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

As a recruiter.......Pete Carroll.

Overall body of work......it is very close between Mack Brown and Meyer.

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.

Tressel. End of discussion.

^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.

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.

well not Urban Meyer

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

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

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

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.

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

Rich Rod

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.

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.

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

I'd go with Saban

Saban has my vote.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.