Worst Coaches in SEC

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Worst SEC Coaches in The Last 20 Years

Currently the SEC is going through a Golden Age for coaches. Saban, Spurrier, Fulmer, Petrino, Richt, Tuberville, Meyer, and Miles all have BCS Bowl wins. That's 67% of the conference!! The conference is loaded with great coaches, but it hasn't always been that way and it wasn't too long ago that the conference saw some awful coaching. Here's a list of the worst coaches of the last 20 years.

1. Curley Hallman-With 2 National Championships in the last 5 seasons its hard to believe there was a time when LSU was near the bottom in the SEC. Hallman was hired away from Southern Miss where he put together an impressive record with some wins on the road against Bama, Auburn, and Florida State. He even found a way to bring in some QB named Brett. At LSU he was awful, 16-28 with a 2-9 record in 1992. Hallman was even beaten by his old team, Southern Miss, in 1994.

2. Brad Scott-When South Carolina hired Brad Scott in 1994 they hired one of the top offensive coordinators in college football. Scott was the man that led some great Florida State offenses and coached Charlie Ward to the Heisman Trophy. At South Carolina he sold some Heinz Ketchup, and then after he was fired sold his soul to the Gamecock's Devil(Clemson). Scott did win the school's first bowl game in 1994, but the next four seasons saw the Gamecocks go 16-27-1. Most blame Scott for the school's 21 game losing streak from 98-99.

3. Ed Orgeron-The firing of David Cutcliffe puzzled many in 2004, but what was even more puzzling was the hire of Ed Orgeron. While Coach "O" was a great recruiter, he just couldn't get it done on the field. 10-25 in 3 seasons had Col Reb Crying for most of his tenure.

4. Jack Crowe-Prior to Jack Crowe the Hogs went 20-4 with 2 SWC Conference Titles. With Crowe the Hogs went 9-15. Crowe only lasted 2 seasons and 1 game. He was fired after the Hogs suffered a home loss to THe Citadel Bulldogs 10-7 in 1992. He is now coaching the Jacksonville State Gamecocks, and yes there is another team called the Gamecocks, and no they aren't in Jacksonville, FL. Crowe makes the list despite not even coaching a single SEC game.

5. Ray Gooff.... I mean Goff-While a 46-34-1 record might be acceptable at some schools, it isn't at a tradition rich place like Georgia. In 7 seasons at UGA, Goff failed to have a winning season 4 times. Steve Spurrier was asked about his chances to beat Georgia once "Is Ray Goff still the coach there" the Head Ball Coach asked.

6. Mike Dubose-Prior to Dubose's arrival in Tuscaloosa the Tide were the power in the SEC West. Dubose did win the SEC Championship in 1999, but seasons of 3-8 and 4-7 won't win you contract extensions in Tuscaloosa. An overall record of 24-23 was the worst record for a Tide Coach in over 40 years

7. Bill Curry-Curry did have a decent run at Alabama going 26-10 in 3 years, but his time at Kentucky was terrible. Curry's 26-52 record was the worst for the Cats since John Ray(69-72). After spending a decade with ESPN, Curry is now the head coach at Georgia State's new football program.

8. Rod Dowhower-Who? Well, its easy to forget the man who served as Vandy Head Coach for 2 seasons in the mid 90s. Yes, winning at Vandy is tough, but Dinardo, Johnson, and even Widenhofer all had higher winning pcts

9. Ron Zook-The Zooker's claim to fame in the South is the fact that he started the Firecoach.com sites. FireRonZook.com was launched soon after the shocking hire of Zook in 2002. The program that Spurrier built was almost torn down by Ron Zook. You knew the end was near when in his last season he was seen at a frat house yelling at some frat boys. Give it up for Zook though, he did lead Illinois to the Rose Bowl last year.

10. Mike Shula-Some might want the man before Shula(Mike Price) on the list, but since he never really coached at Bama we'll leave him out. Shula was a former Bama QB and was somewhat of a desperate hire when Price was let go. A 26-23 record in 4 seasons was almost as bad as Dubose. Despite making so many terrible hires in the last decade, it does seem like Bama got it right with the hire of Saban.

Matt Barber
dixiefriedsports@gmail.com