Transcription
[Music] We're back here on CBS Sports Network. And every year before the start of the college football season, CBS Sports and 247 Sports experts release their rankings for every Power Four coach from 1 to 68. As the season approaches and the results are in, Tom Fernelli and Chip Patterson are with us to work through all these rankings. I'm Jordan Giorgio for the next hour here on CBS Sports Network. Gentlemen, it's so great to see you.
First, before we get into these rankings, just set the scene, set the stage for us here because there's not like any set criteria for the panel to cast their vote, Chip. So, tell us before we get into this, how you approached this list and assessed who is the best head coach in college football.
Uh, one, you've got to have some hardware. That is a dealbreaker for me. Coaches with national championships, you rock it to the very top of the list. Conference championships also awarded, but there is a little bit of an inexact science, you know, some chipolytics that I have to apply when we think about, you know, what you're doing at a school with a certain amount of resources versus what you're doing at a school with a different level of resources, expectations, and the like. So, you mix it all together for a delicious brew that is a coach rankings ballot. Yeah, for me, it's a lot of the same stuff as Chip. And the other difference is on the other end of the ballot. If you haven't coached a game at the college football level, even if your name is Bill Belichick and you've got like a thousand Super Bowl rings, you're going to the bottom of my ballot. And I think that's just how I approach it at the bottom, too. So, it's the middle area where things get really complicated and very vibesy.
Yeah, very vibesy. Uh, that is part of the criteria for sure. Let's get into it, then. And we begin with number 25. This was a surprise to me when I saw it in the rundown because after a disastrous two and 10 finish to last season, FSU's Mike Norvell still cracks the top 25. Tom, are you surprised Norvell still falls inside the top 25 despite last season's result?
No, because he was in the top 10 last year. I'm not surprised at all that he took a tumble. I thought he would be closer to 20, so I was somewhat surprised that he was at 25, but it was a very wide range of votes. He was as high as 12 on one ballot and he was as low as 41 on another. So, you've seen that kind of varying opinion of him. But I think that when it comes to figuring out where he stands, yes, last year was an absolute disaster in Tallahassee. But he also went undefeated and won the ACC in the year prior and should have been in the college football playoff. And had Florida State been put into the playoff in 2023, perhaps this 25 might not seem a little low or a little high, it might feel a little low.
Yeah, most definitely. What a turn of events for Norvell. Norvell, who was in the top 10, as you mentioned, last year of our rankings, fell at number eight after that undefeated regular season. We'll say a nice prayer together, uh, that the Miami Seminoles open with a W against Bama. Let's get to 24 now here, Chip, where we find a head coach that's slowly starting to lead a team that no SEC school wants to see on their schedule, and that's Missouri's Eli Drinkwitz.
Yeah, Eli Drinkwitz is doing this in two levels. Number one, uh, he has been recruiting at a very high level at Missouri. He has been aggressive on the recruiting trail, and he is always willing to dip into the transfer portal to be able to address positions of need. You know, we've seen them be able to reach the New Year Six bowl games. We've seen them be competitive against some of the best, uh, teams in that conference. But Jordan, I'll also say there's a lot of room for movement up for me. You know, he's checking in at 24 in the consensus, but we have yet to see those really, really high-end wins be stacked year after year after year. The win count is absolutely worth top 25 consideration, but I wonder if Missouri fans are looking at Eli Drinkwitz, they're looking for that win against Georgia, right? They're looking for the wins against the very best teams in the SEC. Eli Drinkwitz, high floor in the coach rankings in my opinion. A lot of room to move up.
Most definitely. And we'll see what is in store for Drinkwitz and company as things in Columbia have really been on the up and up. But Tom, 23 here, we have a newcomer in Illinois's Brett Bielema.
Yeah, and this is, I think, a deserved placing for him. And shock of all shocks, as the Illinois homer here, I was not the high voter on Brett Bielema. I had him at 16, but it's Mr. Patterson over there who had him as high as number 12 on his ballot. And I think that it's understandable because if you look at the situation, Illinois is coming off its first 10-win season in over a quarter century. We're talking about this team as a possible at-large candidate for the college football playoff. And this is still Illinois football we're talking about. So for Brett Bielema to have the program where the Illini are in these conversations is a testament to the job he's been able to do. He was brought in with the hopes of turning this program into a sustained winner, if not a team competing for national titles, a team that could get to bowl games and make noise in the Big Ten on an annual basis. And so far, he's doing exactly that. And 2025 might be his best season there yet. And it's that ability to, uh, you know, be renewed as a head coach, to not rest on those Big Ten titles that you won 15 years ago in the modern NIL era, you know, in the transfer portal era here, is this coach who could have let the game pass him by, but instead, he continues to get even better. That kind of stuff when it comes to these kind of ballots really makes a big difference to me.
Yeah. I guess this is what happens when you lead Illinois to its first 10-win season, as you mentioned, in 23 years. Tom. At 22, we find SMU's Rhett Lashlee. And there had to be a few factors here, Chip, that ultimately played into him landing here. Tell us more.
