The SEC lays claim to some of the best coaches in all of college football, which is a big reason for the conference’s sustained success in the last 15 years.

But what about outside the SEC? Which coaches from other conferences present the greatest threat to the SEC on a national level?

In honor of Coaches Week at SDS, we ranked our top 5 coaches from outside the conference we know and love to shine some light on the men who challenge the SEC the most:

Honorable Mentions (listed alphabetically): Art Briles, Baylor; Paul Johnson, Georgia Tech; Jim Mora Jr., UCLA; Bob Stoops, Oklahoma; Dabo Swinney, Clemson.

5. Mark Helfrich, Oregon: Helfrich is sometimes cheated of the respect he deserves upon replacing Chip Kelly as head coach of the Ducks. Many still associate Oregon’s fast-paced spread offense with Kelly, but Helfrich has led the team through its transition from Kelly with grace. There was never a drop-off as Oregon changed head coaches, a testament to Helfrich’s leadership at the helm of the program. In two seasons as head coach he’s posted a 24-4 record, and last year his Ducks won the Pac 12 title and the Rose Bowl, which doubled as a semifinal in the inaugural College Football Playoff.

He’s yet to post a recruiting class among the top 15 in the nation, but that hasn’t stopped him from finding the right fits for his program and sustaining the success of the Kelly era in his brief tenure as head coach. He can even claim a Heisman winner on his coaching resumé. Helfrich still has plenty of work to do, but he’s absolutely one of college football’s greatest threats to the SEC.

4. Gary Patterson, TCU: Patterson was winning ballgames at TCU long before it was added to the Big 12. In fact, TCU has played in three different conferences during Patterson’s run as head coach (Conference USA, Mountain West and the Big 12), dating all the way back to 2001. He has a career win percentage of .746, and he’s won double-digit games in 10 of his 14 seasons as head coach of the Horned Frogs.

Patterson won one C-USA title, four Mountain West crowns including three straight from 2009-11, and last season he won his first Big 12 title, although his Horned Frogs were snubbed of a playoff berth at season’s end. Nonetheless, his TCU squad slaughtered Ole Miss in last year’s Peach Bowl (a New Year’s Six bowl) by a score of 42-3, and that came against the No. 1 scoring defense in the nation. He coached in two BCS bowl games as well, and perhaps the crowning achievement of his career to this point was TCU’s victory in the 2011 Rose Bowl (to close the 2010 season), when the Horned Frogs defeated Wisconsin despite being pegged as “little sisters of the poor” before the game.

3. Mark DAntonio, Michigan State: This is the entry on the list that I’m sure has people scratching their heads, but this writer remains adamant that D’Antonio is the most underrated coach in all of college football. In eight years as head coach of the Spartans, taking over at a school already known for its basketball program led by Hall of Famer Tom Izzo, Dantonio has won 11 or more games four times and nine or more games five times.

He’s won two conference titles, the 2014 Rose Bowl (to conclude the 2013 season) and earned a spot in a New Year’s Six bowl last season. Most importantly, he’s won six of his last seven showdowns with the Michigan Wolverines. Most don’t think of Michigan State when listing the premier programs in college football, but Dantonio’s program is as accomplished as any in the nation.

2. Jimbo Fisher, Florida State: Fisher’s Seminoles snapped the SEC’s streak of seven straight national championships when they won the last-ever BCS championship game in 2013. In two seasons from 2013-14, his team lost one game, a playoff game to Helfrich and Oregon in the Rose Bowl last season.

He faced the challenge of replacing legendary coach Bobby Bowden head on, nearly matching the early success of the now-retired Hall of Famer. Fisher has won nine games in each of his five seasons as FSU’s head coach, won at least 10 games in four of those seasons and has lost 11 total games in those five seasons combined. His last three starting quarterbacks — Christian Ponder, E.J. Manuel and Jameis Winston — were all first round NFL Draft picks (we’re anticipating Winston will go in the first round later this month), and he’s hauled in six straight top 10 recruiting classes to Tallahassee.

1. Urban Meyer, Ohio State: Meyer’s Buckeyes supplanted Fisher’s Seminoles as reigning national champs, achieving the feat with three different starting quarterbacks during the course of the season. That’s a testament to Meyer’s coaching as he led his team through devastating injuries, and its a testament to his recruiting efforts, the depth he built at the quarterback spot and the talent he funneled in around said quarterbacks.

His dominance spans all the way back to 2004 when he turned Utah into the first non-BCS program to reach a BCS bowl game. He then, of course, went on to win two titles at Florida before winning his third last season. In three years at Ohio State, Meyer’s teams are a combined 38-3, and he’s lost just one game in Big Ten play while at OSU. And for what it’s worth, he’s produced four straight recruiting classes ranked among the top 10 in the nation. Outside the SEC, Meyer lives on a tier of his own.