Ranking every SEC coaching job in 2016
Rating the coaching jobs in the SEC has become a popular offseason exercise among major college football websites.
If all 14 SEC programs were forced to fire their head coaches today, and re-hire someone new, which school would present as the most attractive option in 2016?
14. Vanderbilt: Derek Mason didn’t get run out of town after just his second year as head coach (it looked like he might at this time last year). But the theory that James Franklin’s short window of success would linger or help lift the program long-term has proven false, as the Commodores haven’t come close to bowl eligibility since he left for Happy Valley. The good news for Mason is Nashville may be the best SEC city. The bad news? Vandy is the only academics-first institution, with high entrance standards, low fan support and a relatively small budget. Despite watching other academics-first programs show upward mobility (Stanford, Northwestern), Vanderbilt has yet to figure out how to make that work in the SEC.
13. Kentucky: The Wildcats are basketball first — and second, and third. UK hoops coach John Calipari gets paid a salary on par with Nick Saban. Expectations are low (just make a bowl game or two every few years!), and the team recently upgraded Commonwealth Stadium ($120 million) and built a new football training facility ($50 million). Being close to Ohio helps with recruiting, as coach Mark Stoops can attest. But Kentucky remains behind most of the conference in fan support, tradition and budget.
12. Mississippi State: Dan Mullen and Dak Prescott accomplished wonderful things the last two seasons, including 19 wins and five consecutive weeks ranked at No. 1. Mullen is one of the best coaches in school history, and the SEC’s lucrative SEC Network deal makes it much easier to sustain a competitive program outside of the traditional conference powers. The school’s facilities rank in the bottom half of the SEC, and it doesn’t enjoy a full-length indoor practice facility — the latest must-have gadget for major FBS programs. Almost every SEC state produces more prep talent. Mississippi does have a rich system of JUCOs. Still, you try convincing even a transfer to make Starkville home for two years when he’s got options. And you’re competing with some nasty programs each year in the SEC West.
11. Missouri: The team’s fans and history are solid — maybe even above average for a power-conference program. Gary Pinkel proved this team can win in droves and installed a more-with-less ethos. Mizzou fans swear the in-state talent is underrated, but it can’t compare to Texas, Florida, Georgia, or even Alabama and Louisiana. The recent social unrest (and subsequent budget gap) as well as changes at head coach and athletic director have pushed back the timeline on facilities upgrades. Yes, the Tigers recently won back-to-back division titles. But Florida, Georgia and Tennessee hold distinct advantages in the SEC East, so any coach at Missouri is going to need to overcome obstacles to finish in the top half of the division.
10. South Carolina: Gamecocks fans are some of the most underrated and loyal in all of college football. The Steve Spurrier era was a nice change of pace, but South Carolina football mostly has resembled the Chicago Cubs, with the program doing little to reward its die-hard followers. In terms of all-time SEC history, South Carolina barely edges Vanderbilt and is in the same class as Mississippi State among the least-accomplished football programs. Spurrier never did manage to win an SEC title in Columbia, an illustration of the difficulties. Despite occasionally-feisty in-state talent, it’s fair to wonder whether the Gamecocks can recapture the recent level of success.
9. Arkansas: As a program, the Razorbacks are full of contradictions. Football coaches don’t head to Fayetteville expecting to win multiple national championships, but it’s possible to win with consistency. The in-state recruiting isn’t great by SEC standards, but Texas and Oklahoma are nearby. The team’s glory days harken back to the Southwest Conference, prior to SEC membership, but the athletic department willingly spends money on facilities and coaches. The schedule usually is brutal, but expectations usually aren’t off-the-charts insane. Nationally, this is a fringe top 25 job.
8. Ole Miss: The conference’s influx of cold, hard cash makes success at a program like the Rebels more viable and sustainable than ever. Oxford and The Grove are sellable commodities, and the game-day environment rivals anywhere in college football. Ole Miss has been able to recruit regionally, though there are enough in-state JUCO talents to supplement that. The Rebels can’t claim “national powerhouse” status as measured by history, the stadium or the reach of the brand. But that matters relatively little in 2016. Coach Hugh Freeze has built a perennial contender, but he’s still outperforming the average SEC coach, so credit for some of Ole Miss’ current shine goes to him rather than the long-term elements of the job.
