RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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See the full story · 2 sourcesWith the changes happening in college football over the last half decade, most notably NIL and the transfer portal, the proliferation of talent in the game has been as balanced as ever.
With that, you could make the argument that coaches mean more than they ever have before, since it requires more strategy than just rolling the ball out and letting your 22 five-stars "talent" their way to victory.
Despite legends like Nick Saban calling it quits a few years ago, college football is in great hands with some phenomenal coaches among its ranks.
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Speaking of which, I thought today would be as good a day as any to rank the ten best coaches in college football right now.
This list is obviously subjective, but some of the factors I'm weighing are: total resume, recent success, and whether they have overachieved or underachieved relative to the resources they've been given.
With that said, let's dive right in.
We start this list off with a man who, five years ago, probably would have been comfortably within the top five: Lincoln Riley.
The USC head coach is heading into his fifth season in Los Angeles, and if you asked most Trojan fans, they would probably admit he has underperformed with regard to the expectations they had when he arrived.
Ironically enough, his first year at Southern Cal was his best, as the Men of Troy won 11 games and were a fourth quarter collapse away from making it to the College Football Playoff .
Since then, it's been tough sledding for Riley, but last year should provide some hope to fans of the program, as the 42-year-old pulled off what was perhaps his best coaching job since leaving Oklahoma and guided USC to a nine-win season while unlocking the potential of quarterback Jayden Maiava.
Heading into 2026, Riley and Maiava will look to finally send USC to the CFP, and it seems like the pieces are in place for that to happen.
If it does, I expect Riley to shoot back up this ranking come next season.
When it comes to "doing more with less," there are few who can top what head coach Clark Lea has done while at Vanderbilt (I can think of one other, but we will talk about him later).
When Lea arrived in Nashville in 2021, he proclaimed that he would have Vandy competing for SEC and national championships.
The whole college football world pointed and laughed, and rightly so, because the Commodores had long been a doormat in the SEC save for a few seasons with James Franklin at the helm.
Fast forward just five short years, and Lea has done exactly what he said he would, giving Vanderbilt its first ten-win season in school history and having the 'Dores within a stone's throw of the College Football Playoff.
For all his accomplishments on the field, he's done just as well on the recruiting trail, landing the program's first five-star in quarterback Jared Curtis.
Kind of unbelievable for anyone who knows anything about Vandy, and if he's able to repeat his success over the next couple of years without Diego Pavia as his quarterback, it will only strengthen my belief that Lea is one of the best coaches in America.
You could almost consider this spot for Kyle Whittingham a lifetime achievement award, but that would do a disservice to just how good of a coach he still is.
The man was an absolute machine while coaching the Utah Utes, guiding them through conference realignment and an ever-evolving college football world, racking up several of the best seasons in school history in the process.
He's the winningest coach in Utah history, and his defensive prowess and penchant for developing unheralded recruits into NFL Draft picks is the stuff of legend.
This past offseason, Whittingham left the friendly confines of Salt Lake City and headed east to Ann Arbor, where he will hope to instill some stability to a wildly chaotic Michigan program.
It's a testament to Whittingham that he continues to end up on lists like this year after year, and it proves that he's a rare combination of talent and longevity.
The Wolverines should be in good hands with Whittingham at the helm.
College football fans disagree on a lot, but there may not be a more universally hated name outside of Baton Rouge than Lane Kiffin.
His antics have rubbed a lot of people the wrong way, particularly regarding his most recent breakup with Ole Miss , but there is no question the man is a brilliant football coach.
Kiffin's offensive acumen knows no equal, and he's regarded as one of the best X's and O's guys on that side of the ball in quite some time, but he makes this list for more than just that reason alone.
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The former Rebels head coach turned Ole Miss from an afterthought in the SEC to a national power, and by the time of his unceremonious exit, had them in a position to legitimately win a CFP title.
He's such a good head coach that he had people actually believing that it was just as easy to win a championship at Ole Miss as it would be to win one at LSU or Florida.
That fact is not lost on me, but the only reason he isn't any higher is because he hasn't actually gone out and won the thing yet.
Few have, to be sure, but Kiffin has a chance to rocket near the top of this list should he win even one natty while on the bayou.
Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian is a lot like Lane Kiffin in many ways, so the two are ranked right next to each other for a reason.
Sark has access to a lot more resources and talent at Texas than Kiffin did while he was at Ole Miss, and has been far more consistent as a result.
He is considered one of the top offensive play callers in the game and consistently has the Longhorns in the national championship conversation year after year.
It will be interesting to see how he handles the expectations this year and how he coaches quarterback Arch Manning through anothe...
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