Head Coach Rankings: Bowl Season Top 70
70. Jonathan Smith, Oregon State
Jimmy Kimmel LA Bowl
Utah State 24, Oregon State 13
It wasn’t just that the Pac-12 team lost to the Mountain West team – even if it was the Mountain West champion. It’s that the Pac-12 team with the good offensive-minded coaching staff managed just two field goals after taking a 7-0 first quarter lead. The 13 penalties and two turnovers didn’t help.
69. Lane Kiffin, Ole Miss
Allstate Sugar Bowl
Baylor 21, Ole Miss 7
Really? There was NO backup plan in case Matt Corral got hurt or decided at the last second he didn’t want to play? The game was there for the taking in the fourth quarter, and the Rebel O couldn’t do anything.
68. Vai Taua, Nevada
Quick Lane Bowl,
Western Michigan 52, Nevada 24
It was a tough beat for the interim head coach. He didn’t have his star QB Carson Strong, the coaching staff was changing up, and … it was a MAC team. Western Michigan wasn’t Michigan. It should’ve been a more competitive game.
67. JC Price, Virginia Tech
New Era Pinstripe Bowl,
Maryland 54, Virginia Tech 10
That wasn’t fair. Price didn’t have a whole lot to work with, the entire focus of the program was to move on to 2022 and the Brent Pry era, and the team on the field just went through the motions. Even so, it’s not like Maryland was Georgia – the Hokies should’ve had something to rely in offensively.
66. Kalani Sitake, BYU
Radiance Technologies Independence Bowl
UAB 31, BYU 28
Yeah, QB Jaren Hall wasn’t available, but Baylor Romney wasn’t awful. The offense got a massive day out of RB Tyler Allgeier, the team woke up to make it a game, and … the defense didn’t do much of anything outside of a takeaway. UAB was good, but BYU won too many good games to end the year like this.
65. Bryan Harsin, Auburn
TicketSmarter Birmingham Bowl
Houston 17, Auburn 13
The team that almost beat Alabama couldn’t hold on late in that, and it couldn’t hang on to get by Houston. Auburn might have missed some parts, but the Power Five SEC team was outgained, did nothing in the first half, and it lost to the Power Five program – even it was a good one.
64. Bryan McClendon, Oregon
Valero Alamo Bowl
Oklahoma 47, Oregon 32
The Ducks got 32 points. They were never in the game, a slew of the key parts were gone, the head coach took his talents to South Beach, and this was going to be a rough ride no matter what. Still, Oklahoma was missing its coach and a slew of its players, too, and it was 30-3 Sooners at halftime.
63. Chris Creighton, Eastern Michigan
LendingTree Bowl
Liberty 56, Eastern Michigan 20
There weren’t any answers for the onslaught. Eastern Michigan was outmanned and outgunned – future NFL QB Malik Willis got things rolling for Liberty – and this got out of hand fast. The better team won, but the underdog wasn’t even close.
62. Greg Knox, Florida
Union Home Mortgage Gasparilla Bowl
UCF 29, Florida 17
Florida just doesn’t get to have fun in bowl games. Last year it lost all its players before getting torched by Oklahoma, and this time around it didn’t have head coach Dan Mullen against a pumped up UCF. Knox and the staff couldn’t make magic out of the defense, and the offense stalled out too much in the second half.
61. Seth Littrell, North Texas
Frisco Bowl Classic,
Miami University 27, North Texas 14
Yeah, bowl games have been rough under this regime – Littrell is now 0-5 in these things. The offense failing to do much of anything over the last 40 minutes and the defense having a hard time getting off the field.
Bowl Season Coaching Rankings
1-10 | 11-20 | 21-30 | 31-40 | 41-50 | 51-60 | 61-70 | 71-76