The annual postseason top 10 coaches in the country list

Illustrious Potentate said:
Recruiting is a big part of a coach’s job.
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This is the part that makes me shake my head at many of the fans of teams located in these states with a boatload of talent.

Just call it what it is -- an enormous built in advantage based on your location. If Kirby Smart left to go to a school with little to no in state talent, he'd have mediocre recruiting classes. College football is all about location.

You have to be able to handle the top recruits that come in, but unless you are at one of the select few schools -- you will never have recruiting classes like those select few schools. (the outlier is A&M buying that one recruiting class)
 
NewPhoneWhoDis said:
This is the part that makes me shake my head at many of the fans of teams located in these states with a boatload of talent.

Just call it what it is -- an enormous built in advantage based on your location. If Kirby Smart left to go to a school with little to no in state talent, he'd have mediocre recruiting classes. College football is all about location.

You have to be able to handle the top recruits that come in, but unless you are at one of the select few schools -- you will never have recruiting classes like those select few schools. (the outlier is A&M buying that one recruiting class)
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Why wasn’t Richt able to recruit at Kirby’s level?

Location is important, but there’s more to it than that.
 
Wild Turkey said:
My list is right now at this moment and not taking into consideration careers:

1. Kirby - No one else has been able to do what he has done at UGA
2. Saban
3. Kyle Whittingham - The dude just wins and beats you with lesser talent
4. Ryan Day - No denying his win/Loss record
5. Brian Kelly - I hate listing him this high but LSU was not supposed to be close to what they pulled off
6. Luke Fickell - What he did at Cincinnati was impressive
7. Jim Harbaugh - He would be higher but that TCU game was the worst coached game I saw in the bowl season
8. Dabo Swinney - He has fallen and he has a shot to climb back up but I wonder if NIL and the porter are beyond his ability to master
9. Lincoln Riley - Losing to Tulane with Caleb Williams at QB hurt his ranking
10. Mark Stoops - Done an incredible job at KY and the year they lost all their QBS and still went to a bowl might be the single greatest season of coaching we have seen in the modern era
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that and his complete inability to field a competent defense. The only Riley OU team to finish higher in scoring defense than 60th was in 2020 (29th).
 
Illustrious Potentate said:
Why wasn’t Richt able to recruit at Kirby’s level?

Location is important, but there’s more to it than that.
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there is more to it. Georgia is now on par with Florida, Texas, California on pumping out top ranked recruits, as Georgia has seen their population grow by 25% in the last 20 years. As the population has grown, so has the level of play at the high school level in Georgia and the number of recruits they put out each year.

With all those in state recruits -- those guys are in the war of the other top recruits they attend all the national football camps they have now that are so prominent.

It is why I laugh when people say ' fill in the blank' is a great recruiter. You are only as good as where you are located -- it is why it is the same select few teams at the top of the recruiting rankings every year.

It is also why who the best coach in college football is a trick question. Sonny Dykes coaching this year was light years better than what Kirby Smart did, because Dykes got his team to the national championship without a recruiting class in like the top 40 or top 50 or whatever it was. Smart had the most talented roster in CFB and needed Marvin Harrison Jr to get hurt to beat OSU.

The playing field in CFB is grossly uneven -- will be interesting if NIL will help over time, but most likely not because the same schools in the best locations are also schools with blank checks to run their programs
 
NewPhoneWhoDis said:
there is more to it. Georgia is now on par with Florida, Texas, California on pumping out top ranked recruits, as Georgia has seen their population grow by 25% in the last 20 years. As the population has grown, so has the level of play at the high school level in Georgia and the number of recruits they put out each year.

With all those in state recruits -- those guys are in the war of the other top recruits they attend all the national football camps they have now that are so prominent.

It is why I laugh when people say ' fill in the blank' is a great recruiter. You are only as good as where you are located -- it is why it is the same select few teams at the top of the recruiting rankings every year.

It is also why who the best coach in college football is a trick question. Sonny Dykes coaching this year was light years better than what Kirby Smart did, because Dykes got his team to the national championship without a recruiting class in like the top 40 or top 50 or whatever it was. Smart had the most talented roster in CFB and needed Marvin Harrison Jr to get hurt to beat OSU.

The playing field in CFB is grossly uneven -- will be interesting if NIL will help over time, but most likely not because the same schools in the best locations are also schools with blank checks to run their programs
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Georgia has been producing a ton of football talent my entire life.

Kirby keeps more talent at home is the answer, and he recruits nationally

Not that hard of a concept, but I’m not surprised a Michigan fan is struggling with it
 
Illustrious Potentate said:
Why wasn’t Richt able to recruit at Kirby’s level?

Location is important, but there’s more to it than that.
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Do you think Kirby would have been able to recruit at the same level he has to Athens, Georgia (top 5 classes) if he were the coach at the schools in Salt Lake City, Utah or Manhattan, Kansas?
 
