The SEC is full of fresh faces this fall. Five teams hired new head coaches and Ole Miss promoted Matt Luke from interim to full-time head coach. With all the new head coaches, there are also plenty of new coordinators roaming the sidelines and working from the box.

Athlon Sports decided to rank the 30 best coordinator hires made in college football. SEC schools made eight of the top hires in the opinion of Steve Lassan. Texas A&M leads the way with the No. 1 overall hire, defensive coordinator Mike Elko.

“New Texas A&M coach Jimbo Fisher hit a home run with his first staff by hiring Elko away from Notre Dame,” Lassan writes. “Elko arrives in College Station after a successful year in South Bend, helping the Fighting Irish cut their scoring average from 27.8 in 2016 to 21.5 in ’17. This unit also held opponents to just 5.1 yards a play, down from 5.4 in 2016. Before taking over at Notre Dame, Elko worked for three seasons as the defensive coordinator at Wake Forest (2014-16). During his three-year run with the Demon Deacons, the defense never allowed more than 27 points a game on average and finished No. 3 in the ACC in scoring defense in 2016.”

Here are the other SEC hires to make the list:

  • No. 3 – Florida DC Todd Grantham
  • No. 4 – Mississippi State DC Bob Shoop
  • No. 6 – Alabama co-DC Pete Golding
  • No. 18 – Arkansas DC John Chavis
  • No. 21 – Alabama co-OCs Josh Gattis & Mike Locksley
  • No. 22 – Vanderbilt DC Jason Tarver
  • No. 23 – Tennessee OC Tyson Helton

The list also features some former SEC assistants, such as Rhett Lashlee, Herb Hand and Matt Canada. The complete rankings with Lassan’s assessments can be viewed here.