Yeah, SMU making the college football playoff. SMU going 8-0 in conference play in its first year in the ACC. SMU's existence in the American Athletic Conference, without trying to throw too much shade here, basically allowed them to sleepwalk to eight wins a season. And so it wasn't until they were able to make that jump to the ACC that you really started to think like, okay, this isn't just a program that can take advantage of having more resources than the competition. Because while SMU does have a lot of resources and a lot of investment, especially compared to the size of the school, when you talk about the tip-top of the ACC, you know, they are among peers in a way that they weren't in the AAC. Rhett Lashlee in these rankings and on my ballot as well, is buying some stock early because I think that this is something where he doesn't have a long track record like other coaches in this range, but in the short track record he has, it has been a lot of success.
Yeah. And it's crazy how much you'll jump after you lead your team to the playoff when nobody expected you to. Um, however, that just means that the expectations are raised a little bit for this upcoming season. Speaking of doing things no one really expected and exceeding expectations, at 21, Tom, is Indiana's Curt Cignetti. But is this too low of a ranking here?
I think it's a little lower than you might have expected and probably could have been because there was one voter who had him at 51, which dragged him down compared to where everybody else had him on their ballots. But I don't think it's say it's that low compared to where he should be because, listen, on the one hand, what happened at Indiana last year was incredible. Nobody saw it coming, although Curt Cignetti would tell you he saw it coming. In fact, he said he was going to do it and he went out there and did it, which is very impressive, and it's why I had him where I had him on my ballot. But I think we need to see an encore. But if you look at his entire resume, it's not like Indiana was the first place he's had success. James Madison was spectacular under Cignetti when he ran that program. At the FCS level, he was winning. The man has won everywhere he's gone. And now he's got Indiana considered a winner, a team that made the college football playoff. So I think I have him, I had him at 17 on my ballot. He's a top 20 coach to me based off of that, but I don't think 21 is too out of line with that.
All right. But looking for an encore in 2025. Moving along here to 20 is Miami's Mario Cristobal. Why does this ranking feel right here, Chip?
It feels like it could be a lot higher when you consider conference championships won at Oregon, uh, getting Miami to a 10-win season this past year. But unfortunately, this is a very subjective process. And you're going to be thinking about how you wish Mario Cristobal had just kneeled the ball against Georgia Tech. You're going to be thinking about some of these games that Miami has had over the last couple of seasons where, you know, the Hurricanes have had more talent than the opposition, but for one reason or another, they just haven't been able to seal the deal. He recruits about as hard as any coach in the entire country, and the results are there with multiple top recruiting classes in the ACC. The talent level, as I mentioned earlier, is absolutely through the roof. He did at Oregon have a top five finish in multiple conference titles. I mean, the Mario recruits at a level that he should be higher. We're just waiting for that thing that we talked about at the top of the hour, Jordan, the trophies. When the trophies start to come, then I think we'll see him talked about closer to being a top 10 coach.
If he hadn't knelt against Georgia Tech last year, I bet you he's 15 in our rankings. I think that really last year, yeah, they were. He was 35th last year. He climbed to 20th this year. Miami had a very good season. They came up short. They did not get to the college football playoff, but Cam Ward was spectacular. He finished second in the Heisman. And I think, as you mentioned, Chip, Mario throughout his career has recruited at an insane level. He has very talented rosters. It's just the inability to break through and get to that elite level is what's dogging him right now. But if you look at Miami going into 2025, this might finally be the year it happens. And if he does, when you put consider all the package of the recruiting and then finally having actual success, I wouldn't be shocked if he's close to the top 10 next year.
Got to have some hardware, gentlemen. Sit tight. Get comfortable because we have much more to come on the other side. Before we go to break, here's a look and a recap at picks 25 through 20. Mike Norvell, a lot of pressure on the Seminoles after going 2 and 10 this season. Curt Cignetti, Tom wants to see an encore of what he was able to do last year. And then Mario Cristobal, let's see if he is able to get some hardware in 2025. More from us when we return. We continue to work through our top 25 college football coaching rankings. Who made it inside the top 20? And do they deserve to be there? We tell you next.
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We're back here on CBS Sports Network at HQ. It's HQ Spotlight. I'm Jordan Giorgio, and Tom Fernelli and Chip Patterson are with us as we continue to go through our top 25 college football coaches entering this upcoming season. And guys, we pick things back up at 19, where Tom, we find a familiar name who's kind of always hovering around the top 20, and that's Iowa's Kirk Ferentz.
Yeah, I think when it comes to voting or ranking Kirk Ferentz, you it's a very large resume that you have to consider. He's been at Iowa seemingly forever at this point. And while the style of play at Iowa not always the most exciting. In fact, you know, I there's more time spent on talking about how points Iowa doesn't score as many as they do, and we've been trying to fix that offense for seemingly 15 years running now. The fact of the matter is, whether you think it's fun to watch or not, they win a lot of football games. They've also taken a lot of players who were three stars and maybe not really, you know, passed over as recruits and have developed them into NFL players. You can't watch an NFL game on Sunday without seeing multiple Hawkeyes on the field, it seems like every single week. So I think when you look at all that, you look at the wins overall, you look at just the longevity and the consistency of his success in Iowa City with that program, he's a top 20 coach for sure. But over the last few years, we've seen that ranking slowly and slowly and slowly starting to slide down. So it'd be nice to see if Iowa can get another 10-win season to bump him back up a little bit.
