Nick Saban is unquestionably the Greatest Coach of All Time, but my annual top-25 “snapshot” college football coach rankings weigh recent performance (past three years) more heavily than career achievements. Therefore, it’s hard to ignore the fact that there’s another coach out there who’s won the past two national championships.
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By no means was I ready to move Kirby Smart above Saban, but I’m employing the same shared title I did four years ago when Saban and Dabo Swinney had split the previous four national titles.
I also made a lot of drastic changes farther down the list, given one of my top 10 coaches in 2022 (Texas A&M’s Jimbo Fisher) went 2-6 in the SEC last season, one guy on the list retired (UAB’s Bill Clark) and another (Wisconsin’s Paul Chryst) got canned.
(Click here for Bruce Feldman’s rankings.)
1a. Nick Saban, Alabama (2022 rank: No. 1): The 2022 season was not Saban’s finest effort as the Bryce Young-led Tide underachieved — and yet they still went 11-2 and finished fifth in the country. That means Alabama has finished in the top five in eight of the past nine seasons, winning three national championships and missing the College Football Playoff just twice in that span. The guy’s still got it.
1b. Kirby Smart, Georgia (2022: No. 3): Smart brought the Alabama blueprint with him to Athens seven years ago and became the first Saban disciple to build his own juggernaut. The Dawgs became the first team in a decade to win back-to-back national championships and went 15-0 despite losing 15 NFL Draft picks from their dominant 2021 team. It’s a testimony to his superb recruiting and development.
3. Dabo Swinney, Clemson (2022: No. 2): While Clemson is now three years removed from its last CFP trip, Swinney’s program is still one of the nation’s strongest. Last season, the Tigers won their seventh ACC championship in eight years and notched double-digit wins (11) for a remarkable 12th consecutive season. But Clemson’s talent level has certainly fallen a couple of rungs since 2020.
4. Brian Kelly, LSU (2022: No. 4): For those who underappreciated Kelly’s 92-40 tenure at Notre Dame, his LSU debut served as a friendly reminder of his ability to build a program. He took over a Tigers team that went 11-12 the prior two seasons, brought in some key transfers and led LSU to 10 wins and an SEC Championship Game appearance. It was his sixth consecutive 10-plus-win season.
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5. Lincoln Riley, USC (2022: No. 6): Arguably no other coach could have pulled off the enormous culture change/turnaround Riley did in Year 1 at USC, overhauling a 4-8 roster, going 11-3 and producing his third Heisman quarterback in six seasons (Caleb Williams). USC became must-see TV for the first time in ages. But No. 5 could be his ceiling on this list — even for a career .835 coach — until he can field a team with a decent defense.
6. Jim Harbaugh, Michigan (2022: No. 13): It’s a full-circle moment for Harbaugh, whom I ranked in the top 10 his first few years at Michigan but eventually dropped out entirely as his program sank. Now he’s all the way back following consecutive Big Ten championships, CFP appearances and rivalry blowouts over Ohio State. Do it again and he’d likely move up into my top five.
7. Ryan Day, Ohio State (2022: No. 5): I don’t love dropping a guy two spots who’s won 88 percent of his games and reached three CFPs in four seasons, but the bar is that steep for a Buckeyes head coach. Had Noah Ruggles hit that 50-yard field goal against Georgia, we’d have a much different perception of Day. But right now he’s the guy who’s been blown out by his rival the past two years.
8. Kyle Whittingham, Utah (2022: No. 7): Another year, another Pac-12 championship for one of the country’s most consistent programs, which has gone 32-9 in conference play since 2018. Whittingham’s teams have now finished in the AP Top 25 in six of the past eight full seasons (not including 2020). His only remaining hurdles are to reach the CFP or win a Rose Bowl.
9. Luke Fickell, Wisconsin (2022: No. 8): After producing nine NFL Draft picks in one year at a Group of 5 program, Fickell’s last Cincinnati team did not return to the CFP but still had a 9-3 regular season. His conference record over six seasons leading the Bearcats: 35-11. It will be interesting to see how he adjusts as a Big Ten head coach, but his early staff moves have been impressive.
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10. James Franklin, Penn State (2022: No. 22): After two seasons of trending in the wrong direction, Franklin’s program bounced back in a big way last season, going 11-2 and winning a Rose Bowl. It’s the fourth time in the past seven years he’s reached 11 wins. But there’s one undeniable hole in his nine-year tenure: Franklin is just 4-14 against Ohio State and Michigan and has won only one division title.
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11. Lance Leipold, Kansas (2022: No. 25): Prior to last season, Kansas had not finished better than 3-9 in a season since 2009. Leipold shot right past that milestone and took KU to a bowl game in just his second season. It’s the latest and most remarkable feat yet for the 58-year-old, who led Wisconsin-Whitewater to six national championships and Buffalo to two division titles in three years.
12. Jeff Monken, Army (2022: No. 10): It’s hard as heck to win consistently at a service academy, but Monken’s teams have reached a bowl in five of the past seven seasons and went 6-6 in 2022. Army took a step back from winning nine games the year before, but it still beat Navy for the fifth time in seven seasons.
