CBS Sports presents the Top 25 Power 5 Head Coaches

Fredge

Younger than Coit
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CPJ is in there....this one is certainly less biased and more believable than the Charleston newspaper ranking.

Link
 

gth874t

Jolly Good Fellow
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Good stuff, thanks for posting.

A few gripes (because everyone's a critic, amirite?):

  • How Dan Mullen is in this list baffles me. No reason to be ahead of CPJ, at a minimum (0-3 vs CPJ)
  • Cutcliffe in the top 20 is also baffling. Sure, the guy is a solid coach, but just because you elevate a program from basement-dweller to a semblence of relevance doesn't make you a great coach. Also a losing record vs CPJ.

Other things: pleasantly surprised to see Bill Snyder in the top 10, this is a guy who's done everything right and has run a clean program at Kansas State. The top 10 as a whole is a robust group; I could see reasons to swap a few but the group as a whole is right, IMO.

All in all, light years better than the Charleston one posted a few weeks back.
 

CornerBlitz

To be the man you have to beat the man
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Good stuff, thanks for posting.

A few gripes (because everyone's a critic, amirite?):

  • How Dan Mullen is in this list baffles me. No reason to be ahead of CPJ, at a minimum (0-3 vs CPJ)
  • Cutcliffe in the top 20 is also baffling. Sure, the guy is a solid coach, but just because you elevate a program from basement-dweller to a semblence of relevance doesn't make you a great coach. Also a losing record vs CPJ.

Other things: pleasantly surprised to see Bill Snyder in the top 10, this is a guy who's done everything right and has run a clean program at Kansas State. The top 10 as a whole is a robust group; I could see reasons to swap a few but the group as a whole is right, IMO.

All in all, light years better than the Charleston one posted a few weeks back.

Great point about Snyder. He kicked or butt a few years ago....yes he did.
 

ThisIsAtlanta

Break In Case Of Emergency
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Kelly, dantonio, Patterson all have bad seasons and drop in the rankings. Mullen has a bad season and rises ten spots. Gus malzahn hasn't had a good season since Cam Newton, but yeah top 20. McElwain is out there assaulting mako sharks and winning division titles and can't get ahead of these two?

Bleh. Gratz to them for recognizing our coaches greatness but this ranking still has serious problems.
 

gth874t

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Kelly, dantonio, Patterson all have bad seasons and drop in the rankings. Mullen has a bad season and rises ten spots. Gus malzahn hasn't had a good season since Cam Newton, but yeah top 20. McElwain is out there assaulting mako sharks and winning division titles and can't get ahead of these two?

Bleh. Gratz to them for recognizing our coaches greatness but this ranking still has serious problems.
ESS EEE SEE BAY BEE
 

beej67

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Cuttcliffe, Mullen, and Franklin are all ridiculous, but it's hard to find too much gripe in their top 15.
 

johncu

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Cuttcliffe, Mullen, and Franklin are all ridiculous, but it's hard to find too much gripe in their top 15.
At least Cutcliffe won his division. Mullen's claim to fame is getting overrated early in the season due to playing a series of vastly overhyped SEC teams to start the year. I'm kind of okay with Franklin being up there after this year, although I don't think he belongs above CPJ by any means.
 

Womenandcookies

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Cuttcliffe, Mullen, and Franklin are all ridiculous, but it's hard to find too much gripe in their top 15.
Agree completely on Mullen. I'd probably have Cutcliffe in the "others receiving votes" category. He's a really good coach and I'd have him somewhere in the 20's.

Disagree completely on Franklin. Vandy only had two 2 games in '09 and '10. Franklin took 2 years to get them to 9 wins back to back. This was after the ridiculous season Vandy had where Bobby Johnson left too late for them to get a new coach and they were essentially in limbo for a year. He then took three seasons to get Penn State back on track to Big 10 top team after the whole country essentially hated them. The start of this past season was rough, but by the end of the year, Penn State was playing as well as anyone in the country. He won the Big 10, and barely lost the Rose Bowl. Guys a creep with the head coach in waiting stuff at Maryland and the recruiting stuff at Vandy, but he wins games.
 

jacket67

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It's hard to argue against Dabo considering the success he has had at Clemson, but I still believe he would struggle at a program that lacked all the financial and recruiting advantages that Clemson provides him. It would be interesting to see what kind of success he would have at Wake Forest or Northwestern, or GT for that matter.
 

