Top Ten Head Football Coaches in College Right Now

[CHONGS]

Who are the top ten coaches (at this time)?  Might not necessarily line up exactly with the top programs (but I bet it will have strong similarities).

I think we can all agree that the top two (by a wide margin are):
1. Nick Saban
2. Urban Meyer 
They are both excellent in preparation, fundamentals, and recruiting.  Additionally they generally make great in-game decisions and adjustments. They can win at a small school with 5 hearts or at a big school with 5 stars.


But from here it's a bit more murky.  We have coaches who have nattys:

Les Miles
Jimbo Fisher
Bob Stoops

and coached who have been in the "title" game:

Dabo Sweeny
Mark Helfrich
Gus Malzhan
Brian Kelly

and coaches with multiple conference champs (3+):
David Shaw
Mark Dantonio
Bert Bielema

and finally coaches with a couple of conference champs and turned a program around
Art Briles
LHC Bill Snyder


How you order your top ten?  Which coaches am I missing who should be in consideration (and why)?

[manpow5]

1. Saban
2. Meyer
3. Miles
4. Bryles
5. Patterson
6. Sweeny
7. Stoops
8. Jimbo
9. Kelly
10. Dantonio
11. Snyder

[yoga-like_abana]

Jim Harbaugh

[manpow5]

1. Saban
2. Meyer
3. Miles
3.5. Harbaugh
4. Bryles
5. Patterson
6. Sweeny
7. Stoops
8. Jimbo
9. Kelly
10. Dantonio
11. Snyder

[sonofdaxjones]

At what point does the "he turned around a program" theme get lifted?

[CHONGS]

Jim Harbaugh

I guess I can see that, but he hasn't won crap in college

[CHONGS]

At what point does the "he turned around a program" theme get lifted?

Probably never, I mean even if a rocket crashes back to earth it still lifted off and reached the stars for a little while.

[CHONGS]

Patterson doesn't really belong there yet either IMO, and certainly not at the expense of a coach like Shaw.

[yoga-like_abana]

At what point does the "he turned around a program" theme get lifted?

Until another coach succeeds at that program or said coach begins to tank badly

[kso_FAN]

At what point does the "he turned around a program" theme get lifted?

Until another coach succeeds at that program or said coach begins to tank badly

Also (fair or not) a lot of people give him credit for doing it twice.

[ChiComCat]

Malzahn and Helfrich deserve some skepticism - they've both been a bit inconsistent on too small of a sample

Saban
Meyer
Stoops
Miles
Harbaugh
Dantonio
Patterson
Briles
Kelly
Jimbo

Others considered in no order:
Sweeney
Shaw
Snyder
Petrino
Helfrich
Malzahn
Gundy
Herman

['taterblast]

1. Saban
2. Meyer
3. Miles
4. Stoops
5. Patterson
6. Swinney
7. Fisher
8. Harbaugh
9. Briles
10. Gundy
11. Kelly (ND)

[TownieCat]

1a. Meyer
1b. Saban
3. Swinney: 56-12 the past 5 years 
4. Patterson: 9 11-win seasons; I also think it took a couple of years for him to adjust his program to the rigors of a P5 conference. 
5. Dantonio: 3 big 10 and 5 11-win seasons in past 6 years 
6. Harbaugh: Small sample size, but he really resurrected Stanford before leaving for the NFL. 
7. Briles: What's his best win? Serious question.
8. Jimbo: Admittedly, he probably should be higher than this but last season seemed like smoke and mirrors to me. 
9. David Shaw: September 2 will not be fun.
10. Stoops: He does less with more a lot of the time, but he does have more. 

[CHONGS]

Huh, I think Harbaugh is getting too much love and Shaw not enough (0 titles vs 3), but hey this is America right?

[CHONGS]

more info (if needed)
Top 25 P5+Notre Dame coaches by winning % (at school at least 3 years).