Deep Creek said:
Do you think Kirby would have been able to recruit at the same level he has to Athens, Georgia (top 5 classes) if he were the coach at the schools in Salt Lake City, Utah or Manhattan, Kansas?
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Not to the same level, but I guarantee you the recruiting classes would improve. I mean, there’s 26 commits for the 2023 class so far, only 4 or 5 are from Georgia. Has commits from Florida, SC, NC, VA, MA, PA, TX, LA, CA, NV, etc filling up the class. To be a truly elite recruiter like Saban or Kirby, you have to recruit nationally
 
Illustrious Potentate said:
Not to the same level, but I guarantee you the recruiting classes would improve. I mean, there’s 26 commits for the 2023 class so far, only 4 or 5 are from Georgia. Has commits from Florida, SC, NC, VA, MA, PA, TX, LA, CA, NV, etc filling up the class. To be a truly elite recruiter like Saban or Kirby, you have to recruit nationally
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That's been my point all along. Kirby may well have been able to recruit better classes to Salt Lake City and Manhattan than what Whittingham and Kleiman have. But even Kirby (and Saban for that matter) wouldn't have been able to recruit the same level of classes to those places than he has to Georgia. Might get them up from #22 to #15, but that's a hell of a long ways from #2.

Let's use Leach as an example...may the Pirate RIP. It was a lot easier for him to recruit to Starkvegas than Lubbock or Pullman...even if Starkvegas ain't exactly a destination for vacationers.

"To be a truly elite recruiter like Saban or Kirby" you have to have something to recruit nationally WITH.
 
Deep Creek said:
That's been my point all along. Kirby may well have been able to recruit better classes to Salt Lake City and Manhattan than what Whittingham and Kleiman have. But even Kirby (and Saban for that matter) wouldn't have been able to recruit the same level of classes to those places than he has to Georgia. Might get them up from #22 to #15, but that's a hell of a long ways from #2.

Let's use Leach as an example...may the Pirate RIP. It was a lot easier for him to recruit to Starkvegas than Lubbock or Pullman...even if Starkvegas ain't exactly a destination for vacationers.

"To be a truly elite recruiter like Saban or Kirby" you have to have something to recruit nationally WITH.
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I’m not denying location isn’t important, but you can’t totally discount a coach’s recruiting prowess just because geography in on their side, especially when said coach is significantly out recruiting his predecessor and pulling in top recruits from across the country.

Kirby Smart was coming off an 8-5 first season and still landed the best recruiting class in program history to that point(it’s been topped several times since) in year 2
 
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Illustrious Potentate said:
I’m denying location isn’t important, but you can’t totally discount a coach’s recruiting prowess just because geography in on their side, especially when said coach is significantly out recruiting his predecessor and pulling in top recruits from across the country.

Kirby Smart was coming off an 8-5 first season and still landed the best recruiting class in program history to that point(it’s been topped several times since) in year 2
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I ain't denying they aren't top recruiters. They are because they are out recruiting Ohio State, Michigan, Texas, USC, etal.

I'm just saying they wouldn't pull in #1 or #2 classes at places like Cal or Iowa State.
 
Deep Creek said:
I ain't denying they aren't top recruiters. They are because they are out recruiting Ohio State, Michigan, Texas, USC, etal.

I'm just saying they wouldn't pull in #1 or #2 classes at places like Cal or Iowa State.
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No coach would, but at the same time, I can guarantee you if Kirby or Saban went to either school, they’d land the top recruiting class in program history in year one.

And when ranking coaches, recruiting isn’t the end all be all, you have doofuses like Jimbo who can recruit just as well as Kirby, but doesn’t do anything with them. And Kirby and Saban don’t get the credit they deserve as developers of talent
 
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Still have to coach the kids. Yes, places like Bama and Georgia get crazy amounts of talent but we see less talented teams beat much more talented teams all season long.

Is it a huge advantage to start out with that amount of raw potential? Absolutely, but you still have to bring that potential out and then keep it motivated
 
1. Saban
2. Smart
3. Kelly
4. Dabo
5. Whittingham
6. Riley
7. Harbaugh
8. Heupel
9. Day
10. Leipold
 
1.Saban
2.Kirby







3. Everyone Else
 
Illustrious Potentate said:
Sonny Dykes didn’t even make the list. Gotta do it more than once
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Like Lincoln Riley? You've got him in your top 10 and he's now 1-4 in bowl games, 0-1 in CFP games.

He can recruit and his teams have won weaker conferences, but what has he done to be that high?

After the top 2-3 there isn't one right answer. There are only opinions that for sure are open for debate.
 
Wizardhawk said:
Like Lincoln Riley? You've got him in your top 10 and he's now 1-4 in bowl games, 0-1 in CFP games.

He can recruit and his teams have won weaker conferences, but what has he done to be that high?

After the top 2-3 there isn't one right answer. There are only opinions that for sure are open for debate.
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Riley has made the playoffs 3 times and won the Big 12 4 times
 
Illustrious Potentate said:
No coach would, but at the same time, I can guarantee you if Kirby or Saban went to either school, they’d land the top recruiting class in program history in year one.

And when ranking coaches, recruiting isn’t the end all be all, you have doofuses like Jimbo who can recruit just as well as Kirby, but doesn’t do anything with them. And Kirby and Saban don’t get the credit they deserve as developers of talent
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Yes they do....their talent just has a higher starting point than most of the others do.

And you are correct. The road is scattered with coaches that don't develop talent very well.
 
fishinabarrel said:
Still have to coach the kids. Yes, places like Bama and Georgia get crazy amounts of talent but we see less talented teams beat much more talented teams all season long.

Is it a huge advantage to start out with that amount of raw potential? Absolutely, but you still have to bring that potential out and then keep it motivated
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That's the point I've been trying to make. Many seem to think it is not an advantage at all...much less a huge one.
 
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