BoFlex

June 23rd, 2016 at 12:46 AM ^

1.     Nick Saban

“With three national championships over the last five years, the rest of college football is chasing Alabama and Nick Saban. Under Saban’s direction, the Crimson Tide have won 105 games since 2007 and are the only team to make the College Football Playoff in back-to-back seasons. Alabama has only lost more than one game in SEC play once since 2008 and has not finished outside of the Associated Press top 10 since 2007. There’s no question the bar is set high at Alabama and maintaining this level of success isn’t easy for any program. However, Saban is the unquestioned No. 1 coach in the nation and continues to reel in elite talent every year.”

2.     Urban Meyer

“With 50 wins, a national championship and three top-five finishes in the Associated Press poll in the last four years, Meyer continues to set the bar high for success in the Big Ten. Ohio State is 50-4 overall under Meyer’s watch and has lost only one regular season league contest over the last four years. Success at a high level is something Meyer has experienced at each stop in his coaching career. In two years at Bowling Green, Meyer guided the Falcons to a 17-6 record and went 22-2 in two seasons at Utah. At Florida, Meyer won 65 games in six years and claimed two national titles (2006 and 2008). Despite heavy personnel losses in 2016, Meyer won’t allow Ohio State to slip too far in the win column, which should allow the Buckeyes to compete for another playoff bid this fall”

3.     Jim Harbaugh

“As expected, it didn’t take long for Harbaugh to return Michigan back among the nation’s best. The Wolverines finished 10-3 in Harbaugh’s first season – a five-game improvement from the previous year. Additionally, the 10 wins last season nearly matched the program’s combined victory total from 2013-14 (12). And the expectation level is high going into 2016, as the Wolverines are picked among the favorites to contend for a spot in the College Football Playoff. Prior to Michigan, Harbaugh won 44 games in four seasons with the 49ers, transformed Stanford into a top-five team over four years and also went 29-6 at San Diego. Winning at a high level (and right away) is nothing new for Harbaugh.”

4.     Mark Dantonio

“Dantonio has elevated Michigan State to new heights and the Spartans have emerged as an annual contender for the Big Ten title. Under Dantonio’s watch, Michigan State is 87-33 since 2007 and claimed the conference title for the second time in three seasons in 2015. Additionally, last year’s 12-win campaign resulted in a trip to the College Football Playoff. Dantonio has guided the program to at least 11 victories in five out of the last six seasons and has only one losing record (2009) in his tenure in East Lansing. The Spartans lose a handful of key players from last year’s playoff team, but Dantonio should keep Michigan State among the top 10-15 teams in the nation.”

5.     Bob Stoops

“There’s very little separation among the top three coaches in the Big 12. Stoops returns the No. 1 spot in Athlon’s rankings after slipping down the list last season. After an 8-5 record in 2014, Stoops hit the reset button on offense and made significant changes to his staff. The moves paid off in a big way for Oklahoma, as the Sooners finished 11-2, won the Big 12 title and played in the College Football Playoff. The eight-win season in 2014 was only the fourth time in Stoops’ 17-year tenure Oklahoma won fewer than 10 games. Maintaining a high level of success at any program for nearly 20 years isn’t easy. But Stoops continues to push the right buttons and should have the Sooners in the mix to earn another trip to the playoffs in 2016.”

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LSAClassOf2000

June 23rd, 2016 at 6:54 AM ^

Thanks for posting this link - the entire list is actually kind of intriguing. 

Eastern Michigan's Chris Creighton comes in at a comfortable 121st, but then he's got one of the toughest recruiting jobs of all. 

At 116th, they are hopeful that David Beaty can turn Kansas football into...something.

Chris Ash sits at 100, so our 7th rival has some uphill sledding to usurp MSU and OSU. 

 

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MChem83

June 23rd, 2016 at 6:38 AM ^

As a major college coach, he's had only one 10+ win regular season, and no conference championships, let alone national championships.  That's not much of a resume.  At best, he is a very distant third, and you'd have a hard time convincing me that his accomplishments to this point exceed Dantonio's or Stoops'.

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A Fan In Fargo

June 23rd, 2016 at 12:26 AM ^

In many ways Jim already has these two beat. Just one thing left to do though on the field. Just win baby! I'd bet the farm it happens!

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stephenrjking

June 23rd, 2016 at 12:31 AM ^

Yeah, this stuff is a few days old. Don't know if it was linked here before, and I don't mind it, except this is a link to the LSJ instead of the source. 

