SEC Coaching Board

The coaching rankings for the SEC. Each week, the rankings will be updated to reflect each coaches game and season-to-date performances.

Urban Meyer
Florida
Beginning with his time at Bowling Green, Meyer has been a winner everywhere, with an undefeated season in 2004 at Utah, and the 2006 National Championship at Florida. The only knock on him was that he had not stayed at a school long enough to see the effects of his recruiting; now in his fourth season at Florida and with top notch recruiting classes thus far, this appears to have been a needless concern. Now, the only concern is that Richt is going to change the course of the rivalry and emerge as the top contender of the SEC.

Les Miles
LSU
Les is more... More confusion, more bonehead plays and more wins in three seasons at LSU then Nick Saban. The most bizarre thing that happened last season wasn't that App St won in the Big House, or Stanford in the LA Coliseum, it was that Miles' bonehead calls actually lead him to the national title game, and that the month off gave his very talented team (that he has to thank Nick Saban for?) to get well enough to trounce Ohio St. Sure he couldn't have beaten UGA in the SEC Championship game, but he has gone 34-6 over three years. While that is sure to change, Miles has earned the number two position in a very stacked deck of amazing coaches. I look to him to fall to the middle of the pack by year's end.

Nick Saban
Alabama
Once anointed the new king of the SEC prior to his LSU departure, Saban resides this high only due to his time in the Bayou and his ability to get top-notch recruits. The 6-6 campaign means that Saban holds the No. 3 spot by a thread and is likely to be the quickest to fall, especially with Richt on his heels.

Mark Richt
Georgia
Richt's tenure at UGA has been nothing short of astounding. While there were initial growing pains during his early years, Richt has won 3 conference championships and has fallen short of a national title twice. Since 2002, UGA's averaged final ranking has been No. 9, and is the only team to be ranked in the final poll every year for those past six years, and finished No. 3 in 2002 and No. 2 in 2007.

Tommy Tuberville
Auburn
Tuberville's time has been amazing at Auburn, leading the Tigers out of the SEC West cellar and into a perennial SEC West power, not to mention getting them out of the shady Pat Dye/Terry Bowden recruiting scandals. While winning 50 games in the past 5 years with numerous victories over Top 10 teams, Tuberville's biggest knock is losing the game his team is suppose to win, outside the loaded 2004 team.

Phil Fulmer
Tennessee
It has been 10 years since Tennessee won a conference championship, and over that 10 years, UT had an amazing opportunity to take control of the SEC East, if not the SEC itself, only to flounder away the opportunities. His archnemis left Fulmer alone as the big gun in the East, only to see Richt raise UGA from a perennial No. 3 to the top dog of the conference. Fulmer's team has played in the championship game 3 times since 2001, but have found little success without Peyton or David Cutcliff.

Steve Spurrier
South Carolina
The King of the SEC in the '90's; the new Bear; the Ole Ball Coach returned to the SEC in 2005 and has only had marginal success with the Gamecocks. Receiving far less credit for success at his previous position than Saban has, Spurrier was close to a breakout season in 2007, taking USC to No. 6 before losing the final 5 games of the season. And while he has been able to defeat each of the big 3, it's the S.Carolina losing mentality that Spurrier has yet been able to change.

Houston Nutt
Ole Miss
For what he did at Arkansas, Nutt would be a top 2 coach in almost any other conference. In the SEC it puts him at numero ocho. He's coached two Razorback teams to SEC championship games, and after getting little love in 10 seasons in Fayetteville, finally decided to march off, to possibly a better position. The question is whether he can get away from his ultraconservative ground game and create a more balanced team in Oxford. My guess is that he's going to make the Rebels a very formidable team, and possibly begin to cherry-pick the talent in Texas and Louisiana. I wouldn't be surprised if Ole Miss became the No. 3 team in the West (ahead of LSU or Auburn), similar to a position it almost claimed in the mid-to-late 90's.

Sly Croom
Mississippi State
After a rocky start in his first few years, Croom took MSU to its first bowl game since 2000. Named the 2007 SEC Coach of the Year, Croom defeated Ole Miss, Auburn and No. 14 Kentucky, and holds a two game winning streak over Alabama. Like Tuberville, Croom has considerably cleaned up the image in Starkville (which is partly why he receives the nod over Petrino), but with the current coaching SEC line-up, Croom will have to continue to fight just to hold this spot.

Bobby Petrino
Arkansas
Yes, yes Petrino is god's gift to offense; everyone's been told how amazing he is, and how wonderful Louisville was when he was there... But was it really? He coached in the Big East with little other competition, and had the talent and schedule to make an annual run at the national title, but almost came up short. The win in 2005 over Miami might have been a signature win, but looking back, was it really that impressive. Not to mention that the guy is about as sleazy as you can get, and has the worst stench of any coach in football.

Rich Brooks
Kentucky
People say that Rich Brooks has had success wherever he's gone. I guess that's true, as long as success means mediocrity, and I guess it does in Oregon and Kentucky. Brooks' team has been ranked in the final AP Top 25 once in his 30+ year career. Once. In a conference like the SEC, being an average coach means that you're outside the Top 10.

Bobby Johnson
Vanderbilt
Bobby Johnson has kept Vanderbilt very competitive over the past few years, but that's always been Vandy - keep it close and perhaps find a way to win one out of 10. Johnson gets a lot of credit, especially with recent victories over UGA, Tenn and No. 6 S.Carolina, but with this success, he has yet to get Vandy that elusive sixth win. Also, it appears that it will be under Johnson's watch when Vandy finally slips under .500 all-time.