SEC Coach Rankings: CBS Sports ranks coaches 1-16 ahead of 2024 college football season
While the SEC looks as different as ever, the head coach positions still include some very familiar faces. Now, with the five new additions to their sidelines, the league makes the case as the best coaching conference in the country.
CBS Sports’ Will Backus recently released a head-coach ranking for the Southeastern Conference. It goes one through 16 with half of the league being in the Top-25 overall. It also includes a whole new top-five from last season’s edition considering all things.
Here’s where the SEC coaches stand in the latest rating from CBS:
1. Kirby Smart – Georgia Bulldogs
Following the retirement of Nick Saban and move to the NFL by Jim Harbaugh, there’s almost no argument for the top spot in all of college football for anyone but Kirby Smart. CBS agrees with him being their top overall coach in the country as well as within the SEC.
Smart came from the Saban sideline and has gone on to put up a 94-16 record, including a 42-2 mark the last three years, in Athens with a pair of conference and national titles apiece. That leaves him now to be “first in line to fill it” in regards to Saban’s place as the best coach in the league as well as the sport.
2. Brian Kelly – LSU Tigers
Brian Kelly also got a Saban-retirement boost from No. 3 to No. 2 in the SEC. That then leaves him at fourth overall nationally for those at CBS.
Kelly is 20-7 with two quality years already on record in Baton Rouge. Still, the expectations are turning to championships alone with them having just enough losses in both to never make a case for the four-team playoff – although that should now change in the expanded one.
3. Steve Sarkisian – Texas Longhorns
Steve Sarkisian got the momentum turned around down on The 40 Acres at the right time. He got the Longhorns from 5-7 to 12-2 with a conference title and playoff appearance in the season prior to entering the SEC.
How Texas adjusts to life in this league still remains to be seen this fall. However, they’re in a far better spot than they were with Sark leading them into it as a top-five coach in the country at CBS.
4. Kalen DeBoer – Alabama Crimson Tide
Kalen DeBoer steps into the most difficult shoes to fill in the history of college football in following Saban in Tuscaloosa. Still, he “seems more than up to it, at least” per Backus as well as according to other opinions around the sport.
DeBoer has appeared to adjust well to being the head coach of the Crimson Tide this offseason. From there, it’s just about coaching, which he is more than capable of based on the resumé at Sioux Falls and, more notably, Washington.
5. Lane Kiffin – Ole Miss Rebels
Lane Kiffin cracked into the top-five in this rankings although being the first one from the conference outside the overall Top-10. Still, as Backus wrote, “there’s no denying the work that he’s done” through four seasons in The ‘Sip.
Ole Miss is 34-15 during his tenure there in the 2020s, including a pair of 10-plus win records and an all-time one for the program at 11-2 in 2023. He and they now have their chance to prove themselves as conference and national contenders with what they have on paper coming into 2024.
6. Mark Stoops – Kentucky Wildcats
Mark Stoops, the longest-tenured coach in the conference, has earned his respect at a non-historical power in the SEC. Through 11 years in Lexington, he is 73-65, including being 47-29 the last six years, and has the school on a record eight-year bowl streak.
However, “it is hard to envision the Wildcats competing for much more (which) isn’t necessarily an indictment of Stoops” wrote Backus. That might be more than enough for Kentucky, though, especially going into the new-look SEC.
7. Eli Drinkwitz – Missouri Tigers
Eli Drinkwitz entered last season on a hot-enough seat with a 17-19 record through three years in CoMo. He is now perfectly secure after going 11-2 as he made the biggest jump in this ranking from No. 12 to No. 7 in the SEC and up to No. 21 overall.
There are some questions as to how Mizzou follows up that finish this upcoming fall. Still, the fact of the matter is Drinkwitz is still there with a team that at least has desires to be and thoughts of being a playoff one.
