Best College Football Coach Ever?

• tcby99

  Bear Bryant?
• Mooney44Cards

  

  Frank Leahy
• steel_curtain

  Definitly Leahy.
• rock_knutne

  Mooney44Cards wrote: Frank Leahy

  This
• 3reppom

  

  Paul Bryant or Bud Wilkinson
• vball10set

  Larry Kehres--Mt. Union College
• Benny The Jet

  

  Just throwin another name out there...Knute?
• vball10set

  ^^^LOL-oh yeah--he wasn't too shabby either
• sjmvsfscs08

  This is rather impossible to determine, there are numerous people that have had a tremendous influence and success on the game. While Rockne revolutionized the forward pass and won a whopping 88.1% of his games (105-12-5), I wouldn't call him the best coach ever, and while Paterno has won the most games, I wouldn't say he's the best ever either.
  
  Some names I'd throw out there:
  
  Frank Leahy, Boston College/Notre Dame
  
  He only coached thirteen season, two with Boston College and eleven with Notre Dame. He went 107-13-9 throughout his career. That's an average of 8.2-1-.7 every season. Rather remarkable considering he played fantastic Army and Navy teams. Oh yeah, he won four national championships and had another four undefeated seasons that didn't result in championships. Truly a legend.
  
  Tom Osborne, Nebraksa
  
  He gets my vote for the best coach ever. If success was measured by consistency, he'd take the cake. His teams never won less than nine games in a season. He won thirteen conference championships and three national championship in his 25-year career. His lowest finish ever, to end a season, was 24. That's just remarkable. He finished 255–49–3, not too shabby.
  
  Paul "Bear" Bryant, Maryland/Kentucky/Texas A&M/Alabama
  
  In 38 seasons he was 323–85–17. He won fifteen conference championships, and, depending on who you ask, won seven national championships. Whereas Frank Leahy dominated the 1940's and Tom Osbourne dominated the 1990's , Bear Bryant the 1970's. He won five AP national champions, has anyone won more? However, he never beat Notre Dame.
• fan_from_texas

  Osborne is the name that comes to mind for me. His teams were consistently challenging for national titles, year after year. It's like taking what Tressel has done in the past decade with tOSU, and then expanding it out another 15 years. Simply amazing.
• rock_knutne

  I forgot about Osbourne. I agree, he may be tops of the list, the guy had an incredible record at Nebraska.
• steel_curtain

  Bowden was pretty ridiculous through the 90's.
• Al Bundy

  steel_curtain wrote: Bowden was pretty ridiculous through the 90's.

  One amazing thing with Bowden is that he built that program from nothing into a one of the best in the nation. Most of the other coaches had a tradition to build upon. You can't go wrong with any of the guys mentioned on this post. It is hard to pick the best because certain people fit in better at certain places in certain times.
• Crimson_Streak

  Larry Kehres what he has done at mount union is unbelievable
• mallymal614

  WOODY!!!!!!!!!
• Tiernan

  Eddie Robinson - go ahead look it up.
• whompascat

  joe pa.
• Sykotyk

  

  How can nobody say Walter Camp? He created most of the rules of the game.
  
  Sykotyk
• NNN

  

  Throw John Gagliardi (St. John's in Minnesota) and Howard Schnellenberger into the discussion.
• Al Capone

  Whoever coached Forrest Gump.
• BigAppleBuckeye

  

  Can't believe it took 16 posts for the first Woody vote!!! And no love for Knute Rockne? I am the farthest thing from a Notre Dame fan, but Rockne has to at least be in the conversation. I figured Joe Pa would get some love as well, just cause the man crapped himself, it doesn't mean he hasn't been a fantastic coach!
• steel_curtain

  I love Knute Rockne, but what Leahy did was nothing short of amazing.
• stevejack

  Hi Al Copan,
  Here David from USA. I was the number one player in my collage and there was Definitly Leahy was our coach.... So intelligent !!
  Have a nice day
• dwccrew

  

  I'll second Osbourne. Bear Bryant and Leahy are close behind. I would say Woody is top 5-10 all-time, but those 3 get the top spots IMO.