Name	School	Age	Win%
Urban Meyer	Ohio State	51	0.925
Nick Saban	Alabama	64	0.85
Jimbo Fisher	Florida State	50	0.84
Mark Helfrich	Oregon	42	0.825
Bob Stoops	Oklahoma	55	0.799
David Shaw	Stanford	43	0.788
Les Miles	LSU	62	0.776
Gary Patterson	TCU	55	0.751
Mark Richt	Georgia	55	0.74
Dabo Swinney	Clemson	46	0.737
Mark Dantonio	Michigan State	59	0.729
Brian Kelly	Notre Dame	54	0.714
Kevin Sumlin	Texas A&M	51	0.706
Mike Gundy	Oklahoma State	48	0.671
Kyle Whittingham	Utah	56	0.671
Guz Malzahn	Auburn	50	0.667
LHC Bill Snyder	Kansas State	76	0.657
Todd Graham	Arizona State	51	0.654
Hugh Freeze	Mississippi	46	0.647
Larry Fedora	North Carolina	53	0.64
Art Briles	Baylor	60	0.64
Rich Rodriguez	Arizona	52	0.634
Dan Mullen	Mississippi State	43	0.607
Kirk Ferentz	Iowa	60	0.599
Paul Johnson	Georgia Tech	5 8	0.581

[cfbandyman]

1a. Meyer
1b. Saban
3. Swinney: 56-12 the past 5 years 
4. Patterson: 9 11-win seasons; I also think it took a couple of years for him to adjust his program to the rigors of a P5 conference. 
5. Dantonio: 3 big 10 and 5 11-win seasons in past 6 years 
6. Harbaugh: Small sample size, but he really resurrected Stanford before leaving for the NFL. 
7. Briles: What's his best win? Serious question. KSU in 2012
8. Jimbo: Admittedly, he probably should be higher than this but last season seemed like smoke and mirrors to me. 
9. David Shaw: September 2 will not be fun.
10. Stoops: He does less with more a lot of the time, but he does have more. 

[Cartierfor3]

Pinkel and Beamer retired Chings

[That_Guy]

Idk why Les Miles is so high on some peoples list. He under achieves every year it seems.


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[CHONGS]

Pinkel and Beamer retired Chings

I know, I forgot to remove them let me do that now!

[TownieCat]

1a. Meyer
1b. Saban
3. Swinney: 56-12 the past 5 years 
4. Patterson: 9 11-win seasons; I also think it took a couple of years for him to adjust his program to the rigors of a P5 conference. 
5. Dantonio: 3 big 10 and 5 11-win seasons in past 6 years 
6. Harbaugh: Small sample size, but he really resurrected Stanford before leaving for the NFL. 
7. Briles: What's his best win? Serious question. KSU in 2012
8. Jimbo: Admittedly, he probably should be higher than this but last season seemed like smoke and mirrors to me. 
9. David Shaw: September 2 will not be fun.
10. Stoops: He does less with more a lot of the time, but he does have more. 

 

[TownieCat]

Idk why Les Miles is so high on some peoples list. He under achieves every year it seems.


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Agreed. He was one game away from being fired less than 2 months ago.

[CHONGS]

Idk why Les Miles is so high on some peoples list. He under achieves every year it seems.


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He's won 1 natty and been to another, not too many current coaches have done that (Bob has).

[That_Guy]

Idk why Les Miles is so high on some peoples list. He under achieves every year it seems.


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He's won 1 natty and been to another, not too many current coaches have done that (Bob has).

Miles is the Stoops of the SEC. Get hyped up year-after-year and then fall short.


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[Cartierfor3]

also put Brian Kelly in there Chings

edit: nevermind he already did

[Katpappy]

1a. Meyer
1b. Saban
3. Swinney: 56-12 the past 5 years 
4. Patterson: 9 11-win seasons; I also think it took a couple of years for him to adjust his program to the rigors of a P5 conference. 
5. Dantonio: 3 big 10 and 5 11-win seasons in past 6 years 
6. Harbaugh: Small sample size, but he really resurrected Stanford before leaving for the NFL. 
7. Briles: What's his best win? Serious question.   That's easy; KSU in '12.  "It don't get better that beating the number 1 ranked team in the nation!"
8. Jimbo: Admittedly, he probably should be higher than this but last season seemed like smoke and mirrors to me. 
9. David Shaw: September 2 will not be fun.
10. Stoops: He does less with more a lot of the time, but he does have more.