Top Southern Coaches

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The South's Greatest Coaches of Alltime

Many great men have walked the sidelines in Dixie. These are the men who made The South the best region for college football in division 1-A

1. Bear Bryant(323-85-17 overall record)-No man brought more attention to southern football than Paul "Bear" Bryant. The Bear is a 10 time SEC COY, 3 time National COY(which is now named after him). He won six national championships and 13 SEC Championships. Bear not only won at Alabama, but he was also the coach at Maryland, Kentucky, and Texas A&M

2. Bobby Bowden(373-118-4)-College Football's all-time winningest coach took over a FSU program that was nearly dead in 1976 and made it won of CFB's winningest programs the last 3 decades. Bowden has 2 National Championships and twelve ACC Championships. He'd probably have more confernece titles if he hadn't coached at Independents FSU and West Virginia from 1970-1991. From 1987-2000, FSU was in the top 5 every year.

3. General Robert Neyland(173-31-12)-An actual General of the U.S. Army, Robert Neyland led Tennessee to its first National CHampionship in 1938 and a couple more in the early 50s. To go with the National Championships Neyland also had 6 SEC titles. His seven Maxims of Football are still recited by Vols today

4. Steve Spurrier(163-56-2)-The Head Ball Coach has won 6 SEC Championships, 1 ACC Championship, a National Championship in 96, and is the winngest 3rd year coach in South Carolina history. Spurrier changed the way an entire conference played football by changing the passing game within the SEC in the 90s. In his 12 years at Florida Spurrier had an average ranking of 6th. Spurrier is the only man to ever win a Heisman Trophy and coach a Heisman Winner.

5. Darrell Royal(184-60-5)-When Royal took over Texas in 1956 the Horns had a record of 1-9, in his first year he led Texas to a 6-4-1 and never looked back. Royal won 3 National Championships at Texas and 11 Southwest Conference Championships. Royal got his start at MSU in 1954 and in 2 seasons won 12 games with the Bulldogs. In 1969 he coached in the "Game of the Century" a 15-14 win by Texas over rival Arkansas. After the game The Horns accepted the National Championship from President Nixon.

6. John Heisman(185-70-17)-The man who the trophy is named after. Heisman was won of the earliest coaches in the south to make an impact nationally. Heisman coached at , Akron, Auburn, Clemson, Penn, and Rice, but he made his biggest impact at Georgia Tech. At Tech Heisman went 102-29-6 with four unbeaten seasons. It was at Tech that Heisman had the biggest blowout in CFB history, a 222-0 thumping of Cumberland.

7. Wallace Wade(171-49-10)-Wade had great careers at both Duke and Alabama. At Bama Wade won 3 national championships, then in 1931 he shocked the CFB world and headed to Duhram, NC to coach the Blue Devis. With Duke Wade became the schools winningest coach ever and even took the Devils to 2 Rose Bowls. The stadium at Duke is named after Coach Wade and a statue of him is on campus at Alabama.

8. Johnny Vaught(190-61-12)-The head man at Ole Miss for 25 years led the Rebels to their winningest era ever from 1947-1970 and returned for 8 games in 1973. The Rebs won the 1960 National Championship and also had 6 SEC titles in Vaught's career. Since he retired Ole Miss has yet to win another championship. Vaught finished in the top 10 in 10 different years and Ole Miss hasn't finished higher than 13th since he left. Vaught only had losing records against Bear Bryant and General Neyland.

9. Vince Dooley(201-77-10)-Dooley won 6 SEC Championships and 1 National Championship with Georgia. He also coached a Heisman winner and maybe CFB's greatest player in Herschel Walker. Vince has won many awards including the Bobby Dodd award, Eddie Robinson Award, Walter Camp Award, and is a member of the Georgia Circle of Honor. His brother Bill had a solid coaching career at UNC, VT, and Wake and his son Derek is the head coach at Louisiana Tech.

10.Frank Broyles(149-62-6)-For 50 years Frank Broyles has been the face of Arkansas Athletics as a coach and the AD. After leaving Missouri in 1957, Broyles took over a Razorback program that had seen little success. As coach Broyles won 7 SWC Championships and the 1964 National Championship. The program had 9 top 10 finishes under Broyles. In his 50 years as an AD and Coach Broyles saw the Hogs win 380 games(more than Bowden). Barry Switzer, Jimmy Johnson, Johnny Majors, and Joe Gibbs all served under Broyles(along with countless others). The top assistant in CFB is given the "Frank Broyles Award" each season.

11. Bobby Dodd(165-64-8)-Another Tech coach makes the list. The head man of the Jackets for 22 seasons led GT to eight top 10 finishes, a national championship and 2 SEC titles. The stadium at Georgia Tech is named after Dodd. He's in the CFB Hall of Fame as a player and a coach.

