3 SEC coaches listed on The Athletic's list of top 10 current CFB coaches
Due to the dominance of Alabama and Clemson in recent years, and the recent retirement of Urban Meyer, there aren’t that many current college football coaches with national championships on their resumes these days.
However, that doesn’t mean there aren’t any good coaches — it just means the sport has gotten a bit top-heavy in recent years.
On Tuesday, The Athletic’s Stewart Mandel ranked the top 25 college football coaches. He then joined “The Paul Finebaum Show” on Tuesday afternoon to discuss his rankings. As you can see below, three SEC coaches made the top 10:
NEXT:@slmandel joins the show to talk about his Top 25 of #CFB Coaches.
Here's the top 10: pic.twitter.com/6MwRneiIt2
— Paul Finebaum (@finebaum) March 5, 2019
Obviously, it’s no surprise to see Nick Saban at No. 1, and No. 7 seems a bit low for Jimbo Fisher, who has a title from his time at Florida State.
Kirby Smart may be a little high, actually, at No. 6, but he’s certainly working on putting together an incredible coaching career.
A very solid list. Perhaps the ordering could use tweaking or is at least up for debate. But all are very good coaches.
Great coaching talent on that list for sure.
Not sure why Kelly , Shaw or Leach is on the list. None have really done anything that impressive on the field. I don’t think winning it all is the beat all end all but regular 3 & 4 loss seasons isn’t inspiring.
This list is alright. There are a few more coaches that deserve honorable mentions (Mark Dantonio, Chip Kelly, Mike Gundy)
Reilly and Kelly too high.
I think Mullen belongs somewhere around 10.
I will take Mullen over Riley, Kelly, Leach, Patterson & Shaw any day of the week. From a coaching standpoint I would take Mullen over Smart as well, though early on Smart has been the better recruiter.
Okay lets slow down now lol.
I would take Riley and Smart over Coach Mullen right now. Patterson Im inbetween on and the other 2 I would choose Mullen over. The thing is though I may thank Mullen is a better developer of talent the most and a good X’s and O’s coach College football is special in regards that to be a successful coach you have to be more than an X’s an O’s coach to be great. All the great coaches in recent history Urban Myer, Dabo Swinney, Nick Saban, Jimbo Fisher, and even Smart have one thing in common they are incredible recruiters. Recruiting is king in college football
I’d take Mike Leach over Dan Mullen, although I really like both coaches. The knock on Leach was poorly coached defense, but he’s hired some pretty good d-coordinators recently (Grinch, Claeys) to turn it around.
Only other thing is can he recruit and win in the SEC. No doubt he is a really good coach
Might want to pump the breaks a little. A single 10-win season doesn’t anoint Mullen as an elite coach. He’s great with QBs and a very good play caller, but let’s give him a few more seasons at the helm of a major SEC program before declaring anything.
Jimbo Fisher definately needs to be number three with Lincoln Riley 4 and patterson at 5. I would also have Smart ahead of Brian Kelly.
I think Riley is too high, he doesn’t seem to be able to make great in game adjustments if the original gameplan falls apart.