Where does Urban Meyer rank against All-Time Great College Football Coaches

Where does Urban Meyer rank in terms of best college football coaches?

With Urban Meyer’s retirement this past week from the University of Florida, it is time to ask the obvious question. Where does he rank in terms of the all-time best college football coaches?

First, Urban is hard to judge, because of the small sample size. Judging his career is like trying to compare Sandy Koufax to Nolan Ryan or Pedro Martinez to Greg Maddux. The question there is what is the worth of dominant seasons vs. career achievement? Urban was merely a flash in the pan, in terms of longevity, but nonetheless a bright and powerful flash.

So, I checked the statistics and read up on some of the best college football coaches in history and compiled a top fifteen college coaches list. Urban Meyer ended up farther down the list than I first thought he would (11^th), but it is hard to compare the early coaches against the more modern era.

1. Paul “Bear” Bryant –Maryland (1945), Kentucky (1946-1953), Texas A&M (1954-1957), Alabama (1958-1982)
Bryant won 6 National Championships (61,64,65,73,78,79) and posted winning records in 37 of 38 seasons. He won 13 SEC Championships and finished with a career record of 323-85-17. At Alabama he finished in the top 10 in 18 out of 25 seasons, and went to a bowl in 24 of the 25 years. He also coached Forrest Gump, so that is a plus as well.

2. Tom Osborne –Nebraska (1973-1997)
Osborne coached the Nebraska of 25 years, with 25 winning seasons, 25 bowl games, 25 seasons of being ranked at the end of the year and never winning less than 9 games and never losing more than 3. His career numbers of 255-49-3 are the highest winning percentages of any college football coach and he won 3 National Championships (94,95,97) and 13 Conference Championships. In terms of consistency, no one can match Osborne, but Bryant gets the nod because of the wins and additional National Championships.

3. Knute Rockne – Notre Dame (1918-1930)
Rockne’s career is also very short, but his is due to his death in plane crash in 1931. He ran up a career record of 105-12-5 over 13 seasons and won 3 or 5 National Championships (19,20,24,29,30). The 1919 and 1920 are disputed and despite all the winning, his career was before the establishment of the full bowl system and he took Notre Dame to just a sing bowl game in 1924. He never had a losing season and went undefeated 5 times.

4. Joe Paterno – Penn State (1966-Present)
Paterno is the opposite of Rockne. His career is the never ending anomaly that has produced consistently good teams. He has two national championships (82,86) and has won 3 Conference championships. Penn State was not affiliated with a conference until 1996. He has a winning record in 38 of his 45 seasons, and has gone to 36 bowls and won a record 23 of them. His career record of 401-134-3 is the most wins of any FBS coach. He also gets bonus points for arguing for a playoff since the 1980s.

5. Bud Wilkenson – Oklahoma (1947-1963)
Wilkenson’s 17 seasons at OU featured 14 Big Eight Championships. He went a creer 145-29-4 and won 3 National Championships (50,55,56). He had one losing season, and finished in the top 20 in 15 seasons. He is most famous for the 47 game winning streak that his never been matched.

6. Brigadier General Robert Nese Neyland – Tennessee (1926-1934, 1936-1940, 1946-1952)
Neyland gets a serious upgrade for taking WWII off from coaching to go be a general and fight Nazis. I don’t see Urban Meyer or Nick Saban doing that. He won 4 National Championships (38,40,50,51) and six SEC Championships. He finished his career with a record of 173-31-12. He never had a losing season, and finished in the top 10 in 7 of his 14 seasons. He also never lost to Bear Bryant and invented the study of game film.

7. Bobby Bowden – Howard (1959-1962), West Virginia (1970-1975), Florida State (1976-2009)
Bowden is a poor man’s Joe Paterno, lots of years, lots of good years, but he is docked for three separate NCAA violations that vacated a total of 18 games. He did win 2 National Championships (93,99) and 12 ACC Championships. His run of at least 10 wins a season from 1987 to 2000 is one of the most impressive in the history of college football. He held a career record of 377-129-4.