12. Ralph"Shug" Jordan(176-83-6)-Not only was Jordan a great football coach at Auburn, but he also had a record of 95-77 as the Tigers basketball coach. Jordan won the 1957 National Championship for the Tigers and was the coach of Georgia HOF coach Vince Dooley. Jordan's greatest honor might be receiving the Purple Heart and Bronze Star while serving in the U.S. Army during World War II.

13. Phillip Fulmer(147-45-0)-The 1998 National Championship highlights Fulmer's career. The 2nd winningest coach in Vol history, Fulmer played for Tennessee from 1968-1971. Since he took over for the Vol program in 1992, Tennessee is 5th in the NCAA in winning pct behind only Ohio State, FSU, Florida, and Nebraska.

14. Frank Beamer(167-85-2)-Frank Beamer is the man that put VT football on the map. Before Beamer the Hokies had only 3 top 25 finishes in its history, with Beamer the Hokies haver 14 since 1990. The only 5 Division 1 Conference titles by the Hokies are with Beamer. 15 if the Hokies 21 bowls have come under Beamer.

15. Dan McGuin(197-55-19)-Yep, a Vandy coach makes our list. During the first part of the 20th Century Vandy was one of CFB's powers. The Dores won 12 conference titles under McGuin. Vandy hasn't seen a conference title since.

16. Lou Holtz(249-132-7)-Holtz would be much higher if Notre Dame was in the South. Holtz led 4 different Southern programs to bowl games in his career(William & Mary, NC State, Arkansas, and South Carolina). He finished in the top 10 on 3 different occassions at Arkansas. Holtz led one of CFB's greatest turnarounds ever at USC by taking a program that went 1-21 in 98-99 and leading them to 2 NYD Bowl wins in 00-01. At NC State Holtz had the highest win pct for the program since the 1920's

17. Jimmy Johnson(81-34-3)-While he was only a head coach at Miami for 5 years, he did win a NC in 87 and in his final 4 years had a total of 44 wins. All 5 teams at Miami finished in the top 18 with his final 4 teams finishing #9, #2, #1, and #2. Of course Johnson would later create a dynasty with the Dallas Cowboys.

18. Howard Schnellenberger(141-119-3)-It is Schellenberger that should be credited with the football power at the "U". In 1983 Howard's Canes won the National Championship, but then left to take over at Louisville. With the Cards Howard won 54 games to become its winningest coach in 50 years. He is now the man that started the Florida Atlantic football program and earned the school its first bowl win in 2007 and a conference championship.

19. Charlie McClendon(137-59-7)-The alltime wins leader at LSU led the Tigers to 9 top 20 finishes and 4 top 10 finishes. The Tigers appeared in 14 bowls under McClendon and won 2 SEC Championships.

20. Frank Thomas(141-33-9)-When Wallace Wade left for Duke in 1930, Frank Thomas took over at Alabama and kept the Tide among the nation's best. Thomas won the SEC 5 times and even won the 1934 National Championship. Under Thomas the Tide appeared in multiple Rose Bowls, the Orange Bowl, Cotton Bowl, and even the Sugar Bowl.

21. Pat Dye(153-62-5)-Prior to going to Auburn in 1981, Dye had a good run as coach of East Carolina(48-18-1) and 1 season at Wyoming(6-5). Dye won 4 SEC Championships with the Tigers and coached the 1985 Heisman Winner Bo Jackson. Dye's teams finished in the top 10 nationally on 5 different occassions.

22. Tommy Tubberville(105-53-0)-Despite not having a National Champship, Tubberville is the only SEC coach to finish a season undefeated in the last decade. Tubberville's first season is the only one the Tigers haven't been bowling. The "River Boat Gambler" help turn around an Ole Miss program that was in trouble with the NCAA before heading to Auburn.

23. Nick Saban(99-48-1)-The defensive genius has had many of his wins in the North, despite that he makes our list for turning around a dismal LSU football program and making it possibly the best program this decade. Saban has a National Championship and 2 SEC Championships. Building a power at Bama would definitely put Saban much higher on this list.

24. Mark Richt(72-19)-Richt has never been left out of the top 25 at Georgia. He has 5 finishes of #7 or better at Georgia. Richt has 2 SEC CHampionships and 3 SEC East championships to his credit. He's still very young and one day could be in the top 10 of a list like this.

25. Dennis Erickson(158-67-1)-Erickson would be higher if not for a 3 year probation that followed him at Miami. In his 6 years with the Canes he was an amazing 63-9 and won 2 National Championships. While he hasn't had much success at the NFL level, he has done a very good job at his west coach college stops.

Others that were considered

Danny Ford, Wallace Butts, Paul Dietzel, Frank Howard, R.C. Slocum, Jackie Sherrill, Bill Dooley, Gene Stallings, Mac Brown, George Welsh, Grant Teaff

Guys who could be in given a few more years

Urban Meyer, Les Miles, Butch Davis, Jim Grobe, Bobby Petrino, Jim Leavitt

Matt Barber
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