This isn’t difficult. It’s a simple process: Begin in Athens, Ga., and go from there.
Sort of like all things in college football of late.
Kirby Smart is the best coach in the game, and frankly, has been at the top since 2022. He passed the greatest coach in college football history (Nick Saban) after his first national title in 2022, and has extended that lead since.
Tide fans don’t like to hear it, and most pointed to Smart’s record vs. Saban and the result of the last time the teams played (the 2023 SEC Championship Game won by Alabama).
But now that Saban is gone, any hesitation of placing Smart at the top is long gone. The remaining 24 spots in the annual Saturday Down South coach rankings are where it gets interesting.
No. 25: Mike Elko, Texas A&M
A head coach all of 2 seasons, and Elko won 16 games at Duke — where most coaches don’t win 16 in a career. If QB Riley Leonard doesn’t sustain a season-ending injury in the first half of the season, 2023 could’ve been much better. Now? Elko jumps into the fire after replacing Jimbo Fisher at Texas A&M.
No. 24: Jonathan Smith, Michigan State
Smith built a legitimate Power 5 program at Oregon State and would still be there if the Pac-12 hadn’t imploded. A rare find on and off the field for a Michigan State trying to find a way back to the elite of the Big Ten.
No. 23: Jeff Brohm, Louisville
Brohm didn’t get nearly enough credit for the buildout at Purdue. Then he arrived at his alma mater last season, won 10 games and led Louisville to the ACC Championship Game. Can he continue to win big in a winnable conference?
No. 22: Kirk Ferentz, Iowa
Say what you want about the Fred Flintstone caveman offense, but Iowa’s postseason is New Year’s Day in the state of Florida for 6 of the past 10 non-COVID seasons. That 10-year run also includes a Rose Bowl game.
No. 21: Willie Fritz, Houston
Fritz worked his way through junior college and FCS ranks, and has rebuilt programs at Georgia Southern and Tulane since. The highlight (for now): 23 wins in the past 2 seasons at Tulane, and a Cotton Bowl win over USC in 2022. In 2024, he takes over a Houston program coming off a 4-8 season in its first year in the Big 12.
No. 20: Dave Clawson, Wake Forest
The thinking man’s coach is among the most respected in the coaching fraternity. Clawson enters 2024 with 63 wins at Wake — 3rd all-time and only 14 behind the co-leaders. His 5 bowl wins already are the program standard. The transfer portal has hurt Wake Forest as much or more than any program. Translation: a handful of players can mean the difference between 4 wins and 9 or 10 (hello, Kenneth Walker III, Sam Hartman).
No. 19: Mack Brown, North Carolina
With Nick Saban’s retirement, Brown takes over the lead for most wins by an active coach: 276 and counting. It could have been more. Over the past 2 seasons, Brown’s Tar Heels have lost 5 games by a combined 15 points. UNC’s 17 wins over that stretch could’ve — and probably should’ve — been 22. Brown is that close to turning UNC into an ACC power again. The challenge in 2024 is taking the next step with a new quarterback.
No. 18: Matt Rhule, Nebraska
Rhule turned around programs at Temple and Baylor, and got the Bears to a New Year’s 6 bowl game before handing off a ready-made championship team to Dave Aranda. His biggest task yet: Making Nebraska relevant again.
No. 17: Chris Klieman, Kansas State
An FCS legend at North Dakota State, it took 4 seasons for Klieman to rebuild K-State, which isn’t exactly a magnet for elite talent. He won the Big 12 in 2022, won 9 games in 2023, and has a potentially elite quarterback (Avery Johnson) in 2024.
No. 16: Luke Fickell, Wisconsin
Don’t be misled by Year 1 in Madison. Fickell completely changing the way the Badgers think about offensive football. The defense will be salty; can Miami transfer QB Tyler Van Dyke play like it’s 2021 again?
No. 15: Lance Leipold, Kansas
Buffalo was desperate, so was Kansas. Both took chances on Leipold, both were rewarded by the coach who prior to entering the FBS level, won 6 national titles at Division III Wisconsin-Whitewater. KU’s facilities are undergoing major upgrades, and the program is spending NIL money. A Playoff spot is the next step. Laughable? Consider Leipold already has won 17 games in 3 seasons — including 9 last year — at a place that had won 9 games in a season only once in the 25 seasons before he arrived.
No. 14: Mike Gundy, Oklahoma State
Who knows what could’ve happened if Gundy would’ve hopped off his tractor on the farm in Stillwater, and took a swing at a blue-blood job (see: Tennessee). For now, he has had a wildly underrated 19-year career at OSU: Already 100+ more wins than anybody in program history, 18 consecutive winning seasons, and 8 of the 11 double-digit win seasons in school history.
