We assumed there wouldn’t be much disagreement on who is the best coach in college football when we asked our reporters to rate the top ten in the sport—and there wasn’t. Our ten voters all agreed that Kirby Smart of Georgia, whose Bulldogs have gone 42-2 in the last three seasons, should win.
However, there was hardly any agreement after that. The only other coach to appear on every ballot was Kalen DeBoer, the new head coach of Alabama, whose ranks varied from second to tenth.
Two coaches were listed on nine ballots: Mike Norvell of Florida State and Kyle Whittingham of Utah, whose rankings included two second places and two ninth places, and three second places and two ninth places, respectively.
Afterwards, Dabo Swinney of Clemson secured four second-place finishes. Next is Dabo Swinney of Clemson, who was absent from four votes overall and garnered four votes in second place. Here are the full standings, with points allocated based on our reporters’ votes (10 points for first place, nine for second place, and so on down to one point for 10th place).
1. Georgia’s Kirby Smart
Record for 2023: 13-1 (.929)
Record for career: 94-16 (.855)
Points: 100 (10 votes for first place)
Now that Nick Saban has retired, Smart is without a doubt the best college football coach. In 2021 and 2022, he led Georgia, his alma mater, to consecutive national titles. In 2017, he competed for a third national title. Before falling to Alabama in the SEC title game of the previous season, the Bulldogs had won 29 straight games, a record in the SEC. Smart has established a formidable system for identifying, attracting, and nurturing exceptional players during his eight years at Georgia. He has generated fifteen first-round selections out of 55 NFL draft picks, and he may have ten more players taken in the next draft.
Over the last five seasons, Smart has not lost to any active head coach; his only defeats have come at the hands of Saban (3), Dan Mullen at Florida, Ed Orgeron at LSU, and Will Muschamp at South Carolina. What distinguishes him is his consistency. Georgia is the only team in the nation to finish in the top 7 in the final AP poll each year after the Bulldogs finished 8-5 in his first season (2016). In six of those seven seasons, Smart’s Bulldogs have competed for and/or won a national championship or an SEC championship.
2. Alabama’s Kalen DeBoer has a 14-1 (2023) record.
Record for career: 37-9 (.804)
Points total: 6
Following a five-year tenure as an assistant at his alma mater, tiny Sioux Falls, DeBoer led the NAIA Cougars to three national titles and a 67-3 record. After that, DeBoer started his ascent through the ranks of assistant coaches, leading each institution he worked at to almost unprecedented levels of success, until he was appointed head coach at Fresno State. After a modest 12-6 season, he was hired by Washington, where he turned around a club that had won four games in 2021 into one that went 25-3 in the following two seasons, earning a spot in the national championship game this past season.
DeBoer only achieves victory. And he is now succeeding the late great Nick Saban, who had high expectations for himself and others.
3. Kyle Whittingham, Utah 8-5 (.615) record for 2023
Record of career: 162-79 (.672)
56 points
Since Whittingham joined the team in 1994 as the defensive line coach, Utah has been his only home. After Urban Meyer left shortly before the 2004 season ended, he was promoted to head coach and defensive coordinator the following year.
Ever since Utah moved from the Mountain West to the Pac-12, Whittingham has been a model of consistency, ending with only two losing seasons in 19 years. In 2008, he led the Utes to an undefeated season, two Pac-12 championships, and eight top-25 AP poll rankings—six of which came in the last ten years. all at a school without the facilities and programs of the other coaches on this list.
4. Clemson, Dabo Swinney,
Record for 2023: 9-4 (.692)
Record for career: 170-43 (.798)
50 points
Longtime underdog Clemson returned to the national spotlight under Swinney, who also became the first coach to seriously question Nick Saban’s dominance over the program. He led Clemson to its first national championships since 1981 in 2016 and 2018, winning both games against Nick Saban’s Alabama team. In five seasons, his teams qualified for four CFP national championship games. From 2015 to 2020, Clemson was the ACC champion every year and never placed lower than third in the final AP poll.
Midway through the 2008 season, Swinney—a little-known wide receivers coach—was named Clemson’s interim head coach. In his 170-43 career as the Tigers’ head coach, he has won eight division crowns and eight league titles. In 2015, 2016, and 2018, he was named national coach of the year and received the Bryant Award.
Clemson has had periods under Swinney when it was the best program in the country at quarterback, defensive line, and wide receiver. With the exception of one complete season as Clemson’s coach, Swinney has won nine or more games. This is despite the hurdles presented by the transfer portal and NIL period.
5. Mike Norvell, Florida State; 13-1 (.929) record in 2023
Record for career: 69-33 (.676)
49 points
What is the best way to measure Norvell’s coaching greatness? Maybe it’s the way he uses the transfer portal. While many other coaches throughout the nation have bemoaned and grumbled about the portal in recent years, Norvell has discovered the ideal way to use it, securing a number of great players, including Trey Benson, Jermaine Johnson, Keon Coleman, and Jared Verse. Or maybe it’s the way he inspires his team members, creating a solid internal culture in spite of the high portal usage.
However, if you just need one figure to fully understand Norvell’s influence, this is it: 23. Florida State has won 23 games in the last two years, a program that had only won 26 games in the prior five seasons combined. The change is truly amazing in terms of accomplishments, talent, and culture.
