SEC Football: Are SEC Coaches Falling Behind?
After losing a slew of legendary and up and coming coaches recently, is SEC football falling behind in terms of coaches?
In an effort to get through the summer while we wait for college football to return, many outlets have released coaching rankings. As long as I care to remember, you would find at least 4 or 5 SEC football coaches in the top 20 of those rankings. That hasn’t changed, but where they land in that top 20 has.
For the purposes of this article, we’ll be using Athlon Sport’s rankings, which can be found here. You can still find 4 SEC football coaches in the top 20 and 6 in the top 25. The part that is uncommon, though, is that you can only find one SEC football coach in the top 10. Actually, you have to go all the way to # 17 to find the next SEC football coach. If you’d like to see where the SEC football coaches rank against each other, you can find that from Athlon here.
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The six SEC football coaches that crack the top 25 are Nick Saban (#1), Hugh Freeze (#17), Bret Bielema (#18), Dan Mullen (#20), Butch Jones (#23) and Les Miles (#25). Of those 5 coaches, only two can claim a conference title. While it is no surprise that 4 of those SEC football coaches come from the West, it is absolutely looney to think only two coaches can claim an SEC title.
Just last year, guys like Mark Richt and Steve Spurrier would have populated this list with high regard. SEC football has experienced a youth movement in the SEC East, though, and none of those new faces crack the top 25. That could change in just one year, though, as Tom Herman of Houston comes in at #14. To be honest, that’s where they lose me.
Sure, Tom Herman led Houston to a special season last year. But he’s only had one year and he led a group of 5 team to it. He hasn’t shown me he deserves to be ranked ahead of some SEC football legends like Les Miles (like it or not, he’s a legend). There’s also something else interesting to consider.
Between Nick Saban and Hugh Freeze (the top two SEC football coaches) are three former SEC football coaches who couldn’t hang. Bobby Petrino of Louisville comes in at #12, David Cutcliffe of Duke comes in at #15 and Mark Richt of Miami comes in at #16. Apparently they couldn’t hack it at Arkansas, Ole Miss and Georgia, but are still top 20 coaches.
must read: Power Ranking the new coaches of the SEC East
No, forget this garbage. You mean to tell me they couldn’t beat other SEC football coaches with enough regularity to keep their jobs, yet now they’re ranked ahead of them? SEC football isn’t slipping in terms of coaching, it’s slipping in terms of respect.
Such is life in SEC football. But c’mon Athlon. You’re better than that.