In the last two months, football coaches have hopped from one SEC school to another faster than a rabbit in a mine field.
In fact, I can’t ever remember this many moves within the SEC in a single season.
Tennessee hired assistants from South Carolina, Alabama, Auburn and Mississippi State, and also got a strength coach from South Carolina while almost landing Georgia’s ace recruiter.
Mississippi State hired as its head coach the offensive coordinator at Florida, who brought with him an assistant from Florida.
Auburn hired Tracy Rocker from Ole Miss, which then hired Rocker’s cousin (from Auburn) to replace him.
Alabama lost a top recruiter to Tennessee, then raided Auburn’s staff for a former Tiger player who is an outstanding recruiter.
For the second year in a row, South Carolina hired a defensive coordinator from Arkansas. The Gamecocks also hired a former star running back from Tennessee.
LSU hired a 20-year assistant from Tennessee and a secondary coach from South Carolina.
Raise your hand if you didn’t hire a coach from South Carolina?
Steve Spurrier lost four assistants and a strength coach from his 2008 staff.
These changes don’t include SEC teams bringing back into the league Trooper Taylor and Carl Torbush.
With National Signing Day just over a week away, you’d think the SEC coach jumping has stopped. These days, you never know.
Now that the staffs appear to be complete, let’s rank the SEC football coaches.
1. Florida coach Urban Meyer. It’s hard to argue with what heâs done. Not only did he win at Bowling Green and Utah, he’s won two national championships in the last three years at Florida.
He will be favored by many to win a third in four years, matching what Nebraska did in the 1990s.
Meyer has proven the spread option works in the SEC. And he’s on his way to supplanting Steve Spurrier as the greatest coach in Gator history. He’s a better recruiter than Spurrier and maybe a better big-game coach.
2. Alabama coach Nick Saban. Saban proved he’s a terrific recruiter at LSU and Alabama. He proved he can maximize his talent this past season at Alabama. He won a national championship at LSU and left another title for Les Miles. And, like Meyer, Saban has proven he can win at more than one program.
Two knocks on Saban: He’s a bear (and I don’t mean Bryant) to coach for and he’s never had back-to-back 10-win seasons.
3. Georgia coach Mark Richt. Georgia has been in the top 10 six of the last seven years – more than any other SEC program. And while Richt has averaged more than 10 wins in his eight years in Athens , his recent teams have had a tendency to flop in some big games.
It will be interesting to see how the Bulldogs respond to losing early to the NFL draft quarterback Matt Stafford and running back Knowshon Moreno.
4. LSU coach Les Miles. Yes he makes some head-scratching decisions, and yes he won with mostly Saban’s talent his first three years. But I’ve got to give him some credit for winning a national championship, winning 34 games his first three seasons and routing each of his four bowl opponents.
Last season, LSU limped home to an 8-5 record. Miles made a mistake by naming co-defensive coordinators, but he fixed that problem by hiring John Chavis from Tennessee . And LSU didn’t have a quarterback. Ask Tennessee and Auburn what that’s like. This season will go a long way in defining Miles as LSU’s coach.
5. Ole Miss coach Houston Nutt. He did a terrific job last season with Ed Orgeron’s talent… winning at Florida, winning at LSU and capturing the Cotton Bowl over a one-loss top-10 team from the Big 12. After a 3-4 start, the Rebels won six in a row.
But can Nutt sustain that success? Can he recruit enough good players? His recruiting at Arkansas was inconsistent. So were his records. He did win at least eight games in six of his 10 years at Arkansas. If he can do that at Ole Miss, he’ll be the program’s best coach since John Vaught.
6. South Carolina coach Steve Spurrier. Once compared to Bear Bryant, Spurrier’s stock has plummeted like Wall Street. In four years at Columbia, he’s 28-22 with a losing record in SEC play. He’s lost two in a row to Vanderbilt. In 12 seasons at Florida, he lost 27 games.
What’s more, the biggest problem at South Carolina has been offense, not defense. And it appeared as though several players quit on him last year.
7. Arkansas coach Bobby Petrino. I almost put Petrino ahead of Spurrier, but Petrino’s track record isn’t long enough. He had great success at Louisville against Big East competition. Can he do it in the SEC? Time will tell. Hog fans should be encouraged that he beat Auburn, Tulsa and LSU.
8. Vanderbilt coach Bobby Johnson. I wonder what Johnson could do if he had the talent of the upper tier teams in the SEC. Heck, I wonder what he would do if he had the talent of South Carolina and Ole Miss. He’s beaten Spurrier two years in a row and knocked off the Rebels last season. He also won the school’s first bowl game in 53 years. He’s a solid coach at a behind-the-eight-ball program.
9. Kentucky coach Rich Brooks. Brooks has done something no other Kentucky coach has done — won three bowl games in three seasons. You’ve got to go back to the Bear Bryant days (1949-51) to find the last time Kentucky played in three consecutive bowls. Brooks took over a terrible program on probation and has turned it into a competitive SEC team with decent athletes.
10. Tennessee coach Lane Kiffin. You can question Kiffin’s resume, but he has put together a strong staff of recruiters (although Ed Orgeronhas already been cited for a secondary recruiting violation). Kiffin’s charge will be to fix an offense that was one of the nation’s worst in 2008. If Lane can get production out of his quarterback, Tennessee should win at least eight games this season. While you’ve got to praise the hire of defensive guru Monte Kiffin, don’t expect the defense to be as good this season due to a new system and personnel losses.
11. Mississippi State coach Dan Mullen. If you believe that you should scratch where it itches, then Mullen was the right choice for a program that has been deficient on offense since Sly Croom arrived five years ago. Mullen doesn’t have the offensive talent yet to make much noise, but he is a good play caller who should attract a good quarterback.
12. Auburn coach Gene Chizik. His record at Iowa State is hard to overlook, but he was considered a tremendous defensive coordinator — just as Will Muschamp is today — who helped Auburn to an undefeated season and Texas to a national championship. Chizik hired a solid staff. But he doesn’t have enough tools on offense to threaten just yet.