It would be nice to see. Let's get to one of my favorite names on this list. At 18 is Arizona State's Kenny Dillingham. I think Chip, that you could throw out some arguments, he could be higher on this list for the turnaround he's pulled off at this program. He, if he continues to stack success, there is no doubt he is on a rocket ship right now. The only thing holding back Kenny Dillingham is the fact that he has only been a head coach for two years. The fact that he is only 35 years old, and we've got him next to Kirk Ferentz. I mean, come on. You want to talk about oil and water in these rankings? We've got a lot to deal with. But consider what Kenny Dillingham did because this Arizona State team was picked dead last, 16th in the Big 12 preseason media poll. Goes up, ends up winning the damn league, getting into the playoff, giving Texas all that they can handle in the quarterfinals, top 10 finish. And he comes into this season, no, no, no, not picked at the bottom of the conference, but expected to compete once again for a conference title and a spot in the college football playoffs. So for Kenny Dillingham, that now he is one of our biggest movers up in these rankings because after last year, he was just a second-year coach with a three and nine record. Now, after those 11 wins, uh, he is absolutely one of the biggest stars on the rise in this industry.
Yeah. And who won the Big 12 in his first year in the league? It's hard to root against him. Let's get to the 17th ranked head coach in college football, and that's Jeff Brohm, who here, um, Tom, make this one make sense for us.
I mean, Jeff Brohm is just a high floor coach. When it comes down to it, you know exactly what you're going to get if he's running your program. It's going to be an offense that is competent and capable of putting points on the board. And that's exactly what he's done at Louisville. And it's what he did at Purdue. And I think another way to kind of show you how good of a coach and a head of a program that Brohm is, look at what he did at Purdue. He was winning nine games, he was winning eight games, he was winning seven games. He had turned that program into a consistent winner, going to bowls year in and year out. The minute he left West Lafayette, that program collapsed. The floor completely fell out from underneath them. Purdue was the worst Power Four team in the country last year. Meanwhile, Brohm goes to Louisville, and guess what? They're winning a whole lot of games. They're one of the better teams in the ACC, and every single year it just feels like, you know, they're going to score points. And if they have a good defense, too, well then they're going to compete for conference titles. And I think Louisville is a program with a much higher ceiling than Purdue has. And I think it's only a matter of time before Jeff Brohm has them in the college football playoff.
All right, we'll leave it there. At 16, we find, uh, Tennessee's Josh Heupel. The Vols, Chip, made the playoffs, of course, last year, 37 and 15 in four seasons under Heupel. However, some questions after the departure of their quarterback, Nico Iamaleava. Is this the right ranking for Heupel?
I think this is perfect because I think Josh Heupel is your classic Power Conference above-average coach. He has won throughout his career, 74% of his games. In seven seasons as a head coach, he's finished in the top 25 five times. He is lacking for that big conference championship, but he is not lacking for big wins, like we saw with that Alabama victory or anytime throughout these last couple of runs in 2022 and 2024. So, I do think that for him, this is a, not an overrated or underrated, this is a rightly rated spot for an above-average Power Conference coach, an above-average SEC coach. You look at his peers, you know, there's another tier that he can get to, but for what he's done so far, I think this is perfect.
Yeah, losing Nico this offseason is a curveball that I think nobody really truly saw coming. But overall, like, let's try to remember what Tennessee was before Josh Heupel showed up in Knoxville. It was a running joke among college football media and fans. In fact, just with the coaches that they were hired, the incompetence that they had on Saturdays in the field, the fact that they couldn't beat any of their rivals any single season. They were getting destroyed every single year. And Heupel's brought back respectability to the program. So much so that Tennessee was in the college football playoff last year. It has become one of the better programs in the SEC again. This is a team that, you know, 27 years ago won a national title, the very first champion of the BCS era. So Heupel's been able to bring it back to that kind of level where we look at this program as one that year in and year out is a team to be taken seriously.
Yeah. Uh, you bring up a good point. From a joke to relevant again. Heupel's ranking seems just right. Let's get to a name though who fell a bit in the rankings, and that's Kansas's Lance Leipold. Here, he comes in at 15. Why is that considering Kansas should be a team that is in the hunt for the Big 12 title this season, Tom?
