Who is the best active Division I coach?

• Leonardo

  

  1. Urban Meyer, Florida
  95-18
  5-1 in bowls
  2 National Championships
  2 Mountain West Championships
  2 SEC Championships
  3 SEC East Titles
  2004 Home Depot Coach of the Year Award winner
  2004 Eddie Robinson Coach of the Year Award winner
  
  2. Nick Saban, Alabama
  123-50-1
  4-6 in bowls
  1 National Championship
  3 SEC Championships
  5 SEC West Titles
  2 AP Coach of the Year Awards
  2003 Eddie Robinson Coach of the Year Award winner
  2003 Bear Bryant Coach of the Year Award winner
  2008 Home Depot Coach of the Year Award winner
  2008 Walter Camp Coach of the Year Award winner
  2008 Eddie Robinson Coach of the Year Award winner
  2008 Liberty Mutual Coach of the Year Award winner
  
  3. Pete Carroll, USC
  96-19
  6-2 in bowls
  6 BCS wins is most all-time
  2 National Championships
  7 Pac-10 Championships (all consecutively)
  2003 Home Depot Coach of the Year Award winner
  2003 AFCA Coach of the Year Award winner
  
  4. Jim Tressel, Ohio State
  228-78-2
  4-4 in bowls
  1 National Championship
  4 DI-AA National Championships
  6 Big Ten Championships
  2002 Bear Bryant Coach of the Year Award winner
  2002 Eddie Robinson Coach of the Year Award winner
  2002 Bobby Dodd Coach of the Year Award winner
  2002 AFCA Coach of the Year Award winner
  
  5. Mack Brown, Texas
  213-100-1 (128-26 at Texas)
  1 National Championship
  2 Big 12 Championships
  2005 Bear Bryant Coach of the Year Award winner
  2008 Bobby Dodd Coach of the Year Award winner
  
  6. Frank Beamer, Virginia Tech
  228-115-4
  7-9 in bowls
  3 Big East championships
  3 ACC championships
  1999 Bear Bryant Coach of the Year Award winner
  1999 Eddie Robinson Coach of the Year Award winner
  1999 Walter Camp Coach of the Year Award winner
  1999 Bobby Dodd Coach of the Year Award winner
  1999 AFCA Coach of the Year Award winner
  
  7. Bob Stoops, Oklahoma
  116-29
  4-6 in bowls
  1 National Championship
  6 Big 12 Championships
  2000 Home Depot Coach of the Year Award winner
  2000 Bear Bryant Coach of the Year Award winner
  2000 Eddie Robinson Coach of the Year Award winner
  2000 AFCA Coach of the Year Award winner
  2003 Walter Camp Coach of the Year Award winner
  2003 Bobby Dodd Coach of the Year Award winner
  
  8. Joe Paterno, Penn State
  393-129-3 (most wins in Division I)
  23-11-1 in bowls
  2 National Championships
  3 Big Ten Championships
  3x Big Ten Coach of the Year Award winner
  1968 AFCA Coach of the Year Award winner
  1972 Walter Camp Coach of the Year Award winner
  1978 Eddie Robinson Coach of the Year Award winner
  1978 AFCA Coach of the Year Award winner
  1981 Bobby Dodd Coach of the Year Award winner
  1982 Eddie Robinson Coach of the Year Award winner
  1982 AFCA Coach of the Year Award winner
  1986 Eddie Robinson Coach of the Year Award winner
  1986 Bear Bryant Coach of the Year Award winner (first ever given out)
  1986 AFCA Coach of the Year Award winner
  1994 Walter Camp Coach of the Year Award winner
  2005 Home Depot Coach of the Year Award winner
  2005 Walter Camp Coach of the Year Award winner
  2005 Bobby Dodd Coach of the Year Award winner
  2005 AFCA Coach of the Year Award winner
  
  9. Other
• wes_mantooth

  

  As a recruiter.......Pete Carroll.
  
  Overall body of work......it is very close between Mack Brown and Meyer.
• september63

  

  He may not be THE best. Ill give much credit to Frank Beamer. He is THE best special teams coach and he wins consistantly with a budget that might be half of most of the schools on that list.
• sleeper

  

  Tressel. End of discussion.
• sjmvsfscs08

  ^Idiot. End of discussion.
  
  I went with Nick Saban. I coach with a former player of his, who, when asked what Saban was like, responded with "The craziest mother fucker you'll ever meet. Probably the meanest too once you're in the program."
  
  Frank Beamer does a lot with less. If his teams didn't consistently falter at the end of the season, he'd have won some national championships. His teams have been good enough. Ferentz is another one who does a lot with less.
• lhslep134

  

  september63 wrote: He may not be THE best. Ill give much credit to Frank Beamer. He is THE best special teams coach and he wins consistantly with a budget that might be half of most of the schools on that list.

  Unfortunately that consistency also consists of losing 2-3 games they shouldn't lose. Talent wise they're always top 10-15, but they just don't beat the teams they should.
  
  I voted for Mack Brown, HE is the mark of consistency.
• 2quik4u

  

  well not Urban Meyer
• september63

  

  Nope. Since this discussion was active coaches, wont be him.
• pkebker

  well he is active until the bowl game, following the bowl game he is resigning.
• chs_redskins

  

  Jim Tressel is the best recruiter. What makes him a good coach is that he impacts kids lives.
• DaBrowns41

  Even as a Buckeye fan, I went with Saban. He's a very talented recruiter, and he's very passionate about his football team, and very caring about his kids.
• slide22

  Mack Brown. Great coach, and one of the classiest in the country.
• mallymal614

  Rich Rod
• redfalcon

  

  Had to side with stats and go with Urban Myer. Tressel is definitely top five in my opinion, but definitely not number 1.
  
