I know everyone likes to compare coaching ability. My question would be after this season how would you rank the coaches in the SEC?
2 years ago everyone seemed to make out like it was Meyer, Saban, then everyone else.
After this year...not so much.
Never been a fan of the "what have they done this season" way of ranking coaches. Too many variables. No coach wins every year. Circumstances matter. The players matter. You can say "well they recruit the players"...ok...we know that, and we also know not every players that was a great recruit works out. We know that some that weren't great recruits become great. Clearly if a coach can coach up an average recruit he can get the most out of a great one and make him reach his potential. You don't have to be a coach to understand that not everybody that "looks good on paper" or has a "great resume" will work out at the next level, in the next job. That ain't just football, that's life.
IMHO, Urban Meyer is far and away the guy with the most sustained and consistent success. His low water mark is this season and stands at 7-5...after he's lost 4 years of one of the greatest college football players in history, and after "his guys", like Mullen...guys that were with him from the inception of his offense...guys who had great input in to the players and scheme have moved up. And I don't buy any bullshit about "Mullen was the real genius"...there's no evidence to support that at all. Mullen was a key part. Coaches, especially coaches like them who have been together in building an offense and program, will each suffer without the other because they each learned from each other, and each bounced ideas off each other....but Mullen is only 2 years in to being the head guy...and that's a newb. Meyer has won at Bowling Green, Utah, and Florida. And I don't buy: "BG and Utah aren't in the SEC". Well, they don't play with SEC players either. His combined conference record at both was 24-6 over 4 seasons. He dominated. He's largely domonated the SECE in his tenure there. His worst bowl appearance until this season has been the Outback Bowl...his worst. in 10 seasons (including this year he's 103-23, has won 2 BCS Titles, 4 conference titles, and made one more SECCG appearance. No current SEC coach's overall record comes anywhere close.
Spurrier is next, based on a lot of the same reasoning, except that his age factors in. Clearly he's a great coach by any measure...any reasonable measure.
The next closest one would be Saban...not going to rehash his record...we all know it reads like a roller coaster...but he has 2 BCS titles at 2 schools. If I didn't have my hatred for him personally, I'd hire him to run a program I was in charge of. In fact, to build one, he might be my first choice.
Chizik has proved he can win when all is going right, at a program capable of winning, when he has a cohesive staff, good and experienced players, and also proved he can't make chicken salad out of chicken shit with his time at ISU. ( I don't think any coach can ) Chizik is a fine coach, but he's only in year 2 in the SEC, and year 4 as a header. BTW, go look at Rhoades record this year...his 5 wins are not all they seem to be if you look at who he beat, and he's losing ground after a "great" year when they went bowling in 2009. Rhoades has likely hit his high water mark there. I feel sorry for him...I think Rhoades is a good coach...the kind many would like to have seen at Auburn.
As for Richt and Nutt...for very hater of those two that can find a way to claim they're not good, I can find a way to show otherwise. But not great, not by a long shot.
Miles? Shit, what can you say? Guy has a nice record, and an NC...but he's too much a lightening rod for critiscim, and it's largely deserved. I think he's a good coach...in that he can coach football, though his game day antics leave many shaking their heads...he knows the game, he knows how to coach players, and coach coaches. And he can recruit. His game management skills will cost him games.
Petrino? Great offensive mind...can he be a great header? Maybe...but probably won't be able to prove GREATNESS at Ark.
Phillips, Dooley, Mullen? How do you even start to rank coaches with tenures this short other than to put them at the bottom until they prove something. Mullen and Dooley have started to prove something good.
Why bother ranking any coach, whoever it is or was, at Vandy.
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