I think that if you try to, you know, you look at Lance Leipold's entire resume, last year was a disappointment, but it was also dealing with injuries at quarterback with Jalen Daniels that they had a very difficult time overcoming. But if you look at the back half of the season, after a slow start, Kansas was playing well to finish the year. And you look at Leipold's history as a coach, this is a man who routinely goes to schools in which nobody thinks they have any business of winning football games, and then he starts winning football games. At UW-Whitewater in Division 3, he won multiple national titles. He goes to Buffalo, an outpost in the MAC, and turns Buffalo into an immediate MAC contender. He shows up at Kansas, the one program many have considered the most difficult Power League program to win at, and he starts winning games. So, yes, last year overall, disappointment compared to the expectations going into the season, but Kansas is still having expectations to begin with. That is a huge step forward from where they used to be. They've tried it with Les Miles, they've tried it with Charlie Weis, and all these big names who just couldn't get the job done. Lance Leipold's getting the job done and going into the Big 12 this year, you have to look at them as a team that can win that league.
We will. We will. But it's interesting, Chip, that at 14, we'll find Leipold's in-state rival, Kansas State's Chris Klieman. Um, why would Klieman be ahead of Leipold here after the Wildcats weren't in the conference title hunt as expected, even with a nine-win season?
Yeah, I think it would be the fact that Kansas missed the postseason altogether and had a really, really rough start before they finally got things going late. For Chris Klieman, I think it's a fascinating resume to discuss and debate and to pull back the curtain here. This was my biggest regret once my ballot was in and I saw my ballot compared to the consensus because I was one of the low, I was the low man on Chris Klieman, and I didn't feel good about it because I don't feel strongly about disliking Chris Klieman. But let me tell you what stood out to me. What stood out to me is that in six years of Big 12 play, he has just 31 conference wins. And that while he does have a conference championship in 2022, on average across his entire tenure with the Wildcats, it is a barely above .500 in conference play program. To me, when we talk about a top 15 head coach, I would like to see a little bit more dominance within your own conference. Kansas State has a couple of interesting non-conference games year-to-year, but judging them against their peers, I think they are much closer to the middle than they are to the top. And for that reason, I I think I found myself downgrading Chris Klieman even after a nine-win season.
All right, we appreciate the honesty. Last ranking before the break is 13, where we find Lincoln Riley. Pretty high ranking for him with all things considered, Tom. It feels like one more mediocre season is all that can really be tolerated before he really falls in these rankings.
Yeah, I think Lincoln's on the precipice of a huge drop if USC has another kind of seven and five or eight and four season because two years ago he was number four. Then he last year he dropped to 10. This year now he's dropping to 13 after two lackluster seasons with the Trojans. And on the one hand, you have to point out that while he was at Oklahoma, in five seasons, he went to the college football playoff four times. And there are not many coaches in the country who can say they've been to the college football playoff four times. On the other side of that coin, he hasn't been there since 2020. And when he left Oklahoma to go to USC, it was to restore that program to its glory. And he came close in the first season. They probably end up winning the Pac-12 if Caleb Williams does not pull his hamstring in the Pac-12 championship game. And if that happens and they go to the playoff, we're probably looking at things a lot differently than we are right now. But the fact of the matter is that it did happen. And since then, he still had Caleb Williams the next year, and they barely won any games. So, as you have one of the best quarterbacks in the country, the guy who goes number one in the draft, you should probably win more often.
Yeah. At the end of the day, it comes down to the facts and the reality of the situation there at USC. All right, gentlemen. Sit tight. Let's show you one more look at our top college football coaches entering the season. In the rankings 19 through 13 here. Kenny Dillingham comes in at 18. As Chip said, he's on a rocket ship right now. We have some high expectations for him entering 2025. Josh Heupel, we'll see what he's able to do after the departure of Nico Iamaleava, and Lincoln Riley there at 13. Quick break for us, but when we return, the real fun begins as we get into the top 10 of our college football leaders heading into next season. We show you the list next.
We're back here on CBS Sports Network. It's HQ Spotlight. I'm Jordan Giorgio. Tom Fernelli and Chip Patterson are with us as we continue to go through our top 25 college football coaches entering this season. The real fun is starting as we get closer and closer to the top 10, gentlemen. Let's begin with 12 here, where Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin falls. Does this feel right to you, Chip, though? Because I think you can maybe argue a little lower of a ranking, as some feel last season was a bit of a letdown.
Sure. I mean, the instant reaction is going to be disappointment, but still, what he is putting together is, uh, one of the most impressive resumes of any head coach in Ole Miss history. Uh, I think that's where you look at the 10-win season in '21, double-digit wins in '23 and '24. I mean, this stretch of football right now is one of the most successful four or five-year stretches that the program has seen. And and that's something where now Lane Kiffin gets to put that success with what we all acknowledge as some pretty sharp coaching chops. I mean, that's why Nick Saban wants you to be the offensive coordinator. That's why you got all these jobs at such a young age early on in your career. It is without a doubt an up and down kind of career if you take everything USC, Tennessee, NFL into consideration. But I think that if you even isolate what he's doing at Ole Miss, not a traditional power in the SEC, having the kind of success that they've had, that it is worth celebrating in these types of rankings. And he moves up two spots from our rankings from last year.
Kyle Whittingham comes in at 11, which tells me this Utah team should be back in the Big 12 hunt this year despite coming off a really tough 2024 campaign, Tom.
