CBS Sports Ranked Every Head Coach in the Power 5 Conferences from 1 to 65

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62. Missouri Tigers

Barry Odom (Last season:62): It's never easy being the guy that replaces The Guy, and Missouri struggled quite a bit in Odom's first season replacing Gary Pinkel. It will be interesting to see what changes in the second.

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56. Kentucky Wildcats

Mark Stoops (56): Stoops has now finished four seasons at Kentucky, and is yet to take a step backward in any of them. Maybe if he takes another step forward in 2017 we'll move him up in the rankings, too.

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54. Georgia Bulldogs

Kirby Smart (46): Smart was ranked rather highly last year for someone who had never been a head coach before, but he had that Saban sheen. Seems some of it wore off over what was generally considered a disappointing 8-5 season in Athens.

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53. Vanderbilt Commodores

Derek Mason (57): The Commodores have gone from three wins in Mason's first season to four in his second, and six last year. This is a very good sign, but that 5-11 mark in the SEC the last two years needs work.

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52. Tennessee Volunteers

Butch Jones (33): A Champion of Life, but not a champion of our rankings. Still, in my opinion, this is a pretty steep drop considering all the injuries Tennessee dealt with last year. Raised expectations will do that, though.

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48. LSU Tigers

Ed Orgeron (NR): I don't think there are any of us who don't love Orgeron's personality, but we're all taking a cautious approach to what he'll do at LSU now that he's actually starting a season as head coach.

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40. Texas A&M Aggies

Kevin Sumlin (32): It certainly seems like A&M has plateaued, as the Aggies have gone 8-5 in each of the past three seasons under Sumlin. His ranking has not, however, as he falls for the second straight season, and he's now a top-40 coach with a top-10 salary.

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37. South Carolina Gamecocks

Will Muschamp (44): I think Muschamp exceeded all of our expectations in his first year at South Carolina, and as a result, he climbs seven spots in the rankings. If he can do it again in 2017, it might help us all forget how things ended at Florida when we get together to vote again next year.

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33. Ole Miss Rebels

Hugh Freeze (21): It has been a rough year for Coach Freeze. His Rebels followed up a 10-win season and a Sugar Bowl appearance with a 5-7 dud last year, and topped that with some NCAA fun. Now he has fallen out of the top 25 of our coach rankings.

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27. Arkansas Razorbacks

Bret Bielema (22): Bielema is one of three coaches to fall out of last year's top 25, and while I can't speak for everybody else, I believe it's because he just can't get over the hump in the SEC. His teams have been competitive, but even if you take out that 0-8 SEC record in Bret's first season with the Hogs, he's still only 10-14 in conference play.

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23. Florida Gators

Jim McElwain (27): Here's the thing about McElwain's first two seasons in Gainesville. You don't feel like the Gators have really been firing on all cylinders to this point under Mac, yet they've won two division titles. So what's going to happen if it all comes together?

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21. Mississippi State Bulldogs

Dan Mullen (31): When it comes to Mullen, I know I went into last season wanting to see what would happen without Dak Prescott playing quarterback for him. The fact the Bulldogs didn't completely collapse — even if 5-7 isn't exactly good — raised my opinion of him. It appears I was not alone, as he climbs 10 spots.

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19. Auburn Tigers

Gus Malzahn (13): Personally, I'm a bit surprised to see Malzahn ranked this high. He won an SEC title in his first season, and hasn't won more than eight games in a season during any of the following three. He's also gone only 11-13 in SEC play the last three years.

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1. Alabama Crimson Tide

Nick Saban (1): Well, duh. Who else was going to be here? We're talking about a coach that has annihilated the conference most consider to be the best in the country for years now. Five national titles, a sixth title game appearance, eight SEC titles. He's the best coach in the country, and even with all that Meyer has accomplished, it's still not all that close. He's not just the best coach in college right now, but he might be the greatest of all time.

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