Dantonio was ranked 4th. FWIW Dabo is like 9th or something like that (too lazy to look). Pretty generous to the B1G guys, honestly.

And, of the top 4, Harbaugh is the only one not to make it to the playoff... yet.

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M-Dog

June 23rd, 2016 at 9:44 AM ^

I would argue that the Big Ten East is the second most "glamorous" Division in all of college football, behind only SEC West.

It helps our national recruiting tremendously to be one of the top teams in the Big Ten East.  It also obviously helps our recruiting in the talent-rich areas of the East.

We are so much better off than we were stuck out in the obscure "Legends" Division. 

We are in an exciting place to be, at an exciting time.  I really, really hope they don't fuck with it.

 

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bacon

June 23rd, 2016 at 5:39 AM ^

Mark Dantonio over Bob Stoops seems like total BS. Stoops has a national championship under his belt. They conveniently forgot that in the write up.

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lilpenny1316

June 23rd, 2016 at 10:01 AM ^

People seem to forget that Stoops took over a blue blood program in name only.  They had four or five straight seasons without a winning record.  And Nebraska, Colorado and Texas were better programs at the time.  So he had to leap three programs to reach the top of that conference.

And Dantonio didn't take over a program with crap players.  With one or two bounces in the other direction, they could've beaten us from 2003-2005, especially 2004 and 2005.  That doesn't take into account their games against ND.  They just lacked a competent coach.

Also, Stoops has a pretty impressive coaching tree.

I'll take Stoops over Dantonio any day.

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bacon

June 23rd, 2016 at 8:16 AM ^

Oklahoma has been in the mix consistently for those 16 years. They also made the playoffs last year, matching the best year ever for Dantonio. As for doing more with less, no one chained Dantonio to MSU and said you have to stick with lesser talent.

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Craptain Crunch

June 23rd, 2016 at 5:42 AM ^

But ranking him #3 after one season is a bit ridiculous. Let's see where he and Michigan stand in a few years once he has all of his pieces in place. 

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evenyoubrutus

June 23rd, 2016 at 6:45 AM ^

I have never understood why so many people get so upset about these lists. They are ranking who they believe are the best coaches in CFB right now, not who are the most accomplished. It's not like Harbaugh has really had an opportunity to win a championship yet. And plus, his 2010 Stanford team was far better than MSU was last year, and if the playoff had been a thing they would have made it, and probably showed up a little better than MSU. In fact, I would argue that both Saban and Meyer would have struggled to get Stanford to 12-1 in four years. People easily forget that Harbaugh has only coached 5 seasons at a D1 school, and each time was a significant rebuilding project.

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BoFlex

June 23rd, 2016 at 3:10 PM ^

Why? Aren't both Urban and Saban known for building up programs fast?

Nick Saban (191-60-1) Toldeo Michigan State LSU Alabama
Previous Season 1989 (6-5) 1994 (5-6) 1999 (3-8) 2006 (6-6)
1st season 1990 (9-2) 1995 (6-5-1) 2000 (8-4) 2007 (2-6)
2nd season   1996 (6-6) 2001 (10-3)* 2008 (12-2)
3rd season   1997 (7-5) 2002 (8-5) 2009 (14-0)**
4th season   1998 (6-6) 2003 (13-1)** 2010 (10-3)
5th season   1999 (9-2) 2004 (9-3) 2011 (12-1)**

 

Urban Meyer (154-27) Bowling Green Utah Florida Ohio State
Previous Season 2000 (2-9) 2002 (5-6) 2004 (7-5) 2011 (6-7)
1st season 2001 (8-3) 2003 (10-2) 2005 (9-3) 2012 (12-0)
2nd season 2002 (9-3) 2004 (12-0)* 2006 (13-1)** 2013 (12-2)
3rd season     2007 (9-4) 2014 (14-1)**
4th season     2008 (13-1)** 2015 (12-1)
5th season     2009 (13-1)*  

* = BCS/NY6 Bowl win

** = National Championship

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Perkis-Size Me

June 23rd, 2016 at 7:54 AM ^

Come on, man. I know we're all homers here, but who else are you going to put there? In terms of strictly college success, no one else comes close to Saban or Meyer. He wins big wherever he goes, and has won at least 12 games a year every year since he's been at OSU. We haven't won 12 games in a season in almost 20 years.



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