8. Josh Heupel – Tennessee Volunteers
Josh Heupel fell out of the top-five from a year ago after his third season on Rocky Top. Still, although falling from five to eight, Tennessee followed up their 11-2 record in 2022 with a 9-4 mark in 2023, which is their best two-year span since the late 90s and early 2000s.
The Volunteers have rediscovered some former glory in Heupel’s short tenure so far in Knoxville. That trajectory doesn’t look to be slowing either with this season and the expectations for it being a playoff berth.
9. Mike Elko – Texas A&M Aggies
Mike Elko is back in College Station in just his second gig as he takes the place of Jimbo Fisher. He does so after posting a 16-9 record through two seasons at Duke.
Still, simply put, “the man can coach and he has every chance to make some waves” according to Backus. That’s the job now as he takes over a program at Texas A&M that has high expectations considering what the last tenure didn’t deliver on.
10. Hugh Freeze – Auburn Tigers
Year two for Freeze at Auburn is going to be a key one to see where they’re headed down on The Plains. He has boasted quality records at all four stops in his career and, even though finishing at 6-7 in his debut with the Tigers, showed flashes with near upsets of the two teams who played in the SEC Championship.
So, are they the team that won six games and nearly defeated Georgia and Alabama or the one with two separate losing streaks of three or more? Only the step that they do or don’t take this fall will be able to tell.
11. Brent Venables – Oklahoma Sooners
Venables is not only entering the SEC this season but is doing so with a brand new extension. That comes from the work he did over his first two years in Norman at 16-10.
Oklahoma did improve from 6-7 to 10-3 over Venables’ pair of records. It’s now just a matter of if that development will continue or if it’ll slow to a degree for the Sooners as they jump into the Southeastern Conference.
12. Shane Beamer – South Carolina Gamecocks
The opinion appears to have flipped when it comes to Shane Beamer. South Carolina looked to be headed in the right direction through two seasons at 15-11 but stepped back in his third at 5-7.
With an overall record of 20-18 now, the Gamecocks could start to ask some questions depending on what happens in year four. That makes it a quietly pivotal season for Beamer with him needing more results like from ’21 and naturally from ’22 than obviously the ones from ’23.
13. Billy Napier – Florida Gators
There are likely few who don’t realize the position that Billy Napier finds himself in going into 2024. He looks to be firmly on the hot seat in The Swamp with an 11-14 record behind him and a very difficult schedule in front of them.
The optimistic side of the discussion is the slate provides more than enough opportunities for respected wins from start to finish. However, it also sets up for a decision one way or, frankly, the other with how the Gators measure up with in-state opponents and national contenders throughout.
14. Sam Pittman – Arkansas Razorbacks
If there’s a second-hottest seat in the SEC, Pittman is likely the one finding himself on it. As Backus wrote, the feeling in Fayetteville is that his successes there “are far behind him” after jumping from three to nine wins and now falling back to four as of last season.
The Head ‘Hog will have his chance to get his overall record with the Razorbacks back above .500 in 2024. Even so, “no improvement could spell disastrous results” for Pittman per Backus.
15. Clark Lea – Vanderbilt Commodores
Lea is a coach doing what he can with the hand he has in Nashville. As Backus put it, he’s “a good coach with a proven track record as an assistant but it’s a tough situation” at Vanderbilt.
Lea did win five games with the Commodores in 2022, which is among their best records from the last decade or so. Still, posting another 2-10 finish afterward to fall back to 9-27 in total is where they find themselves, which will only be a more difficult position with the conference getting bigger and better.
16. Jeff Lebby – Mississippi State Bulldogs
There’s an obvious reason why Lebby is last on this list and it’s inexperience. It’s his first head coaching gig after recent staff and coordinator roles at Baylor, UCF, Ole Miss, and Oklahoma
Lebby does have his work cut out for him as Mississippi State’s third coach in three years and “a serious rebuild” ahead. Still, while “positive results may take time”, there’s potential upside to his hire with what he could bring to Starkville.