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SEC Coaches (Rivalry Series): The Best of the Rest

By John Richardson

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Before the 2015 college football season kicked off, we held a competition of football coaches.  The competitors were not limited to SEC coaches, however, and the results bared that out.  Round 2 began this morning and is thick with competition.  In addition to round 2, though, a ‘Best of the Rest’ poll will also be running until September 14 to determine the final coach that will make it to round 3.  These coaches lost their heads up competition in round one, so this is their one shot at redemption.

Some, like Derek Mason, were throttled in their first round matchup and have little hope of advancing here.  Others, like Dan Mullen, received more votes than most of the coaches that moved on to round 2 and should be considered favorites.  Before we get to the actual poll, let’s first review the round 1 results:

1.  Butch Jones  (97%) defeated Derek Mason 

2.  Jimbo Fisher (52%) defeated Jim McElwain 

3.  Gary Pinkel (93%) defeated David Beaty 

4.  Kevin Sumlin (76%) defeated Charlie Strong

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5.  Dabo Swinney (59%) defeated Steve Spurrier 

6.  Paul Johnson (94%) defeated Mark Richt 

7.  Les Miles (61%) defeated Bret Bielema

8.  Hugh Freeze (69%) defeated Dan Mullen 

9.  Nick Saban (65%) defeated Guz Malzahn

10.  Mark Stoops (70%) defeated Bobby Petrino 

These results left us with 10 winners that automatically moved on to round 2 to form 5 matchups.  As previously stated, the final entry to round 3 will be through this ‘best of the rest’ poll.  This will give us 6 remaining competitors for round 3.

The ACC had a very strong showing in round 1, so their coaches should be viewed as serious contenders in this poll.  The BIG 12 failed to pull any similar upsets and appear to have no coaches that have a chance at moving on to round 3 of this competition.  Then again, stranger things have happened.

Finally, the favorite in this poll is Dan Mullen.  The MSU faithful tried to rally around their head man and push him ahead of Freeze, giving him thousands of votes more than his nearest competitor in the loser’s bracket.  But those votes don’t transfer to round 2.

Without further ado, the Best of the Rest poll:

Can’t get enough of rivalries?  Check out Saturday Down South’s article on SEC rivalries here.

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