Yeah, Whittingham falls out of our top 10 this year, but if you look at the votes, eight of our voters had him higher, 13 or higher. It was two voters who had him outside of the top 25 altogether. That kind of tanked his overall ranking. And I think maybe they're just upset with him because he refused to tell us if his quarterbacks were hurt all last season when we knew they were hurt. He just wouldn't come out and say it, and it drove us nuts. But I think if you look at the entire, you know, the entire resume of Kyle Whittingham, let's remember he replaced Urban Meyer at Utah over 20 years ago. That's how long he has been with that program, and they have been one of the most consistent programs in the country, and he's done it now through three different conferences. They were in the Mountain West when he took over. He helped navigate the change to the Pac-12, where they had a slow start, but then they became one of the better programs in the Pac-12. And last year, going into the Big 12, they had a slow start. And guess what? He's probably going to navigate them to being one of the best teams in the Big 12 because he's a good coach. He's consistent. He has a coaching staff that has also been consistent. And he knows what it takes to win. He's willing to recruit and develop. And he's also willing to use the transfer portal when he sees a flaw in his roster. And I think you put all that together, and I think yes, Utah's going to be a good team in the Big 12 this year. And Kyle Whittingham probably going to be back up in our top 10 next year.
Yeah. And drops out of the top 10 this year, but still always lurking. Moving on to the top 10, and at number 10 on our top college coaches list is a name that really silenced a lot of doubters last year when the Cyclones went 11 and three and nearly reached the playoff, and that's Matt Campbell, Chip.
Yeah, Jordan, everybody was ready to count Matt Campbell out like he was, you know, the the taste of the town a couple years ago, but missed his opportunity. Oh, no, no, no. Matt Campbell had a curveball for you. Loved the run that they went on last year. Great to finish back in the top 15 once again, showing that he's not just a 2020 merchant taking advantage of that strange COVID season. How about this? Matt Campbell is the winningest coach in Iowa State football history, period. And he's only been there since 2016. That shows you exactly what we're dealing with in terms of Iowa State football history and the resources and the tradition, and also just how good Matt Campbell is at this head coaching thing. He has never been able to overwhelm the opponent with talent. He has always needed a group that is put together, well-evaluated, well-coached, does it the right way, doesn't make those mistakes. And for that reason, we give a credit to the head coach. There are a lot of coaches, as we've said in this portion of the rankings, you're either doing well at the big blue bloods or you are really impressing us with what you were able to do at a non-blue blood. Matt Campbell continues to be one of the most impressive countries, one of the most impressive coaches in the latter division. So, uh, rightly rated and very appropriate here at number 10.
Let's go ahead and get inside the top 10 now. At nine, we see Kalen DeBoer, who of course, no secret, was dealt a very tough card, taking over a championship program for Nick Saban, where anything less than a national title is considered a failure. Definitely some rough moments for the Tide in DeBoer last year. Despite that, he only falls two spots from last year, the voters cutting him some slack here, Tom.
I Yeah, maybe a little, but I think mostly it's just that he's won everywhere he's gone. Like going back to Fresno State and then to Washington, getting that program to the national title game is not something that should be overlooked, particularly when you remember he was doing that in the same Pac-12 of Dan Lanning's Oregon Ducks, and he was able to beat them twice that season to get him to that game, and then he beat Texas in the semifinals. So you go to Alabama, and yes, nobody really wants to be the guy who has to replace the greatest college football coach in the history of the sport like Nick Saban. But while 9 and 3 was not exactly up to par for what Alabama typically expects, and there was the Vanderbilt loss, which is not something Alabama ever expects, you still look at the bigger picture and you think, you know what, Kalen DeBoer's probably going to figure it out. Alabama's probably going to be just fine. They're probably going to be back in the playoff hunt again this year. And because of that, that's part of the reason why he's a top 10 coach because he just, he wins everywhere he goes. A scary thought to think about, but I do think we're all on the edge of our seat waiting for what year two brings for DeBoer and company in Tuscaloosa.
Elsewhere in the SEC, we find LSU's Brian Kelly at eight here. Safe to say it's fair, Chip, that he's fallen four spots in our ranking since last year.
Yeah, and there there is not a coach here that I think might be more of a consensus about where they fit among our entire panel. Pretty much everybody had him at seven, eight, nine, or 10. Number eight ends up being the average. That's where he falls. You have to take into consideration, in my opinion, the entire body of work. I mean, remember, he was coaching bowl games for Cincinnati against Tim Tebow. That's how long he's been winning double-digit games at the FBS level. Uh, you know, what he did at Notre Dame, putting together an absolute mess and turning it into playing for the BCS National Championship, multiple college football playoff appearances. And yes, there is disappointment with the way last season went at LSU. LSU fans are frustrated, losing season openers, losing some games bad like they did in a blowout fashion to Alabama. But as we rank these coaches, Brian Kelly has won at a high level at multiple stops for a long time. You know, there's no real difference of opinion because everyone says top 10 coach without a doubt. But what not everybody says after the disappointment of last season is top five coach. He's no newbie. Uh, we'll see and be patient, um, to see more from Brian Kelly and company, uh, from LSU.
