Tag: Coaching Rankings

Ranking the 7 best coaches in LSU football history

Taking era into account, as well as long-term consistency vs. short-term peaks, here’s how LSU’s all-time greatest coaches stack up.

There’s a joke about LSU Football coaches.

“It’s so easy, anyone can win there.”

It does look like that with three different LSU coaches having won titles this century. Is it the coach? The program? Both?

We’re going to take a look at that and rank the seven best coaches in LSU history.

This was tough. It was difficult to balance long-term success with shorter tenures that reached greater peaks. Coaches also took over at different points in the program, meaning some coaching jobs were tougher than others.

I’ve tried to take everything into account here. With that in mind, let’s jump right in.

Where does LSU’s Brian Kelly stand in PFF’s latest college football coaching rankings?

Kelly is one of the nation’s most accomplished coaches, but he’s still searching for that elusive national title.

If there was any doubting Brian Kelly’s abilities as a football coach and program builder, he all but put that to rest with a lightning-fast turnaround in Baton Rouge.

Kelly inherited a team that had gone 11-11 in the final two seasons under [autotag]Ed Orgeron[/autotag], but he turned that into a 10-4 campaign in 2023 in which he won the SEC West by engineering an upset over Alabama.

He’s the third-winningest active head coach in college football behind only Nick Saban and Mack Brown, and he’s the winningest coach in history for a storied Notre Dame program.

Given what he’s already accomplished and did last year at LSU, it’s not surprising to see Pro Football Focus rank him among the nation’s top coaches at No. 6 nationally.

Here’s what PFF’s Max Chadwick wrote about him.

Like Riley, Kelly took over an LSU program that went below .500 in 2021. In his first year there, the Tigers won 10 games and the SEC West title.

Before that, Kelly posted five top-10 finishes since 2009 while at Cincinnati and Notre Dame. He brought the Fighting Irish to three College Football Playoffs and a BCS National Championship game. He’s a proven winner and should have LSU competing for another SEC West championship this season.

Of the five coaches that rank ahead of Kelly, three of them — Saban, Kirby Smart and Dabo Swinney — have won multiple national championships. Jim Harbaugh and Lincoln Riley are still searching for their first like Kelly, but they rank above him here.

It’s hard to argue too much with this, especially given Kelly’s placement ahead of coaches like Ryan Day and Kyle Whittingham. If LSU can take the next step this year and compete for a College Football Playoff spot, you may see Kelly’s name even higher on lists like this after 2023.

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See where The Athletic’s Bruce Feldman ranks Brian Kelly among the top 10 coaches in college football

Do you agree with these rankings, Tigers fans?

The Athletic’s Bruce Feldman released his top 25 coaches in college football (subscription required) and LSU’s [autotag]Brian Kelly[/autotag] made the top 10.

Feldman ranked Kelly eighth,  calling him a “consistent winner.” Feldman noted Kelly’s quick turnaround at LSU and the fact that he’s now won 10 games in six straight years.

Eight is a fair ranking for Kelly. Feldman has him behind the likes of Kirby Smart and Nick Saban, just as most would. Also above Kelly are Lincoln Riley and James Franklin. Arguments could be made that Kelly is in the same class as those two as all are still chasing that elusive first national title.

Kelly’s had 11 seasons with double-digit wins at the FBS level. He’ll look to add another in 2023 with an LSU roster some think is good enough to compete for a national title.

Talented groups like this are the reason he took the job at LSU. If Kelly were to win the big one. he’d cement his legacy as one of the all-time greats.

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Where does LSU’s Brian Kelly stand in these Power 5 coach rankings?

Cornhuskers Wire ranked Kelly seventh among active Power Five coaches.

Coach [autotag]Brian Kelly[/autotag] may still be looking for that elusive national title, but that’s about the only feat he hasn’t accomplished in his three decades spent as a head coach.

After making four stops since 1991 — most recently a 12-year stint at Notre Dame (where he’s the all-time leader in wins) — Kelly is the third-winningest active head coach in the FBS ranks behind Nick Saban and Mack Brown.

Our colleagues at Cornhuskers Wire recently undertook the herculean task of power ranking all 65 current Power Five coaches, and it shouldn’t come as much of a surprise that Kelly stands near the top of that list at No. 7. That puts him at fourth in the SEC behind Saban, Kirby Smart and Jimbo Fisher.

All three of those coaches have national championships, so it’s understandable that Kelly will sit behind them until he can earn one of his own. The only coaches who rank higher than Kelly without titles are Ryan Day (No. 6) and Lincoln Riley (No. 4).

