarkisian. On one hand, it could be argued that there isn’t a tougher job in America than the Texas job. The expectations are enormous. The noise is loud. The runway to prove you’re up to the task is not long. Sarkisian took over a program that needed its foundation rebuilt. Less than 7 months after he took the job, Texas accepted an invite to the SEC, meaning he wouldn’t just have to build a winner, he’d have to build a Death Star. In 4 years with the Longhorns, Sarkisian has made the CFP semifinals twice, won a Big 12 championship, and played for an SEC Championship. He had the Longhorns ready for the SEC on Day 1. On the other hand, he bears blame for the 2023 loss to Washington, and each coach ahead of him has at least one national championship.

No. 3: Ryan Day, Ohio State

Career record: 70-10 | Conference titles: 2 | CFP appearances: 4

I strongly considered placing Sarkisian ahead of Ryan Day. I was talked out of doing so by a colleague. The argument was a convincing one: If Day was at all fraudulent, we would have more evidence by now. While I agree with Jim Harbaugh that Ohio State’s head coach was born on third, Day has also won 88% of his games at Ohio State and won a national championship in Year 7 with a team that was in every sense his. Urban Meyer gave him a wonderful situation, but Day has maintained it. The losses to Michigan are what they are. The only inexcusable defeat, though, was the 2024 one. If Ohio State waxes Michigan in 2025 like it should, the fervor will die down a bit. Also, just like Sark at Texas, the noise in Columbus is loud, and Day flourished when it was at its loudest. 

No. 2: Dabo Swinney, Clemson

Career record: 180-47 | Conference titles: 9 | CFP appearances: 7

Look at the résumé, man. I don’t think a game can “pass a coach by,” and that’s typically what you hear said of Dabo Swinney. A guy who builds a dominant winner doesn’t forget how to coach. Swinney missed on a quarterback, and then the next one took a bit of time to figure things out. Even in the interim, Clemson has still been winning ACC championships. The Tigers have won 8 of the last 10 conference titles in the ACC. And he has his best team in years in 2025. That Swinney was able to pull Tom Allen from Penn State speaks to the attractiveness of the situation.

No. 1: Kirby Smart, Georgia

Career record: 105-19 | Conference titles: 3 | CFP appearances: 4

There was no doubt who would be No. 1. In the absence of Saban, Kirby Smart is the sport’s premier leader. The SEC runs through Georgia, the defending champs, because Smart has built a machine. He has more first-round NFL Draft picks (20) than losses (19) through his first 9 seasons in Athens and sits just 5 wins away from passing Bob Stoops for the best 10-year start to an FBS coaching career in a century. (George Woodruff went 124-15-2 at Penn from 1892-1901. Slightly different time.) Consider that a season which featured a conference title and a first-round bye in the CFP was viewed as a disappointment; Smart has no active equal in the game.