Let's get to number seven here, where Penn State's James Franklin is. He's coming off what really might be his best season yet. Reached the semifinals, won two playoff games. However, Tom, I fear he cannot be any higher than this unless those big games are won.
Yeah, I I wrote it in the story. I was like, this is a best of both worlds situation whether you love James Franklin or you hate James Franklin. Because if you love James Franklin, you could say last year Penn State got to the Big Ten title game and won two playoff games. If you hate James Franklin, you could say, "Yeah, but they lost to Ohio State, Oregon, and the two playoff teams they beat were SMU and Boise State." But I think if you look at the overall picture, like James Franklin got Penn State to the freaking college football playoff semifinals. He's turned it into a se, he's turned it into a program to where they have yet to crack through that glass ceiling of being the elite. But they are as close to elite as you can possibly be, which in these rankings gets you seventh out of the Power Four coaches.
All right. Well, Penn State fans have expectations, and that's beating Ohio State each and every year. Uh, quick break for us, but here's a quick look at our rankings, which you just went through. You see Lane Kiffin comes in at number 12. We got Kalen DeBoer after a 9 and 3 season, his first year taking over for Nick Saban in Tuscaloosa, comes in at number nine on our rankings, followed by Brian Kelly coming in at number eight, and James Franklin there at seven. We'll be right back with more here on CBS Sports Network when we return. The top college football coaches of 2025 are revealed. Do we have a new face at number one? We show you next.
We're back here on CBS Sports Network. It's HQ Spotlight. I'm Jordan Giorgio. Tom Fernelli and Chip Patterson are with us as we continue to go through our top 25 college football coaches entering this season. We have reached the end of our list as we check in with number six. It's Notre Dame's Marcus Freeman, Tom.
Yeah. I I think what's very interesting about this is, first of all, he climbs a whole lot of spots. He was 24 last year. He's up to six this year. So, it's an 18-spot jump, which you would expect considering Notre Dame, what they did last season, getting to, you know, the title game before falling to Ohio State. But it was a spectacular season in that they had that loss to Northern Illinois, which is still somewhat bewildering to look back upon and think, how in the world did that happen? But more so the fact that it happened is the fact that they recovered from it and they were able to keep their eyes on the prize and rally knowing that they had their backs against the wall of we cannot afford to slip up again if we want to accomplish what we want to accomplish. And you look at what he's done at this program. He's been a great recruiter since he stepped foot on campus. But the problem was, as you saw in his first year, was there were in-game decisions that kind of left you scratching your head. But he cleaned that up last year. He became a better game day coach and he combined it with the recruiting chops that he's had, and he's turned Notre Dame into a legit powerhouse. And let's not forget the coach we discussed in the last segment at number eight, Brian Kelly, left South Bend because he said you can't compete for national titles with Notre Dame in the modern era of college football. And guess what? Marcus Freeman nearly won a national title in South Bend last year while Brian Kelly was at home watching in Baton Rouge. So I think Marcus Freeman has really kind of, you know, solidified himself as one of the best coaches in college football.
Yeah. Who really had the last laugh there? He continues to put the doubters to bed. Still eyeing that, eyeing that title win, as you mentioned, but something tells me with the way this man has been recruiting, uh, championship for the Irish maybe sooner than we think. Let's go ahead and get into the top five here. At five, we find Oregon's Dan Lanning. The Ducks' season, Chip, couldn't have ended worse with that blowout loss to Ohio State. However, they did win the Big Ten title, their first season in the league. Is this a fair spot for Lanning?
Oh, 100%. I mean, I think that everything about Dan Lanning is so fascinating. The very first game that he had as a head coach, 49-3 loss. Oh, no. Is this guy in over his head? But then he goes on to win 35 of his next 40 games. Then Dan Lanning goes on to not only win the Big Ten in his first year, leading Oregon in that new conference, but consider the path that they took to get there. They beat Michigan in Ann Arbor. They beat Ohio State in a thrilling game at home. They beat Penn State in the Big Ten Championship. I know it ended poorly, Ducks fans, and that's going to really, really hurt. But if we are to take a step back and look at Dan Lanning and what he was able to accomplish, winning that league and beating Ohio State, Penn State, and Michigan along the way, uh, that is how you announce your arrival as one of the top programs in the country, one of the top coaches in the country. He still needs, you know, that playoff win. That getting to the playoff was a big hurdle for him. He still needs that playoff win, but impossible not to be impressed with a coach who again has won 35 of his first 41 games as a head coach. Very impressive.
At number four is Steve Sarkisian, the man that is bringing Texas back, Tom. This just feels right for me.