  No way Frank Beamer should be on this list in my opinion. I wouldn't even put him in the top 10.
• Swamp Fox

  I went with the man I personally would like to have coaching my own kids, and that man is Coach Tressel. Not only has he been highly successful, he has not done it at the expense of his players. He hasn't used them as an opportunity to advance his own future but has used his sport as an opportunity for his players to advance theirs. i also notice that a whole lot of the awards listing the accomplishments of some of the top coaches happened all in a very short period, considering how long some of those coaches have been around, it would seem that coach Tressel has a consistent pattern over a long period of coaching excellence. The best way for me to say why I like Coach Tressel over the others is his class, dignity, professionalism, and as "buckeyekid1996" so appropriately commented..."What makes him a good coach is that he impacts kids' lives", and to take that idea a bit further, he does it in a very positive way. I am very thankful that Coach Tressel is in Columbus and I don't think there is a better guy for the job.
• thedynasty1998

  

  Saban and it was an easy choice to me. I'd say Mack Brown is a close second.
• steel_curtain

  I'd go with Saban
• tcby99

  Saban has my vote.
• trep14

  Now that Meyer is taking a leave of absence, it has to be Saban. Can't believe Tressel is tied for first with Saban. Tressel is definitely top 5, but there are just way too many flaws in his coaching style that have been exposed in head to head matchups with other guys on this list (just look at his head to head record against other guys on that list...not named Joe Paterno [the big 10 hasn't exactly been a hotbed of great coaches lately])
  
  My list (including Meyer) would go:
  
  1) Meyer
  1a) Saban
  3) Brown
  4) Carroll
  5) Tressel
  
  EDIT:
  
  I just noticed Tressel is tied for first and Carroll hasn't even gotten a vote, despite the fact that Carroll completely outcoached Tressel this year, leading a less-talented USC team to victory in the shoe and taking advantage of Tressel's many coaching blunders in that game . Wow there are some major Buckeye homers on this board (and I'm even a Buckeye fan). Laughable.
• sjmvsfscs08

  ccrunner609 wrote: Surprised you didnt go with Brian Kelly.......didnt he get an extra * after signing with ND?

  Brian Kelly is a relative unknown. He'll probably be somewhere in between Leahy and Willingham, in terms of success.
  
  One of these days you'll realize I'm not nearly as biased as you think.
• trep14

  Swamp Fox wrote: I went with the man I personally would like to have coaching my own kids, and that man is Coach Tressel. Not only has he been highly successful, he has not done it at the expense of his players. He hasn't used them as an opportunity to advance his own future but has used his sport as an opportunity for his players to advance theirs. i also notice that a whole lot of the awards listing the accomplishments of some of the top coaches happened all in a very short period, considering how long some of those coaches have been around, it would seem that coach Tressel has a consistent pattern over a long period of coaching excellence. The best way for me to say why I like Coach Tressel over the others is his class, dignity, professionalism, and as "buckeyekid1996" so appropriately commented..."What makes him a good coach is that he impacts kids' lives", and to take that idea a bit further, he does it in a very positive way. I am very thankful that Coach Tressel is in Columbus and I don't think there is a better guy for the job.

  I disagree with your approach to this question, but to each his own. College football is a big business period, these coaches are all out for themselves. Ohio State (as well as any other big program, for the record) has had a laundry list of criminal activity among players that has occurred under Tressel's watch that is comparable to other major programs. Tressel represents the University well (i.e. says the right things, doesn't say anything controversial (except for when he called the fans "miserable" for being upset with his performance against USC, but I digress), is polite, and seems like a genuinely good guy), but to say that he "impacts kids lives" more than any other coach, I disagree with. Also, he hasn't used his kids to advance his own future because Ohio State is one of the top jobs in college football, anything else is a lateral move. The most he could do is dabble in the NFL for a bit, which he clearly has no interest in doing. I'm just saying, it wasn't like when Ohio State came knocking when Tressel was at Youngstown State, he spurned OSU because of the program he had built at YSU and didnt' want to leave his players there.
• jordo212000

  

  Yeah I can't believe the lack of votes that Carroll has received. The voting shows that some of you guys hate USC so much you are forgetting the past 10 yrs. Not saying Carroll is the best, but he has to be better than Tress. He is 2-0 against Tressel and has won 2 national championships and arguably the most successful college program of the past decade
• NNN

  

  Paul Johnson at Georgia Tech.
  
  As an OC, he won at Hawaii running the option. At Georgia Southern, he won national championships. At Navy, he built one of the worst programs of the last 50 years into consistent bowl teams. And in two years at Georgia Tech, he's got an ACC championship in spite of having mismatched personnel to the base system.
• Little Danny

  

  jordo212000 wrote: Yeah I can't believe the lack of votes that Carroll has received. The voting shows that some of you guys hate USC so much you are forgetting the past 10 yrs. Not saying Carroll is the best, but he has to be better than Tress. He is 2-0 against Tressel and has won 2 national championships and arguably the most successful college program of the past decade

  I've always wondered why people in Ohio hate the man so much. Whenever you watch a USC game, it is obvious the man enjoys his job and is well liked by his players. You never see him out there searching for another job (either pro or college) to leverage higher contracts, he doesn't talk too much smack about other teams and his ego is no bigger than half the coaches in college football. I was at a family gathering while the USC/BC game was on and a couple of the relatives in the room who are OSU fans were talking about him as if he were Osama Bin Ladin.
  
  I guess my point is there are a lot more bigger arseclowns out there in CFB.