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Ranking SEC Coaches

Petrino seems happy to be in Fayetteville and Hog fans are happy to have him
Ranking the Head Coaches in the SEC

One of the reasons the SEC is the best football conference in America is because of the head coaches that their schools are able to hire. Below is a listing of how we currently rank the top head coaches in the SEC. Each coaches overall coaching record is listed.

1. Nick Saban Alabama(134-53-1)- Saban has now won National Championships at 2 different schools and has won 4 SEC Championships since 2001, despite being in the NFL for 2 seasons. He took over a LSU program that had finished a horrible decade of the 90s and he took over an Alabama program that was down as well. It also should be noted that Will Muschamp, Derek Dooley, and Jimbo Fisher all studied under Saban.

2. Bobby Petrino Arkansas(64-24)- Petrino is the only coach in NCAA History to take 2 different programs to their first BCS appearances. Petrino inherited a mess when he got to Arkansas, but in only 3 short yeas had the Hogs in the Sugar Bowl. His ability to organize an offense is fantastic, but few note that his defenses improve each year at both Louisville and Arkansas.

3. Les Miles LSU(90-38)- Call him luck, call him crazy, but whatever you call him you have to respect what he's done at LSU. Miles has won a national championship and averages over 10 wins a season. Many will say he's only winning with what Saban built, but those critics ignore that Miles is 2-2 against Saban.

4. Steve Spurrier South Carolina(186-73-)- If this was an alltime list and not current, then Spurrier would rank #2 behind Bear Bryant. Spurrier has done a great job reinventing his offense and coaching style. Even though he did lead USC to a SEC East title last year, he has yet to get the Gamecocks into the top 4 in the SEC(last year AU, LSU, Bama, Arkansas, and MSU ranked higher). Spurrier is 2-5 against the top 3 men on this list.

5. Mark Richt Georgia(96-34)- Richt has done a fantastic job with the Georgia program, but he's now on the hotseat and he shouldn't be. Prior to Richt, the Dogs hadn't won a SEC Championships in 20 years. Since he's taken over they have 2 SEC Championships and 3 SEC East titles. Yes, he had a losing season a year ago, but Vince Dooley had 6 seasons where he won 6 games or less.

6. Gene Chizik Auburn(27-24)- The coach of the defending national champs has done a great job of recruiting and putting together one of the best staffs in college football. He's still new as a head coach and I'd love to see what he will accomplish once Gus Malzahn takes a head coaching job.

7. Dan Mullen Mississippi State(14-11)- What Mullen has done in 2 short years at MSU is fantastic. He took over a program with the worst offense since the 99 Gamecocks and now has one of the more exciting brands in CFB. Mullen's 9 win season last year was the most for Mississippi State since 1999.

8. Derek Dooley Tennessee(23-27)- 3 years ago while at Louisiana Tech, Dooley made our list of 10 coaches bound to take a big job. I was always impressed with Dooley's ability to be head coach and AD of Louisiana Tech, who has the worst travel schedule in the country. Dooley inherited a mess at UT and seems to have things going in the right direction. I think he's a much better fit than Kiffin, but only time will tell if he can match what Fulmer did.

9. Houston Nutt Ole Miss (133-86)- Only Steve Spurrier has coached longer in the SEC than Nutt currently. Nutt has 2 SEC West Championships to his credit while at Arkansas and has won 2 Cotton Bowls with Ole Miss. He's never going to win a SEC Championship, but he will typically field a tough team that will pull off an upset or two.

10. Will Muschamp Florida(1st year as a Head Coach)- Until he coaches a game its hard to put him any higher at this point. Muschamp has coached great defenses wherever he's been. He's also coached under some of the top men in college football. He'll win plenty of games at Florida, but I don't think he'll be able to match what Spurrier or Meyer did.

11. James Franklin Vanderbilt(1st year as a Head Coach)- The former Maryland coach in waiting is now the head man at Vanderbilt and so far I've been impressed. He's doing a fantastic job recruiting to a place that is tough to draw top football players to. Having studied under Mike Price and Ralph Friedgen, I would expect Vandy's offense to be much improved in the coming years.

12. Joker Phillips Kentucky(6-7)- Year 1 for Phillips was about what was expected. Win 6 games with an easy schedule and make a bowl game. Kentucky did beat South Carolina for the first time since 1999. The bowl game performance was awful and the Cats didn't look prepared for a Pitt team that was going through a coaching transition.

Ranking the Head Coaches in the SEC