Ranking Sun Belt Coaches

1. Larry Blakeney Troy(162-81-1)- Blakeney is entering his 21st year at Troy and has done an amazing job building this program from a Division II school, to a FCS school, and now to a FBS Conference Champ. Blakeney and Troy have dominated the SBC the last few years with a 32-5 conference record since 2006. Blakeney currently ranks 4th nationally with 161 wins at his current school.

2. Howard Schnellenberger Florida Atlantic (57-63 at FAU)- Scnellenberger of course got his start by winning the first national championship at Miami in 1983. He then coached Louisville for a few seasons and helped bring some respect to that program. He is now in his 11th year at Florida Atlantic and is the school's only coach. The school made a deep run into the FCS playoffs in year #3 and then joined the FBS in 2005. Since then the Owls have been to two bowl games and now are about to open a new 30,000 seat stadium. Schnellenberger is a true program builder.

3. Dan McCarney North Texas(1st year at school)- McCarney was one of the most impressive hires of the off season. When McCarney took over the Iowa State job in 1995, the school had not been bowling in 27 years, but in his 11 seasons in Aimes, IA he took ISU to 5 bowl games. McCarney has been the assistant head coach at Florida the last 3 seasons and did a fantastic job recruiting and developing players for the Gators.

4. Rick Stockstill Middle Tennessee(33-30)- Prior to becoming head coach at Middle Tennessee, Stockstill studied under some of the best coaches in college football. Stockstill studied under Lou Holtz, Steve Spurrier, Danny Ford, and Ken Hatfield. That kind of coaching pedigree is hard to match. Stockstill led the Blue Raiders to their first bowl appearance in year 1 and two more appearances in 2009 and 2010. Stockstill has always been noted as one of the best recruiters in the south, having signed 19 future NFL players in the last 11 years.

5. Mario Cristobal Florida International(16-33 at FIU)- The former offensive tackle at Miami got his coaching career started by studying under men like Greg Schiano and Butch Davis. In his 4 years as head man for FIU he has taken the Panthers from being the worst program in the FBS to being conference champs in 2010. The Panthers also won their first ever bowl game last year. Cristobal is one of the young up and comers in the college football world and will be a name to be heard from in the future.

6. Mark Hudspeth Louisiana(3-9 at UL)- Hudspeth had a very good career as head coach at North Alabama. At the Division II level, he went 66-21 with three visits to the DII semifinals. He spent the last 2 seasons helping develop the passing game at Mississippi State, that certainly was improved from the Sly Croom staff. Hudspeth's first season didn't look great, but UL did catch some bad breaks in 3 close losses and the out of conference schedule was brutal.

7. Todd Berry Louisiana Monroe(5-7 at ULM)- Berry enters his 2nd year at ULM with previous stops at Illinois State and Army. Berry's career coaching record isn't that impressive, but he has 28 years of coaching experience behind him with stops at places like Tennessee, Oklahoma State, Mississippi State, and East Carolina. This year's ULM team could be the best squad that the school has had since becoming a FBS program.

8. Willie Taggart Western Kentucky(2-10 at WKU)- Taggart is most known nationally for being the man who developed Doak Walker Award Winner Toby Gerhart. He has spent most of his coaching career and playing career at Western Kentucky. Taggart was the offensive coordinator for WKU when they won the National Championship in the FCS in 2002. Taggart has studied under both Jim and Jack Harbaugh.

9. Hugh Freeze Arkansas State(1st year as HC at Arkansas State)- It's really to early to judge Freeze as he's never been a head coach in the NCAA. Freeze won two state championships at Briarcrest High School in Tennessee in 2002 and 2004. He's noted as being a very good offensive mind and it showed last year when ASU averaged 30 points per game(up by 8 ppg from 2009). Freeze knows the Memphis High School scene well, an area that Arkansas State needs to recruit to when you consider the location of Jonesboro, AR.

Matt Barber
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