AL.COM ranks SEC Coaching Jobs

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14) Vanderbilt (16-36 record last five years): The school is trying to elevate the program, but it is tough sledding. From strict academic standards to lackluster fan support compared to many other SEC programs, this is the clear most challenging job in the conference.

13) Missouri (29-25 record): Outside of Vanderbilt, Missouri is the weirdest fit in the SEC. Gary Pinkel showed you can win at a solid clip at Missouri, but it’ll only get harder for the Tigers once Texas and Oklahoma join the conference.

12) Mississippi State (30-32 record): We’ve seen this school can be a national contender when Dan Mullen and Dak Prescott had the Bulldogs ranked No. 1 at one point in 2014. But it’s not an easy job competing in the SEC West and playing in a state better suited to support one SEC school rather than two.

11) South Carolina (25-29 record): There is plenty of fan support at South Carolina, but the Gamecocks haven’t been truly relevant since 2013 and have to deal with in-state power Clemson soaking up a lot of the attention. If we did tiers instead of rankings, it’d be in the same one as the two schools ranked above it.

10) Kentucky (36-20 record): Yes, Kentucky will always be a basketball school, but it is a perfect example of how institutional alignment can play a significant role. University president Eli Capilouto, AD Mitch Barnhart and football coach Mark Stoops have shown this season what can be accomplished at Kentucky when everyone is on the same page.

9) Ole Miss (24-27 record): Ole Miss has a lot of the same concerns as Mississippi State, but is viewed within the industry as the better of the two Mississippi SEC jobs. There has been plenty of upheaval at Ole Miss over the last decade, but there is enough institutional support to be successful.

8) Arkansas (15-37 record): The big pluses to the Arkansas job are it’s the only SEC school in the state, there are quite a few very wealthy boosters willing to invest in the program and there’s a lot of fan support no matter the program’s record. The recruiting base isn’t as good as other SEC schools, which holds it back here, but Sam Pittman has shown that it can be nationally relevant when Arkansas has the right fit.

7) Tennessee (24-29 record): Tennessee has been wandering in the wilderness for more than a decade now, going from failed coaching hire to failed coaching hire trying to recapture the magic of the 1990s. There is terrific fan support here and you can recruit the talent needed to win big, but the school hasn’t been able to attract top-tier talent to this job in recent hires, which shows how this job’s reputation has slipped.

6) Auburn (37-20 record): The good: The fan support, facilities and access to top recruits give any coach a chance to be a national contender. The bad: Alignment has been hard to come by at Auburn, to put it mildly, and there is intense pressure to be better than Alabama. There’s no question you can win big at Auburn, however, and it makes it an upper-echelon job.

5) Texas A&M (37-18 record): The school has lots of well-heeled boosters willing to invest big in the program, making this job very attractive. You have an excellent recruiting base though you might always play second-fiddle in-state to Texas. This is a job where you can win a national championship.

4) Florida (37-18 record): Florida has it all -- great recruiting base, great fan support and great tradition. This job can be trickier than some of the ones above it given the in-state competition against Florida State and Miami, though that hasn’t been a big issue in recent years. This is a top 10 job nationally.

3) Georgia (50-9 record): As rival fans love to point out, Georgia hasn’t won a national title since 1980. The school has access to the most fertile recruiting area in the country and has recently started making more financial investments like a new football practice facility with an $80 million price tag. Georgia’s reluctance to engage in the facilities and coaching salaries arm race may have held it back some in the past, but those days are over. This is an incredible job.

2) LSU (42-15 record): The last three LSU head coaches won a national championship here. The fact Ed Orgeron one was one of them given his coaching struggles elsewhere might be one of the best selling points of how good this job is. This is the kind of job that big names coaches would fight each other to get.

1) Alabama (56-5 record): The sport’s two greatest coaches ever, Nick Saban and Bear Bryant, both did most of their winning here. The fan and institutional support is off the charts and gives anyone in the job here a great chance to win big. It’s the best job in the country when it comes to alignment and ability to win.

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paperwasp

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