GEETEELEE

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It's hard to argue against Dabo considering the success he has had at Clemson, but I still believe he would struggle at a program that lacked all the financial and recruiting advantages that Clemson provides him. It would be interesting to see what kind of success he would have at Wake Forest or Northwestern, or GT for that matter.
Meh. That's part of it. Look at the host of also-rans (like UGA) who have similar recruiting advantages as Clemson. Swinney definitely deserves it.
 

WracerX

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The list fails in that there are definitely different things that can make a coach 'great'. Some guys can build a good foundation from nothing (Cut/Franklin) but that doesn't mean they can take a good team and make it great. Some guys can take a good team and make it great, for a while. I'd put Gus M in that category. Petrino is sort of in this block as well. But those guys can't sustain a program.
 

Allen Koholic

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I think Dan Mullen is a good football coach, but I don't think his team is any good. I don't like James Franklin at all.
 

KG01

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Other things: pleasantly surprised to see Bill Snyder in the top 10, this is a guy who's done everything right and has run a clean program at Kansas State. The top 10 as a whole is a robust group; I could see reasons to swap a few but the group as a whole is right, IMO.

All in all, light years better than the Charleston one posted a few weeks back.
I generally agree with you but I'm squinting my eyes a little bit at the bolded. Snyder is a heavy JUCO guy so, although I give him a lot of credit for what he's done, I put him in that UTA/BYU class. I mean, yeah they're winning but half the roster is like 35 years old.

I dunno. I guess I tend to have more a preference for guys doing it with 18-22 yr'olds?

What are the odds @BeeStorm has used that underlined phrase a time or two in "Conyers"? Oh c'mon, you chuckled.
 

grantfield82

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Lots of issues with the list up and down the board. Cutcliff is not a better coach than CPJ. Same academic hurdles and has beaten CPJ twice in 9 tries. Fitzgerald also way overranked for mediocre to poor results. CPJ has won the conference, played for it 3 times and won the OB. The fact that he has an .500 record against number 3 on the list (agree that is legit) with the difference in academic restrictions is enough to put him higher but then you factor in he is 3-2 vs FSU and he's just criminally low on the list. Petrino? Really? Paul is the best coach in the confrence pound for pound and it's really not even close when you look at what he's done at a school as tough as Tech. Dabo is on top right this second but I'd be surprised if Jimbo doesn't gain some ground now that Watson(Vince Young clone) is gone.

I would argue that several coaches that didn't make the list should be on it as well. Their methodology is too all over the place to justify some and not others
 
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18in32

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Meh. That's part of it. Look at the host of also-rans (like UGA) who have similar recruiting advantages as Clemson. Swinney definitely deserves it.
+1
When a coach wins at Texas or USC or ND or Clemson or wherever, we give him no credit bc of the institutional advantages.

But those schools have plenty of mediocre years when the wrong coach is hired. Charlie Strong and Lane Kiffin and Charlie Weiss and Tommy Bowden all say Hi.

To build a consistent championship team means a combo of institutional support, the right coaching, and lightning in a bottle.
 

samsgt02

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Petrino is good, CPJ is better. CPJ would never lose to this year's Kentucky with a Hiesman QB.

Kelly was 4-8 at Notre Dame! Not Tech, Notre Dame.

Dan Mullen, you know better.

David Cutcliffe is hiding athletes in bull öööö majors like that rat-faced basketball coach, but will continue to have a losing record to CPJ.

CPJ should probably be where Pat Fitzgerald is. I'd still say he's been more impressive than him. At a factory school those two would probably run the table.
 
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