13. Dave Clawson, Wake Forest (2022: No. 15): Wake Forest has an all-time winning percentage of .421, but Clawson has taken the Demon Deacons to seven consecutive bowl games, finishing 8-5 last season. He’s done it thanks in large part to his Slow Mesh offense and the development of QBs such as John Wolford and Sam Hartman.
14. Mike Gundy, Oklahoma State (2022: No. 12): The Cowboys had a disappointing 2022 season, starting 5-0 and reaching No. 7 in the polls before losing six of their last eight. Bigger picture, though, he’s led the Cowboys to 17 consecutive winning seasons and is only a year removed from beating Notre Dame in a Fiesta Bowl.
15. Chris Klieman, Kansas State (2022: NR): In his fourth season in Manhattan, Klieman led K-State to its first Big 12 championship and first 10-win season in a decade. The former four-time FCS national champion has built a Power 5 program that’s already defeated five top-10 teams in his four seasons.
16. Matt Rhule, Nebraska (2022: NR): Rhule returns to college football, where he engineered remarkable turnarounds at Temple (from 2-10 in 2013 to 10-4 in 2016) and Baylor (1-11 in 2017 to 11-3 in 2019). He likely would have been in my top 10 had he returned to Baylor in 2020, so I’m restarting him in the mid-teens.
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17. Sonny Dykes, TCU (2022: NR): You could justify putting Dykes anywhere from about 10th to 25th. His career head coaching record prior to 2022 was a modest 71-63 over 11 seasons. But he deserves enormous credit for leading the Horned Frogs on their improbable run to last year’s national title game.
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18. Josh Heupel, Tennessee (2022: NR): I was an admitted Heupel skeptic prior to last season, but he’s won me over. After leading the Vols to their best season in two decades — 11-2 and No. 6 final ranking — Heupel is 46-16 in five seasons as a head coach and has produced a top-10 scoring offense in all five.
19. Lane Kiffin, Ole Miss (2022: No. 11): I think I got caught up in the moment last year after Kiffin produced the Rebels’ first-ever 10-win regular season. They slipped to 8-5 in 2022. He’s still produced three 10-plus-win teams in his six seasons at FAU and Ole Miss, but low teens is a more representative ranking.
20. Mark Stoops, Kentucky (2022: No. 14): Stoops has led the most consistent era in Kentucky history, reaching his seventh consecutive bowl game last season a year after going 10-3 for the second time in his tenure. I recalibrated his ranking, however, seeing as he’s finished below .500 in the SEC three of the past four years.
21. P.J. Fleck, Minnesota (2022: No. 18): Fleck’s Gophers quietly notched their second consecutive 9-4 campaign and are now 32-14 over the last four seasons. Crazy stat: Minnesota had posted only two nine-win seasons in the previous 110 years. (Though it did win five national titles in the eight-game era.)
22. Hugh Freeze, Auburn (2022: No. 23): I have a feeling Freeze is going to move up the list once he gets things going at Auburn (and provided he does not get himself fired for off-field reasons). Liberty won at least eight games in all four of his seasons there and won at Arkansas last season. The guy can certainly coach.
23. Jimbo Fisher, Texas A&M (2022: No. 9): I know folks are going to laugh at this one, but dropping a guy from the top 10 to off the list entirely after one losing season feels like a prisoner-of-the-moment overreaction. A&M finished No. 4 in the country just two years earlier. And he’s still got that national title ring.
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24. Jonathan Smith, Oregon State (2022: NR): In five seasons, the Oregon State alum has impressively rebuilt the program from 2-10 in 2018 to 10-3 in 2022. Last season culminated with upsets of rival Oregon and SEC foe Florida in the bowl game. Though he’s known as an offensive coach, the Beavers led the Pac-12 in total defense last season.
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25. Matt Campbell, Iowa State (2022: No. 16): Iowa State has fallen in the wrong direction the past two seasons, bottoming out at 4-8 last season. But Campbell is not far removed from posting the first top-10 season in school history in 2020 and still holds the highest winning percentage (.523) of any ISU coach since Earl Bruce in 1973-78.
Just missed: Washington’s Kalen DeBoer, Liberty’s Jamey Chadwell, Florida State’s Mike Norvell, BYU’s Kalani Sitake, Tulane’s Willie Fritz, UTSA’s Jeff Traylor, Air Force’s Troy Calhoun and South Carolina’s Shane Beamer.
A note about DeBoer: Taking Washington from 4-8 to 11-2 in his first year was phenomenal, but I’m not ready to rank a guy who’s coached two full FBS seasons.
A note about Kirk Ferentz: I did not consider the Iowa coach this year because I consider his continued loyalty to son Brian as OC to be an act of negligence.
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Feldman's top 25 college football head coaches: Nick Saban is still No. 1
(Top illustration: Sean Reilly / The Athletic; photos: Wesley Hitt, Ronald Martinez and Todd Kirkland / Getty Images)
