re: Rank the SEC Coaches (East & West)

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Offseason?

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Just for us, with Kentucky pending. Why do you ask?


Incidentally, since it's basically our off-season already, I'm going to rank them by a synthesis of success with my opinion of their ability.


East

1) Spurrier (not even a debate)
2) Richt (a bit of a debate)
3) Pinkel (eh, whatever
4) Boom (lots of debate, but he's accomplished more than anyone below him, and he's undeniably a great defensive coach.)
5) Jones (I guess)
6) Stoops (started strong, lagging badly)
7) Mason (who knows what the future holds? He's had a rough year, but didn't have a great hand to begin with)

The West is much, much harder after the first two. So I get more wordy.

West:

1) Saban (also not even a debate)
2) Les (would be lower if I only considered my opinion of his actual coaching abilities. But can't argue with results.)
3) Bret (also can't argue results in B10, plus hard to hold the last two years against him seeing how he had to transition from players/recruits for Petrino's system to his own system. Huge jump, and anyone who knows football knows how important the right personnel is.)
4) Freeze (I say this knowing fans of #6 and #7 will go fricking insane. But I believe Freeze is a very underrated coach. He has a good eye for offensive schemes, and, unlike Malzahn, is open to somewhat more hardnosed football on the defense.)
5) Sumlin (We can argue whether he got gifts in the form of a couple great QBs and a dominant o-line. and we can talk about his success this year...but he's still sitting at 7-4 with all 4 losses coming from ranked teams. His defenses suck, true. But so do Les' offenses.)
6) Malzahn (meh. He had lots of talent, all geared toward his system, and did well...for one highly-uneven year. He needs more time to prove himself as an HC in the big leagues. I'm not sold on him yet. Mainly he belongs down here by default. One good year, one okay year in the big leagues)
7) Mullen (This is my arbitrary pick. Mullen is rock solid. Not great, not terrible. But the SEC-W is filled to the brim with great and/or exciting and/or promising coaches. Mullen just doesn't stand out. Do I think he's the 7th best coach in the SEC-W? Not exactly. He's rock solid, as I said, and can always be counted on to field tough teams year in and year out...but he's the sort of coach for whom a season like 2014 is a rare and inexplicable event. The rest of the SEC-W coaches have more potential to rise to the top in a given year, but also to fall to the bottom (with the obvious exception of Saban in the latter case, of course.))