Top Coaches

[GTLiebs]

What the hell is a "pure coach"?

Pure coach a.k.a. Gameday coach (maybe?)

 

[BarrelORum]

What the hell is a "pure coach"?

Exactly. Its a PURE case of a fan talking out of his ass. We all do it from time to time. Way to call out a bull**** statement Kyle.

 

[77GTFan]

The list is the list of the most successful coaches, currently. Most are at places where you ought to win, and they are.

Over the whole course of their careers Bowden, Spurrier, and Paterno belong on the list, but they are not among the 10 best today.

Here is my list of 15 doing well at places where it is not expected that they win big - these guys are good coaches.

1. Leach, Texas Tech
2. Grobe, Wake
3. Holtz, ECU
4. Johnson, Vandy
5. Hill, Fresno
6. Gundy, Oklahoma State
7. Mangino, Kansas
8. Leavitt, USF
9. Peterson, Boise State
10. Kelly, Cinncinnatti
11. Pinkel, Missourri
12. Graham, Tulsa
13. Gill, Buffalo
14. Schiano, Rutgers
15. Patterson, TCU

CPJ would have been at the top of this list when he was at Navy.

 

[NatiJacket]

What the hell is a "pure coach"?

He answered this in the comments

Best pure coach means you could plunk those coaches down in high school or Pop Warner and they’ll still be winning because they can teach the game.

Also, you can't say that because a guy is at a large school that they aren't a good coach. How do you think they got there in the first place? Look what Urban Meyer did to revive Florida, Trussel's domination of the Big 10, Carrol's revival of USC, and you can see that these are great coaches.

Big programs can easily become has-beens. Just ask Nebraska, Michigan, Notre Dame, Florida State, Miami, Alabama, Tennesee, etc. All these schools have huge fan bases, national championships, and tons of recruiting advantages. All have had recent seasons off the top 25 list.

 

[LowcountryJacket]

I think you also do have to take the amount of success into account. Jim Grobe may be a fantastic coach, but the bottom line is he's gone to four bowls in his fourteen seasons as a head coach, including one BCS bowl which he lost. That has to count for something.

But keep in mind that Grobe is at Wake Forest. He's working with recruiting limitations others don't have to worry about.

So in the interest of playing devils advocate, switch Richt and Grobe and what do you think happens? Does Grobe have more success at UGA than Richt would at Wake? Would Richt have more success at Wake than Grobe has? Would Richt at Wake have better success than Grobe at UGA?

You have to admit that where you coach has at least something to do with success. Not that it guarantees it as others have mentioned, but it is a factor. Richt being successful at UGA doesn't make him top 10. In fact most would argue he should have had more success. I'm not sure anyone is saying that about Grobe.

Just not buying that some of these guys winning at major programs makes them better coaches than some of the guys on 77's list.

 

[gth816f]

But keep in mind that Grobe is at Wake Forest. He's working with recruiting limitations others don't have to worry about.

Paul Johnson had to work with those limitations and he made a bowl five out of six years ;).

Anyway I agree with everything you said. I'm just saying that you simply have to take the amount of actual success into account in a top 10 list, even if it is dependent on where you are coaching. I don't know that at this point I would have put Paul(lack of success at highest level) OR Richt(very good success, but still a bit of underperformance) in my top 10 list...I'm sure the reason they are there is that it's an Atlanta newspaper and they coach in Georgia.

There's no way to really boil it down to who is a better coach without taking into account outside factors, because you'll never have everyone on an equal playing field in college.