Poll HooplaNation's All-Time Greatest CFB Coaches Tourney - 6 Switzer vs 11 Swinney

Who do you think has/had a better CFB coaching career?


  • Total voters
    29
  • Poll closed .
Voting Switzer in this one but I don't think it's the landslide the votes are showing it to be. It's actually really close between the two

I don't think it's that close. Switzer overcame a lot of childhood stuff to get where he was. Similar things where people would have thrown in the towel and make excuses for in not having success.

Dabo's pretty young and could eventually end up surpassing Switzer, but at this point in time I have to go with the Bootlegger's Boy. Late in a slobberknocker when the game was on the line, his Sooners dug deep and made plays more times than not. It's where 'Sooner Magic' was coined.
That's coaching.
 
Times change. The Big 8 used to be the SEC of its day. The conference's teams even ended up ranked #1, #2 and #3 in the country at one point. Even Bear wanted no part of playing Big 8 teams and Bama got nicknamed the Yellow Tide because of it. Oklahoma was playing some hellish good Nebraska teams back in the '70's and 80's for the right to go to the Orange Bowl year after year........while the SEC stayed safely tucked away in the Sugar Bowl. And OU was playing the Texas games in Dallas every October which was no piece of cake. Point is, Switzer's teams typically had a much harder regular season schedule (in spite of what ever conference has for a few weak sisters) than Clemson has now and Dabo has never had to run a regular season gauntlet. Plus Switzer did have to play some tough out of conference opponents and then major bowl opponents. Dabo has had great teams and is a super coach. But this is is one of those heavy weight fights where the King wins on points. Give Dabo enough time and he'll be up there with Switzer.
 
I don't think it's that close. Switzer overcame a lot of childhood stuff to get where he was. Similar things where people would have thrown in the towel and make excuses for in not having success.

Dabo's pretty young and could eventually end up surpassing Switzer, but at this point in time I have to go with the Bootlegger's Boy. Late in a slobberknocker when the game was on the line, his Sooners dug deep and made plays more times than not. It's where 'Sooner Magic' was coined.
That's coaching.

The only reason I make it a little closer is bc of the teams. Switzer had more success and faced stiffer competition but Dabo has done with Clemson what Bowden did with Florida State. He has set them up to be a great team more often than not long after he is gone (if he goes anywhere anytime soon)
 
Times change. The Big 8 used to be the SEC of its day. The conference's teams even ended up ranked #1, #2 and #3 in the country at one point. Even Bear wanted no part of playing Big 8 teams and Bama got nicknamed the Yellow Tide because of it. Oklahoma was playing some hellish good Nebraska teams back in the '70's and 80's for the right to go to the Orange Bowl year after year........while the SEC stayed safely tucked away in the Sugar Bowl. And OU was playing the Texas games in Dallas every October which was no piece of cake. Point is, Switzer's teams typically had a much harder regular season schedule (in spite of what ever conference has for a few weak sisters) than Clemson has now and Dabo has never had to run a regular season gauntlet. Plus Switzer did have to play some tough out of conference opponents and then major bowl opponents. Dabo has had great teams and is a super coach. But this is is one of those heavy weight fights where the King wins on points. Give Dabo enough time and he'll be up there with Switzer.

The conferences that "stayed safely tucked away" were the Pac 10 and Big 10 in the Rose Bowl. They were guaranteed the other conferences opponent regardless of how bad they were.

At least the SEC champ had to face a best of the rest, higher ranked, 'At Large' in the Sugar Bowl. A lot of highly ranked Penn St's in there 'before they joined the Big 10' and Notre Dame.
Nebraska played in a lot of Sugar Bowls as Big 8 runner up.
The Big 10 runner up played in a few Sugar Bowls, but didn't fair so well.
 
The only reason I make it a little closer is bc of the teams. Switzer had more success and faced stiffer competition but Dabo has done with Clemson what Bowden did with Florida State. He has set them up to be a great team more often than not long after he is gone (if he goes anywhere anytime soon)

Dabo turned Clemson around quickly. Without a doubt an elite coach in modern times. Like I said, he could surpass some of the legends eventually, but not yet.
 
Swinney's a helluva coach and I don't think he's done winning Natty's at Clemson. But comparing the two right now gotta give the edge to Switzer.
 
Barry Switzer walked into Brian Bosworth’s HS cafeteria wearing a full length fur coat.

drop mic GIF by Captain Obvious
 
Barry Switzer walked into Brian Bosworth’s HS cafeteria wearing a full length fur coat.

drop mic GIF by Captain Obvious

I hear he brought hookers, blow and AK47’s too.
 