Yeah, I I think that when you talk about coaches who haven't won national titles yet, if you were to ask who the next coach to breakthrough is going to be, it's either going to be Sarkisian or Dan Lanning. And Sarkisian just edged out, edged Lanning out among our voters. And my favorite thing about Sark's arc, I didn't mean for that to rhyme, but there you go. It did. Is we talk a lot about like coaches developing players, and we kind of overlook the fact that a lot of coaches develop too. And if you look through Sark's coaching tenure, like he started at Washington. He had some success there, but it was pretty inconsistent. He ends up getting the USC job because he'd been, you know, the offensive coordinator under Pete Carroll during the dynasty years. And for the most part, it was a disappointment. He stepped down. He dealt with some problems off the field. He comes back, he joins Nick Saban's staff at Alabama, and he sits and learns what it takes to build a program that is capable of winning a national title so that when he gets his shot at Texas, he has that program humming even before they get to the SEC. He's preparing. He knows what it takes, and he's done a tremendous job not only acquiring talent to make Texas one of the best teams in the country, but unifying that program. Because for years, the biggest problem at Texas had always been there were way too many voices and way too many people with power pulling in different directions in that program. And you don't hear any of that stuff anymore since he took over. They are all pulling in the same direction. And Texas is one of the favorites to win a national title this year because of it.
Yeah. It's safe to say Sark has taken some notes and is applying that, uh, to this, uh, program here in Texas. Let's go ahead now and get to number three. That's Clemson's Dabo Swinney, who hasn't moved a bit in his rankings, uh, Chip.
Yeah, I mean, two national championships, seven college football playoff appearances. He's been winning ACC titles almost every single season dating back to 2011. And the Clemson Tigers, you know, their stumble, I think, reflected on why Dabo Swinney is not number two. The fact that when you got out of the Trevor Lawrence era, it took a little bit for them to find their footing again. And whether that's transfer portal, whether that's NIL, I think the message is clear with the way that the Tigers finished last year, reclaiming their spot at the top of the conference, making the college football playoff, and and the expectations that are going into 2025 that I think Dabo Swinney's got room to be able to make a move and really challenge Ryan Day for that number two spot. Uh, Dabo Swinney has doubled down on being Dabo, and so I credit him for being consistent, but he will need a little bit more winning for his ranking to match the number of national titles that he has.
All right, coming in at number two, Ryan Day. A man who can breathe a little bit easier after bringing home a championship for the Buckeyes. Would a win though over Michigan put him in the top spot, though, Tom?
I don't know if the win over Michigan would be enough to do it. I think winning a national title wasn't enough until he gets his second. That's probably what it's going to take. But it would be nice for him to get that Michigan monkey off his back. And I will say as far as the votes are concerned, while he's still in number two this year, the gap closed slightly because last year Ryan Day got a couple third and fourth place votes. This year he only got two third place votes, none in fourth. So there's been a solidifying of his standing amongst our panel. And it's not easy or it's not difficult to see why. Like, yes, they still lost to Michigan. That is still one of the weirdest things going on in the sport right now where no matter how good this team is, once the Michigan Wolverines step on the field, Ohio State turns into, you know, Kent State. But they recovered from that. They smoked Tennessee in the first round. They went to Oregon in the Rose Bowl, got revenge on the Ducks for that loss, took out Texas, and then took out Notre Dame. They proved without a doubt that they were the best team in the country last year. So for Ryan Day to get that national title, to finally break through, he needs another one to get to number one, but I think he deserves to be at number two. And it was a no-brainer choice for me.
All right, lastly, coming in at number one as the top college football coach heading into next season is Georgia's Kirby Smart. No surprise here, Chip.
Yeah, how about this? For three entire seasons, Kirby Smart went 42 and 0 against everybody not named Nick Saban, winning two national championships at that time, SEC runner-up, but then finished that year blowing out Florida State in historic fashion in the Orange Bowl. Uh, this is a fascinating year for Kirby Smart because while I don't know if there's another coach who's going to be able to make a run at the top spot and until they match those two national championships, or maybe Dabo Swinney if you were to get a third, Kirby Smart saw a little bit of a step back last year. Again, unanimous number one across every single voter. Kirby was at the top of our ballot, but this is going to be a great year to be able to check in on the Bulldogs in the modern era. And here's what I mean. For a long time, players would be willing to take a discount to go play for Kirby Smart. Right now, the modern athlete, uh, in the NIL portal era, sometimes is willing to, uh, just go wherever the bigger bag is. Georgia's had to really get aggressive in terms of their own NIL efforts. They have. They've been winning a lot of recruiting battles, but that is going to be a moment where you're no longer getting players because they just want to come to Georgia. So now you've got to put in even more effort. He got to the top of the game, y'all. And everybody's already trying to come for the crown.
Yeah. I mean, they won the SEC last year, and it was considered a letdown in Athens because they didn't win a national title. But we also have to.