8. Woody Hayes – Miami (OH) (1949-1950), Ohio State (1951-1978)
Hayes famously ended his career by punching an opposing player in the throat after an interception during the fourth quarter of a bowl game is one of the great personalities of college football. Many of his greatest moments came against Michigan, Ohio State’s chief rival who Woody Hayes held a 16-11-1 record. When beating them by five touchdowns in 1961, he went for two after a touchdown. When asked why, he responded with “Because I couldn’t go for three.” In 30 years as a coach he won 3 National Championships (54,57,68) and 14 Conference titles. He did not however have the greatest consistency outside of a run from 1968-1977.

9. Glenn “Pop” Warner – Georgia (1895-1896), Cornell (1897-1898, 1904-1906), Carlisle Indian (1899-1903, 1907-1914), Pittsburgh (1915-1923), Stanford (1924-1932), Temple (1933- 1938)
Warner coached for over 45 years. He won 3 National Championships with Pitt (15,16,18) and 1 National Championship with Stanford (26). He compiled a career record of 319-106-32. Warner is tough to judge against many of the other coaches, because he coached in the games infancy. His best teams were the Carlisle Indian School (a school to assimilate the Red men) with Jim Thorpe. He brought about a lot of changes to football, including pads (a relatively good idea). He also invented the modern punt and the screen pass. He won 33 straight games over 4 years at Pitt. He also fathered the first youth leagues and that is why we still call it Pop Warner football.

10. Howard Jones – Syracuse (1908), Yale (1909), Ohio State (1910), Yale (1913), Iowa (1916-1923), Duke (1924), USC (1925-1940)
Jones is best known for his work at bringing USC to national prominence. He won 4 National Championships (28,31,32,39) and 5 Rose Bowls at USC. He also won a National Championship at Yale in 1909. He comprised a career record of 194-64-21. He managed winning seasons in 24 of his 29 seasons. I am interested to learn more about Howard Jones and why he only stayed one year at so many of his stops. Is he the Larry Brown of early college football?

11. Urban Meyer – Bowling Green (2001-2002), Utah (2003-2004), Florida (2005-2010)
Meyer’s short tenure is one of the most impressive in football history. He has two national championships (06,08) and 4 conference championships. His career record is an impressive 103-23. His worst season is 2010 with only a 7-5 mark and has gone to bowls and been ranked at the end pf every year since 2003. His short tenure marks him down, as his first 10 years are only more impressive than Bob Stoops and Mack Brown due to winning the second National Championship game. There is no guarantee that he is done coaching, and it will be interesting to see how his career progresses from here.

12. Nick Saban – Toledo (1990), Michigan State (1995-1999), LSU (2000-2004), Alabama (2007-Present)
Saban has compiled a 133-53-1 record across 15 seasons. He has never had a losing season. He is ranked lower than Meyer because of a lack of success at Michigan State prior to his great run starting in 2001. He has won 2 National Championships (01 LSU, 09 Alabama) and has gone to four BCS games. Obviously if Saban continues to win at Alabama he will climb the chart.

13. Barry Switzer – Oklahoma (1973-1988)
Switzer won 3 National Championships (74,75,85) and 12 Big Eight Championships in 17 seasons. He finished rank in the top 20 in 16 of 17 years. He never finished below second place in the conference. He held a career record of 157-29-4. He loses some points because he took over a great team and was forced to resign in 1988 after a multitude of NCAA investigations discovered a number of scandals including players selling cocaine. He perfected the wishbone offense. He also loses points for taking a loaded pistol to the airport in 2003. (As a lifetime Oklahoma State fan, I f***ing hate Barry Switzer.)

14. Walter Camp – Yale (1888-1892) Stanford (1893-1895)
Camp was the dominant coach of early American football earning a 67-2 record in 5 season winning 3 National Championships (1888,1891,1892). Camp is hard to rank much like Warner, because of the era. Camp is more important because he developed the scoring system (6 for touchdowns, pat, field goals) and the down system. He became the “father of American football” writing over 30 books on the subject and articles in numerous boys magazines. He is given credit for greatly increasing the popularity of the game.

15. Jock Sutherland – Lafayette (PA) (1919-1923), Pittsburgh (1924-1938)
Sutherland is credited with 1 Championship at Lafayette (21) and 4 at Pittsburgh (29,31,36,37) although in 1929 they lost the Rose Bowl. He finished his career with a record of 144-28-14. It is hard to rank him as an all-time best because he only had 2 undefeated seasons, but his consistency is hard to match. He also replaced “Pop” Warner at Pitt, so he didn’t really have to rebuild that program.