I hear he brought hookers, blow and AK47’s too.
That was called "recruiting" in the Southwest Conference in the 1980s. I've seen the 30 for 30's "Pony Express" documentary on ESPN.
 
That was called "recruiting" in the Southwest Conference in the 1980s. I've seen the 30 for 30's "Pony Express" documentary on ESPN.
Pony Express....pshhh...we was buying muhfukkas Mommas HOUSES and shit!
 

Switzer is going to win, and rightfully so, but Dabo isn't that far behind him and probably will pass him in the next 5 years IMO.

The voting numbers suggest it's not even close
 
Barry Switzer left OU at the prime of his life. Yeah, the scandals were a factor but that wasn't the real reason. He was just plumb worn out with dick head Presidents who hated the way football was so powerful at OU after Bill Banowsky left. Frank Horton was a disaster at OU lasting only 3 years then along came David Swank. The best part of Swank ran down his mother's leg. Barry just said "F it" and didn't fight to stay. What a shame he couldn't have stayed, hired an offensive coordinator to take some of the burden off him and kept recruiting the way no one else could do it when OU was still pulling in a lot of black players because OU was the first program to really embrace the concept of letting a black guy play anywhere on the team if he was good enough. And Barry was magic with black players and their parents who loved him because he was raised with black friends who accepted him when the snooty white folks looked down on Barry's family. Barry's Dad was a bootlegger and wild SOB, they were dirt poor and just generally considered to be white trash. Barry even had to go through seeing his Mother commit suicide when she couldn't take it any longer. There's no telling what Barry could have accomplished if he'd had a President like David Boren who would have stood by him and told the Regents to pi$$ off and let things calm down. Barry's 83 now. It's going to be one helluva sad day when he dies and all of us know what we have just lost.
 
Barry Switzer left OU at the prime of his life. Yeah, the scandals were a factor but that wasn't the real reason. He was just plumb worn out with dick head Presidents who hated the way football was so powerful at OU after Bill Banowsky left. Frank Horton was a disaster at OU lasting only 3 years then along came David Swank. The best part of Swank ran down his mother's leg. Barry just said "F it" and didn't fight to stay. What a shame he couldn't have stayed, hired an offensive coordinator to take some of the burden off him and kept recruiting the way no one else could do it when OU was still pulling in a lot of black players because OU was the first program to really embrace the concept of letting a black guy play anywhere on the team if he was good enough. And Barry was magic with black players and their parents who loved him because he was raised with black friends who accepted him when the snooty white folks looked down on Barry's family. Barry's Dad was a bootlegger and wild SOB, they were dirt poor and just generally considered to be white trash. Barry even had to go through seeing his Mother commit suicide when she couldn't take it any longer. There's no telling what Barry could have accomplished if he'd had a President like David Boren who would have stood by him and told the Regents to pi$$ off and let things calm down. Barry's 83 now. It's going to be one helluva sad day when he dies and all of us know what we have just lost.

I do recall Barry saying that he didn't miss the 'babysitting' required at the college level when he coached the Dallas Cowboys.
Basically an NFL player was expected to have personal responsibility.
 
I do recall Barry saying that he didn't miss the 'babysitting' required at the college level when he coached the Dallas Cowboys.
Basically an NFL player was expected to have personal responsibility.
When Bob Devaney or Tom Osborne occasionally visited our pre-season pep rallies that were held every year in the Lloyd Noble Arena, they were always greeted with a standing ovation. Barry would tell Nebraska stories and Bob or Tom would just laugh and shake their heads. They had some great Oklahoma stories too. Barry Switzer traveled all over Nebraska with Tom Osborne when he was running for Congress. Barry's best line was "For God's sake vote for him so he doesn't come back and start coaching against us again!".
 
When Bob Devaney or Tom Osborne occasionally visited our pre-season pep rallies that were held every year in the Lloyd Noble Arena, they were always greeted with a standing ovation. Barry would tell Nebraska stories and Bob or Tom would just laugh and shake their heads. They had some great Oklahoma stories too. Barry Switzer traveled all over Nebraska with Tom Osborne when he was running for Congress. Barry's best line was "For God's sake vote for him so he doesn't come back and start coaching against us again!".

I don't remember the exact Osborne quote, but it went something like this.......

'Nebraska fans perceive Oklahoma as being an enemy. What they don't understand is that playing Oklahoma every year made us better.'
 
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