Ask ourselves if Carson Beck doesn't get hurt in that SEC championship game. Does Georgia possibly win its third national title under Kirby Smart? I still think Ohio State was the best team in the country, but it wouldn't have shocked me if Georgia got to the title game with a healthy Carson Beck. That's a great point to bring up, uh, there, Tom. Well, there it is. Our top 25 college football coaches as it stands now, as we get set for the 2025 season. Here's a recap at one through six. Coming in that top spot, Kirby Smart, no surprise at the top, followed by Ryan Day, just won his national championship for the Ohio State Buckeyes, looking to redeem themselves even more so next year. Dabo Sweeney coming in at three, followed by Steve Sarkeesian, the man who's bringing Texas back. Dan Lanning at five and Marcus Freeman at six. We're not done just yet with our top college football coach rankings. When we return, we go through our biggest takeaways. Some big names left out of the top 25 like Deion Sanders and college football newcomer Bill Belichick. What gives? We tell you [Applause] next.
We're back here on CBS Sports Network, where we just went through our top 25 college football coach rankings for the upcoming season. So, now we go through our biggest takeaways. We have two of our voters of this list, Tom Felli and Chip Patterson, with us. Guys, one big takeaway that I'm sure a bunch of folks will question is Deion Sanders and college football newcomer Bill Belichick left out of the top 25. Sanders comes in at 33. Belichick, the man with many Super Bowls, falls at 54. Tell us why, Chip.
Yeah, I think for Deion Sanders, be on the lookout. You, we said on the Cover 3 podcast today, who from outside the top 25 could make it, not just into the top 25, but up to the top 10. And if Deion Sanders, after finishing tied for first in the Big 12 standings last season, is able to be a Big 12 title contender again after losing Shador Sanders and Heisman Trophy winner Travis Hunter, be on the lookout. Coach Prime could be knocking on the door, not just of the top 25, but of being even higher. Uh, with Bill Belichick, I think that this is a fair ranking because while he has all that success at the NFL level, we have yet to see anything that we can hang our hat on at the college level. That the effort so far at North Carolina have been a total roster overhaul. I mean, we're talking about 70 players that are going to be new between the transfer portal and a robust freshman class. So, we cannot judge Bill Belichick because everything that we have seen so far is going to be a total start from scratch. So, we've got to see something, anything before we feel like we can rightly put him against other coaches who have completed any college football seasons, and especially successful ones.
Yeah. And when you look at the case of Dion Sanders, no, he did not crack the top 25, but he did climb 28 spots, which was the second highest climb that any of our coaches made in the rankings this year, behind only Kenny Dillingham, who's on that rocket ship Chip was speaking of earlier in the hour. But it's hard not to be impressed by it. Like, when you looked at what the situation was in Dion's first season, whole lot of hype off the field, and there really weren't much results on the field after a 3 and 0 start, finishing 4 and 8. But then last year, Colorado is in the Big 12 title hunt until the end of the season. Travis Hunter wins the Heisman Trophy. Shador Sanders is one of the best quarterbacks in the country. So that's definitely a step forward that you love to see in year two, but now it remains to be seen what comes in year three. And as for Bill Belichick, I mean, yeah, Chip hit on the head. There's no college experience as a head coach, so we don't have anything to base him on based off of that. And one of the problems is he's been in the headlines a lot lately, but you never see North Carolina's name mentioned in those headlines for some reason because they're not about the football team. And that concerns me. That does concern me. I'm sure that concerns our own Chip Patterson as well. Um, so we'll wait and see. It's a fair point. It all makes sense what you guys are saying.
Looking inside our top six coaches here, we'll find Oregon's Dan Lanning. Why is 2025 Chip such a big year for Lanning and company? The Oregon Ducks just lost a school record number of NFL draft picks. It is a program that has relied very heavily on the transfer portal to be able to maintain that high level of competitiveness and competition. And so now, what we get to see in 2025 is how those early recruiting classes have developed because you can recruit at a high level, but developing at a high level is the way that you are a perennial national championship contender, much like the program where he was before Oregon, the Georgia Bulldogs. So players like Matteo UAL, the linebacker, uh, who has gotten some attention from NFL draft picks for the 2026 cycle. Those guys that were in the early recruiting classes for Dan Lanning, now is the time to see how they've developed. If they play well, it cements his status as a top five coach. Lanning moved up four spots in our rankings from last year.
However, Tom, one name who fell was USC's Lincoln Riley. How surprised were you by this?
I, I wasn't too surprised. The last couple of seasons at USC have been disappointments. His first year there, they nearly won the Pac-12. They were close to making the playoff. They fell short, and it's gone backwards ever since. And this is a sport where, yes, Lincoln Riley has four college football playoff appearances, all of them while he was still at Oklahoma. But so much is changing in this sport so quickly that the fact that his last playoff appearance was in 2020 makes it feel like a very long time ago because the sport he was doing it in was a very, very different sport. Oklahoma was in a different conference, weren't paying the players openly yet, the transfer portal wasn't as it is today. He has kind of taken time and needed to adjust at USC, and we've seen them taking steps behind the scenes to fix some of the flaws within that program. But he needs to start winning more games, or else he's not going to be around there long enough to see if those, you know, changes pay off in the long run.
All right, gentlemen. Always great to see you. We will leave it there. Now, we wait and see if these coaches really live up to their rankings. Uh, you can get more in-depth analysis of the top coaches heading into this season on the Cover 3 podcast. You know the drill. Scan that QR code on your screen right now.