ESPN Left Brian Kelly Out Of Their Top 10 College Football Coaches Rankings For 2024

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Top 10:
1. Kirby Smart, Georgia (100 points)
2. Kalen DeBoer, Alabama (62)
3. Kyle Whittingham, Utah (56)
4. Dabo Swinney, Clemson (50)
5. Mike Norvell, Florida State (49)
6. Dan Lanning, Oregon (37)
7. Steve Sarkisian, Texas (35)
8. Lane Kiffin, Ole Miss (29)
9. Lance Leipold, Kansas (28)
10. Ryan Day, Ohio State (27)

Also receiving votes: Brian Kelly, LSU (23); Lincoln Riley, USC (20); Kirk Ferentz, Iowa (7); Luke Fickell, Wisconsin (7); Eliah Drinkwitz, Missouri (6); Mack Brown, North Carolina (3); Mike Gundy, Oklahoma State (3); Jonathan Smith, Michigan State (3); Deion Sanders, Colorado (2); Curt Cignetti, Indiana (1); Chris Kleiman, Kansas State (1); Jon Sumrall, Tulane (1)

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What ranking surprised you the most?

Adam Rittenberg: People might not like Brian Kelly personally, but the facts overwhelmingly show that he's a top 10 coach. He twice took Notre Dame to the four-team College Football Playoff, went 34-6 at Cincinnati with an undefeated season, won the SEC West in his first year at LSU, has 13 finishes in the AP top 20 and owns two Division II national titles. I like some of the young coaches in this top 10, but they haven't accomplished a fraction of what BK has in his career.

Defend your vote:

Chris Low: Maybe it's just me, but winning -- and doing so at every level over three decades -- counts for something. Kelly won two Division II national championships at Grand Valley State, won two Big East titles at Cincinnati, and took Notre Dame to a BCS national championship game and two more CFP appearances. Most recently, he guided LSU to the 2022 SEC championship game in his first season in Baton Rouge.

Kelly has also proven he can turn around downtrodden programs quickly. (See Central Michigan and Cincinnati.) Even Notre Dame had not won more than seven games in the three seasons prior to Kelly's arrival in 2010. So anybody who didn't have Kelly in their top 10 either hasn't been paying attention, doesn't particularly like him or is too young to appreciate the difficulty of coaching at a high level over a long period of time. I'll take proven substance over flash every time.

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