re: CBS Sports: College Football Coaching Tiers ...

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Offense, yes. Defense, no. He fielded incredible athletes on defense, but he wasn't overly interested in it. If you're talking opponent defenses, well, that's really just regular correlation. Take a Saban defense and see how opponents shift their offenses to actually be able to move the ball. You can give him credit for both, but it's really just one being an inevitable result of the other.

Spurrier's tier is sort of murky. He was the scariest coach in CFB for several years, but he only went all the way once (and got royally humiliated on another try.) In my opinion, he's sort of hovering between Tier 1 and Tier 2, not so much because of what did or didn't accomplish as because Saban and Urban have separated themselves with such clear demarcation that it's hard to put anyone else in their tier.

Luckily, SOS no longer coaches, so we don't have to make that tough decision.

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He was a lazy recruiter too (and it usually showed against Bowden). The Fiesta Bowl made him care about defense and he went out and hired Bob Stoops.