6. Oregon’s Dan Lanning
Record for 2023: 12-2 (.857)
Record for career: 22-5 (.815)
37 points
It’s possible that Lanning’s high rating is a little too soon given his little experience, but his first two seasons as a head coach have produced impressive results. As Georgia’s defensive coordinator, Lanning assisted Smart in winning a national title in 2021. Since then, he has led the Ducks to a 22-5 record.
Similar to Ryan Day at Ohio State, Lanning was unable to overcome the Washington Huskies, who proved to be an unbeatable obstacle in the Pac-12. Oregon had lost all three of their games against Washington by three points over the previous two seasons, and the most agonizing one was the 34-31 loss in the Pac-12 title game.
Similar to Ryan Day at Ohio State, Lanning was unable to overcome the Washington Huskies, who proved to be an unbeatable obstacle in the Pac-12. Over the last two seasons, Oregon has lost all three of its games against Washington by a margin of three points. The most agonizing of those losses was the 34-31 setback in the Pac-12 title game, which may have prevented the Ducks from making the College Football Playoffs.
7. 2023 record for Steve Sarkisian, Texas: 12-2 (.857)
Record for career: 71-49 (.592)
35 points
Sarkisian was just a matter of time to put everything together. After all, the man has studied under LaVell Edwards, Pete Carroll, and Nick Saban—three of the finest college football coaches in recent memory. Sarkisian has had a significant impact on offensive brilliance for the majority of his career, whether it be calling plays for Saban at Alabama and averaging 47.2 and 48.5 points per game, respectively, or throwing for nearly 7,500 yards in two seasons with Edwards at BYU. He has also coached quarterbacks for Carson Palmer, Matt Leinart, and Mark Sanchez under Carroll at USC, turned Jake Locker into a first-round pick, and then coaxed two brilliant seasons out of Keith Price.
8. Ole Miss 2023 record for Lane Kiffin: 11-2 (.846)
Record for career: 96-49 (.662)
29 points
Kiffin, 48, is currently on his seventh head coaching stint. Despite some early growing pains, he became one of the more innovative and engaging college football coaches after being hired as the Oakland Raiders’ coach in 2007 at the age of just thirty-one. Kiffin, who is starting his fifth season at Ole Miss, has made progress in Oxford that has never been done before. Two of the last three seasons have seen the Rebels win ten games during the regular season; before Kiffin, they had never done so. As one of the best offensive brains in the game, Kiffin is known for his balanced and unpredictable offenses.
Kiffin divides opposing fan bases since he is eager to troll everyone on social media. Though he claims that working under Saban made him a more effective program manager, he is still a bit of a lightning rod. Additionally, Kiffin has benefited greatly from the way college football is changing and has made significant progress through the transfer portal.
9. Lance Leipold, Kansas
Record for 2023: 9-4 (.692)
Record for career: 54-54 (.500)
28 points
The Jayhawks had a 9-60 record in the six seasons preceding Lance Leipold’s arrival at Kansas. They went 9-4 in 2023. That virtually puts an end to your argument. Leipold took over a club that had been 0-9 in 2020 and had won two, six, and nine games before to being hired in 2021, when spring practice had already ended. He has done an incredible job of mimicking Bill Snyder over his first three seasons in Lawrence, and given his history, there’s reason to think he may continue. However, it’s unfair to compare anyone to Bill Snyder.
This is a man who has six national titles on his resume, after all. Previously a Division III dynasty builder at Wisconsin-Whitewater, Leipold has since moved to Buffalo and Kansas, and damned if his skillful culture building isn’t effective wherever he goes. In 2024, he’ll take on a fresh challenge as an offensive coordinator—for the first time since 2012—without his right-hand man and ace, Andy Kotelnicki. (Kotelnicki went on to take a job at Penn State OC.) But Leipold is one college football player who deserves the benefit of the doubt.
Last year, Kansas won nine games! Kansas! It is mind-boggling.
10. Ohio State’s Ryan Day
Record for 2023: 11-2 (.846)
Record for career: 56-8 (.875)
27 points
Over the last five plus seasons, Day’s teams have gone 39-3 in Big Ten play, 56-8 overall, and they have participated in a New Year’s Six bowl game or the CFP in each of his complete seasons. Under Day, the Buckeyes are 18-8 versus opponents ranked in the AP top-25 and have won back-to-back Big Ten crowns in his first two seasons (2020 and 2019).
Three times in terms of scoring and four times in terms of total offense, Day’s offenses have been rated among the top three in the FBS. However, the Buckeyes haven’t won a Big Ten championship since 2020 and are only 2-4 in bowl games. Giving former UCLA head coach Chip Kelly the offensive playcalling reins could be the key to OSU’s comeback as the top team in the enlarged Big Ten.
Also reviewing votes: Mack Brown, North Carolina (3); Mike Gundy, Oklahoma State (3); Jonathan Smith, Michigan State (3); Deion Sanders, Colorado (2); Curt Cignetti, Indiana (1); Chris Klieman, Kansas State (1); Jon Sumrall, Tulane (1); Brian Kelly, LSU (23); Lincoln Riley, USC (20); Kirk Ferentz, Iowa (7); Luke Fickell, Wisconsin (7); Eliah Drinkwitz, Missouri (6).