No. 13: Josh Heupel, Tennessee
His offense is a unique blend of Mike Leach and Art Briles principles, and stresses defenses unlike any other. Tennessee stumbled into a potentially great coach by hiring a shrewd AD (Danny White). Recent rules (NIL, free player movement) brings Tennessee’s massive support into the equation. The next step? Getting the Vols back to the SEC Championship Game for the first time since 2007.
No. 12: James Franklin, Penn State
The curse of an elite job: Double-digit wins isn’t enough. Franklin has 4 11-win seasons since arriving in 2014, plus another 10-win season. But that 2016 Big Ten title is long in the rearview. It’s time to make a deep Playoff run with a talented team.
No. 11: Mike Norvell, Florida State
Norvell didn’t appear in our Top 25 ranking last year. He has made the biggest jump in the Top 25 because of the wins (19 in a row with a complete team, 1 loss to Georgia without), and because Norvell knows how to build and sustain a roster in the new era of college football. It’s identifying portal players who can immediately help, while avoiding the pitfalls of talented but selfish players looking for a cash grab and quick trip to the NFL.
No. 10: Lincoln Riley, USC
Let’s look at this realistically for the best offensive coach in the game: If QB Caleb Williams doesn’t hurt his hamstring in the 2022 Pac-12 Championship Game, the Trojans beat Utah and make the Playoff. No, 2023 wasn’t good, and the defense is pitiful. In 7 seasons as a head coach, Riley is averaging 10.6 wins per year. Let’s see how he adjusts before filing him away.
No. 9: Steve Sarkisian, Texas
This is purely based on potential. What Texas did in 2023 was impressive, and what Sark has accomplished with recruiting — 3 consecutive top-5 classes — makes the future full of championship potential. But based on his career prior at Washington and USC, Sark is not a top-10 coach. He didn’t crack our Top 25 last year.
No. 8: Kyle Whittingham, Utah
The working man’s coach, turning 2- and 3-star recruits into 5-star players. Few programs develop like Utah, a direct result of a happy and healthy staff with zero ego. In 19 seasons, he has 162 wins and 7 double-digit win seasons.
No. 7: Dan Lanning, Oregon
The fast riser who didn’t crack the Top 25 last year, either, and the next big move in the rankings. If all goes as planned in 2024, Oregon will make a deep Playoff run (possibly win it all), and Lanning will have moved right next to his former boss Kirby Smart in the elite coaches of the game. With his high school and portal recruiting success, Lanning is turning Oregon into the Georgia of the West Coast.
No. 6: Lane Kiffin, Ole Miss
Suck it up and admit it: Kiffin is an elite coach. How much longer are you going to hold against him his failures of the past? Those 29 wins in the past 3 seasons at Ole Miss — including a school-record 11 in 2023 — didn’t just magically happen. It’s program building and brand awareness and convincing elite players to spend their careers (or what’s left of them) in a quaint little town 90 minutes Southeast of the nearest big city (Memphis) — then getting everyone to buy in, no matter how long they’ve been around.
No. 5: Dabo Swinney, Clemson
In any other world, Swinney is considered the best coach in the game. The numbers tell the story: 2 national titles, 12 consecutive double-digit win seasons. But it’s the now that moves him down. Can he continue to avoid recruiting the transfer portal and survive among the elite of the game? The opener against Georgia will show just how much ground there is to make up for Clemson with Swinney’s philosophy of an organically grown roster.
No. 4: Kalen DeBoer, Alabama
Lost amid the crushing reality that Saban finally walked away from the game was the hire to replace him. DeBoer is elite (104 wins in 116 career games), and would be considered a monumental hire for any other program. Now all he has to do is win it all to not be a failure.
No. 3: Brian Kelly, LSU
Kelly will look back at 2023 as the lost championship season, a moment where he had the best player in college football (QB Jayden Daniels) — and wasted it with an historically bad defense. That won’t happen again. Kelly will win a national title at LSU; it’s just a matter of when.
No. 2: Ryan Day, Ohio State
You want dumb? Let me show you dumb: Day is on the hot seat entering the 2024 season. He’s 56-8 in 5 years at Ohio State, including 39-3 in Big Ten games. Those 3 losses — all to Michigan — are where this hot seat nonsense begins. The Buckeyes have the most talented team in the nation in 2024, and that’s where the hot seat talk can end.
No. 1: Kirby Smart, Georgia
He can do it all. The best recruiter in the college football, the best motivator in college football, a top-5 game day coach in college football. There are no negatives — except those pesky and at times dangerous offseason speeding/racing problems on the roster. That’s the only thing that can derail this championship train.