Kelly could have retired as arguably the greatest coach in Fighting Irish history, but he instead chose to take a risk and make the jump to the SEC, where he clearly feels he will have the resources to finally take a team all the way. LSU fans will hope that pays off, and given the fact that its last three coaches have all won national titles, Kelly has big shoes to fill.

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Where does Brian Kelly rank among college football coaches entering 2022

Kelly stands among the top 10 in these rankings from Sporting News’ Bill Bender.

You’d be hard-pressed to find more than a handful of active coaches more accomplished than [autotag]Brian Kelly[/autotag] entering the 2022 season.

The longtime Notre Dame and new LSU head man is the third-winningest active coach in FBS at 263, just two shy of North Carolina’s Mack Brown and six behind Alabama’s [autotag]Nick Saban[/autotag]. He’s been named the national coach of the year twice and is one of just seven coaches with multiple appearances in the College Football Playoff, though he’s still searching for his first national title at the Division I level — he won two at Division II Grand Valley State.

Sporting News’ Bill Bender, who listed his top 10 coaches in college football on The Paul Finebaum Show, ranked Kelly at No. 6 entering the 2022 season. That puts him behind Saban, Clemson’s Dabo Swinney, Georgia’s Kirby Smart, Ohio State’s Ryan Day and Cincinnati’s Luke Fickell.

Three of those five have titles, and the remaining two — Day and Fickell — have had very impressive tenures at their respective schools and tout three combined CFP appearances. Interestingly, Kelly ranks just above Lincoln Riley, who left Oklahoma for USC after a flirtation with LSU and was seen a the first choice for Tigers athletic director [autotag]Scott Woodward[/autotag].

Woodward ended up making an aggressive move after all in bringing one of the most touted coaches in the country to the bayou. Now it’s time to see if that “go big or go home” strategy will pay off for LSU as Kelly looks to become the fourth consecutive Tigers coach to win a national title.

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Here’s where LSU’s Brian Kelly stands among The Athletic’s top 25 coaches

Kelly earned the No. 5 spot on Bruce Feldman’s list.

LSU athletics director Scott Woodward shocked the college football world in November when he managed to hire Brian Kelly away from Notre Dame. Kelly had been the head coach in South Bend since 2010, and over his career, he’s the third-winningest active head coach in the FBS behind Alabama’s Nick Saban and North Carolina’s Mack Brown.

The Tigers fired a coach just two years removed from a national championship in Ed Orgeron, and the expectations for Kelly will be clear up front: This fanbase wants another title.

There’s certainly reason to believe Kelly, who took the Fighting Irish to a BCS national championship and two College Football Playoffs, can get the job done with the added resources that come from coaching in the SEC.

Heading into the season, The Athletic’s Bruce Feldman listed Kelly as the No. 5 coach in college football, two spots down from where he was entering last season. He’s behind Saban, Clemson’s Dabo Swinney, Georgia’s Kirby Smart and Ohio State’s Ryan Day.

The only thing missing from his 92-39 tenure at Notre Dame: Winning a national title. There were some blowout losses in big games, but he did a superb job in South Bend — as he has done at every stop he’s been. Now, the 60-year-old moves to the SEC, where it’s national title or bust.

“National title or bust” is a good way to describe this move for LSU. The Tigers’ last three coaches have all won titles, though one of them bolted for the NFL while the next two were dismissed after things began to go downhill.

Kelly likely hopes to finish his career in Baton Rouge, and he’ll try to capture that elusive first championship in the process.

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Vic Fangio ranked No. 22 among NFL coaches by Patrick Daugherty

Where should Vic Fangio rank among the NFL’s best head coaches?

Each offseason, Rotoworld’s Patrick Dougherty ranks all 32 head coaches in the NFL. This year, Broncos coach Vic Fangio is ranked No. 22.

“Fangio’s tenure will hinge on whether he can move past his offensive inertia,” Dougherty wrote. “The Broncos’ weapons-focused draft suggests Fangio and GM John Elway understand the stakes.”

Denver went 7-9 last year and finished second in the AFC West.

Fangio is the lowest-ranked coach in the division, behind the Chiefs’ Andy Reid (No. 2), the Chargers’ Anthony Lynn (No. 18) and the Raiders’ Jon Gruden (No. 19). Given that Fangio has a limited sample size to judge from, Dougherty’s ranking seems to be fairly reasonable.

If the Broncos return to the playoffs this year, Fangio will undoubtedly shoot up the rankings in 2021.

Patriots coach Bill Belichick is ranked No. 1 on the list. Jaguars coach Doug Marrone has the lowest ranking (No. 27). Dougherty did not rank the five coaches entering their first year with a new team.

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