7. Auburn: Is there a more challenging geographical spot in the SEC? From a recruiting standpoint, Auburn is pinched between Alabama, Tennessee, Georgia, Florida and Florida State. The Tigers have claimed Heisman Trophy winners and national championship teams, but Auburn remains the state’s second-best football program historically. The coach is in position to at least contend for titles on a cyclical basis, but that’s a double-edged sword. Lose to the Tide too many times or fail to reach those lofty possibilities and a coach can go from beloved hero to out of a job in a couple of years.
6. Texas A&M: The two Johnny Manziel seasons were strong evidence that the Aggies are a sleeping giant in the world of college football. But it’s still going to take a special coach to wake the program from its relative slumber. Forget the economic downturn due to sagging oil prices. Texas A&M has one of the largest endowments of any university, and a historic renovation to Kyle Field as well as Kevin Sumlin’s $5 million salary are just two examples of the available resources. Being positioned in Texas feels alternatively like a blessing and a curse. There’s tremendous local talent and a zealous fan base. Bickering with the Longhorns occasionally seems petty. What sometimes comes across as Texas-sized ego politics among the administration, boosters and even the coaching staff and players seems like a headache. It’s tough to fully capitalize on all the positives without championships, and the SEC West has not been willing to hand those over to the Aggies easily.
5. LSU: At the college level, LSU is “the only show in town” in a state with a strong base of prep talent, and Texas is close by to supplement that. Though the team has gone through a few dark ages, the Tigers’ history is saturated with conference and even national contenders. The last two coaches, Nick Saban and Les Miles, have had tremendous success. The fan base seems particularly emotional; one week they’re ready to kick a coach out of the state and the next week they’re vociferously defending him against a potential administrative coup. In one man’s opinion, Baton Rouge contains the best food of any city in the Southeastern Conference, and Death Valley is one of college football’s most intimidating venues. The addition of Texas A&M to the SEC West in some ways seemed like a geographical version of a strategic “Price Is Right” bid, but the Aggies haven’t seemed to hinder LSU in any way.
4. Tennessee: Rocky Top has been — well, a little rocky of late, at least off the field. On it, Butch Jones has this team on the verge of preseason top 10 status after a long, dark decade in Knoxville. Tennessee isn’t one of the conference’s better states for producing prep talent. Nashville is up-and-coming, but Memphis is much closer to Alabama, Arkansas and Ole Miss. The school’s tradition, resources and commitment to football are nationally competitive, and the Vols recruit as such. It’s possible to win national championships in Knoxville, and yet expectations aren’t quite as high as they were during Phillip Fulmer’s final seasons.
3. Georgia: The Peach State is not California, Texas or Florida, but it may be the next-best thing in terms of recruiting. The roster is one of the 10 best in college football almost automatically. The fan base is demanding, but Mark Richt wouldn’t have lasted 15 years at some of the programs in this top 5. Sanford Stadium is a terrific, historic place to play football. UGA has the history, tradition and resources to compete for titles every year, and even in the SEC, only a few programs can claim that distinction. A new indoor facility finally is being erected. The main job of the head coach in Athens is to recruit and develop a great quarterback; everything else usually is a given.
2. Florida: Location, location, location. That’s the No. 1 advantage for the Gators. The team shares one of the most talent-saturated states with just two other power-conference programs. The proliferation of speedy receivers and running backs almost demands that the head coach install an exciting offense, a lesson that Will Muschamp never seemed to grasp. The program doesn’t have a history of consistent success prior to the early 1990s, but Steve Spurrier and Urban Meyer proved there’s no excuse for mediocrity with the tremendous resources available to this program’s head coach. The team’s offense has been a mess since Meyer went into temporary retirement, but if Jim McElwain can fix that, Florida will be competing for national titles once again. The Gators just completed a new indoor practice facility, but the team’s quest to bridge the gap with “the Taj Mahals,” as McElwain put it, still continues.
1. Alabama: Obsession with excellence. That’s what the Tide program can claim over any other program, for better or worse. Seasons that end in College Football Playoff losses are considered disappointments. Win in Tuscaloosa and they’ll practically worship your statue and eventually visit your gravesite for decades. As much pressure as Nick Saban faces, he’s got a blank check for salary, facilities, recruiting, support staff and whatever else he needs. Alabama is a national brand, so recruiting isn’t limited to in-state talent. The program claims 25 SEC championships and 16 national championships — and fans consider that tradition to be sacred. Alabama may lead the SEC in fans that psychologists would diagnose as clinically insane. But what coach wouldn’t want to take on the challenges with essentially unlimited resources and support? Following Nick Saban sounds like an excruciating task, but he’s been so exacting with every element of the program that it will be hard for the next man not to succeed.