Revisiting pre-2024 college football head coach rankings

Offseason power rankings are rarely held to account, but three different rankings of FBS head coaches are worth a revisit now with one game remaining in the 2024 season.

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ESPN posted its top 10 college football coaches in April 2024, while CBS Sports followed with their top 25 in May, as did On3.

A quick refresher…

ESPN

1. Kirby Smart, Georgia
2. Kalen DeBoer, Alabama
3. Kyle Whittingham, Utah
4. Dabo Swinney, Clemson
5. Mike Norvell, Florida State
6. Dan Lanning, Oregon
7. Steve Sarkisian, Texas
8. Lane Kiffin, Ole Miss
9. Lance Leipold, Kansas
10. Ryan Day, Ohio State

CBS Sports

1. Kirby Smart, Georgia
2. Ryan Day, Ohio State
3. Dabo Swinney, Clemson
4. Brian Kelly, LSU
5. Steve Sarkisian, Texas
6. Kyle Whittingham, Utah
7. Kalen DeBoer, Alabama
8. Mike Norvell, Florida State
9. Dan Lanning, Oregon
10. Lincoln Riley, USC

On3

1. Kirby Smart, Georgia
2. Brian Kelly, LSU
3. Kalen DeBoer, Alabama
4. Ryan Day, Ohio State
5. Steve Sarkisian, Texas
6. Dabo Swinney, Clemson
7. Mike Norvell, Florida State
8. Kyle Whittingham, Utah
9. Lincoln Riley, USC
10. Lane Kiffin, Ole Miss

Get these coaches out of the top 10

• Mike Norvell, Florida State
• Lincoln Riley, USC

You don’t go 2-10 if you’re a top 10 coach in the sport. Nothing else needs to be said, but factor in recruiting if more evidence was needed. The highest-ranked class Norvell has signed in Tallahassee ranked No. 12. His attempts to paper over with the portal have resulted in one incredibly successful season with a truly unfortunate ending and then three under .500 campaigns in five seasons. He’s owed over $50 million if he’s fired.

For Riley, it started with an 11-3 season, a Heisman winner, and a gut-wrenching loss to Tulane. It continued with a 7-5 regular season capped by a win in the Holiday Bowl. It reached year three with a 7-5 regular season, a 4-5 year in the Big 10, and a bottom-half finish in its new conference. Hired to improve upon Clay Helton‘s mediocrity, Riley has a similar number of wins through his first three seasons (26-14) as Helton (26-10) after three seasons as full-time head coach. USC fans couldn’t get rid of Helton fast enough, yet Riley hasn’t provided anything better in the strict wins and losses sense.

Things look a little different today

• Brian Kelly, LSU
• Kyle Whittingham, Utah
• Lance Leipold, Kansas

Kelly posted two 10-win seasons at LSU, including a 2022 where he won the SEC West and a 2023 where he boasted the Heisman winner in Jayden Daniels. But as a head coach, responsibility for an abhorrent defense falls on his shoulders, as does the eight-win regular season he just put together.

Whittingham has a lengthy history as a fantastic head coach, elevating the Ute program into a national contender and a mainstay in the conference title picture for most of the last decade. But once Cam Rising‘s health problems reared their head once again, things collapsed in a surprising way in Utah’s debut journey through the Big 12. The Utes went 2-7 in league play and ended the year 5-7. Whittingham has an elite track record, and he is likely still a top 10 coach in the sport. But he might be losing his fastball, and he seems to know it, too.

5-7 at Kansas is still a pretty good season, none of the four head coaches prior to Leipold so much as got to four. So while it may have been a small step back in terms of where the Jayhawks were at 9-4 in 2023, it’s still a bit of an achievement. Let’s see how 2025 plays out for the Jayhawks.

So where might Sark fit in the new landscape?

Smart was a unanimous choice for No. 1 by ESPN and may have won by similar margins for CBS Sports (On3’s ranking was a one-man operation). He seems likely to hold onto the top spot, but votes for Day are likely to pop up especially if the Buckeyes take home the national title on Monday night.

Coaches like DeBoer, Swinney, Lanning, and Kiffin all posted seasons that saw their programs in playoff contention if not in the College Football Playoff field. None from that group did anything that should drastically alter their positioning in these lists more than a handful of spots.

So where might Sarkisian move up? Look at who Texas’ three losses were to this season, and you’ll find the two coaches that have the best case to remain ahead of him. There will be a good argument made for Marcus Freeman, and especially so if the Irish win the national championship on Monday. It’d be hard to place Sarkisian ahead of a coach with a national title ring on his right hand.

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But those 2-3 coaches are the only ones with a strong argument for ranking ahead of Sarkisian. Not only has Sark established himself as one of the best coaches in the sport, he’s done so in consecutive seasons in a way only those in his company seem able to accomplish.