Going into the 2019 season, how do the SEC coaches stack up? Here’s the preseason ranking of all the head men.
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Who do you want as your head coach for right now, and how good are the all the current SEC coaches?
Record and resumés aren’t necessarily everything, but of course they matter. Where are each of the teams going, which guys have the buzz, and which ones need to prove themselves a bit more?
These aren’t Hot Seat Rankings – those are coming later. These are the rankings based loosely on what the head coaches have done, and mostly about what they’re about to do.
Think of it this way. If you were to hold a head coaching draft …
14. Chad Morris, Arkansas
It was a wee bit of curious hire last season considering Morris only had one okay season at SMU – going 7-5 for his only winning campaign in three years – and things didn’t exactly blow up right away. Going 2-10 in Year One was bad enough, but losses to Colorado State and North Texas along the way didn’t help. Worst of all, Morris was hired because of his offensive coaching abilities, and the team scored 17 points or fewer six times. There’s a massive Prove It factor this season.
Last Season Preseason Ranking: 11
– 2019 Arkansas Preview
13. Jeremy Pruitt, Tennessee
If you’re buying stock in SEC head coaches, yeah, go heavy on Pruitt – but he still has to prove he can get the job done. There was hope last year, but needing one win in the final two winnable games for bowl eligibility, his team clunked in a 50-17 loss to Missouri and a 38-13 disaster to Vanderbilt. He’s a fantastic head coach prospect who appears to have things on the right track, but he needs to show it.
Last Season Preseason Ranking: 9
– 2019 Tennessee Preview
12. Matt Luke, Ole Miss
Now we get to see what he can really do. Thrown into a tough situation, he had some great offensive weapons to work with, but there wasn’t much for the defensive side, and keeping the motivation there considering the school’s NCAA sanctions was tough. 11-13 with two sixth-place finishes in the West was an acceptable start considering the circumstances, but this year he has to appear to be the type of head coach who can hang with the heavyweights in his division.
Last Season Preseason Ranking: 12
– 2019 Ole Miss Preview
11. Will Muschamp, South Carolina
Yeah, South Carolina has a BRUTAL schedule, but this is Year Four – the payoff has to come at some point. In his seven years as a head coach at South Carolina and Florida combined, he had one massive 11-2 2012 season with the Gators, and that was about it. Since taking over the gig, Georgia has risen up, Florida is back, and even Kentucky has shown something special, all while the Gamecocks have gone 22-17 during his tenure.
Last Season Preseason Ranking: 6
– 2019 South Carolina Preview
10. Barry Odom, Missouri
It was a tough, tough act to follow after the Gary Pinkel era, and going 19-19 in three years with two bowl losses isn’t quite cutting it. But despite the strange NCAA sanctions the school was hit with, he’s been able to set up the program well for the near future, mostly by doing a great job of securing his quarterbacks from the grad transfer world. The Tigers had their best season since 2014 last year, and he has improved his win total from four, to seven, to eight.
Last Season Preseason Ranking: 13
– 2019 Missouri Preview
9. Derek Mason, Vanderbilt
Vanderbilt has gone bowling in two of the last three seasons. That might not seem like that big a deal, but 1) it’s Vanderbilt, 2) ask Tennessee if that’s easy, and 3) there’s some excellent talent in place to keep being dangerous. 24-38 in five years isn’t anything impressive, and he has yet to have a winning season, but get to six wins and a bowl, and you’re doing something solid in Nashville.
Last Season Preseason Ranking: 14
– 2019 Vanderbilt Preview
8. Gus Malzahn, Auburn
Here’s the problem. Yeah, Malzahn has done a fine job, but Alabama isn’t going anywhere, LSU is still fantastic, and Texas A&M is coming up fast in the rearview mirror. Auburn almost won a national title in 2013, and it’s only a season removed from beating Bama and going to the SEC Championship. But since that first season,
Auburn has lost five games or more in four of the last five campaigns and lost four games in 2017. Under Malzahn, the Tigers have lost 25 games in the last five seasons. In the West over that span, only Ole Miss and Arkansas have lost more.
Last Season Preseason Ranking: 4
– 2019 Auburn Preview
7. Joe Moorhead, Mississippi State
Be ready for Moorhead to grow into a superstar over the next few seasons. He’s a brilliant offensive head coach who took over the reins from Dan Mullen and won with a phenomenal defense that turned out to be among the best in the school’s history. Once the guy who created a powerhouse at Fordham and rocked as a Penn State assistant starts to get his O going, look out.
Last Season Preseason Ranking: 8
– 2019 Mississippi State Preview
6. Mark Stoops, Kentucky
Fantastic … now do it again. Stoops and UK were okay, but last season everything clicked and the program came up with its first ten-win campaign since 1977. It was a brilliant Coach of the Year type of job in dogfight after dogfight, but now without Benny Snell running the ball and Josh Allen eating everyone’s lunch, Stoops has to prove that it wasn’t an aberration.
Last Season Preseason Ranking: 10
– 2019 Kentucky Preview
NEXT: Preview 2019 Top 5 SEC Coach Rankings
5. Ed Orgeron, LSU
Always known as a brilliant assistant and peerless recruiter, he’s in the exact right gig for his personality and style. He might have been underwhelming as the Ole Miss head coach over a decade ago, but how badly did USC whiff when they didn’t retain him after going 6-2 in 2013 with Coach O as the interim head man?
Granted, Orgeron is one bad start away from being on everyone’s hot seat list – such is the nature of the LSU gig – but his teams have improved in each of his first three seasons, and he has a strong squad returning.
Last Season Preseason Ranking: 7
– 2019 LSU Preview
4. Dan Mullen, Florida
You knew Florida was the right job for him. But first, how about a whole lot of credit for the brilliant job he did at Mississippi State for nine years? After going 5-7 in his first season, he took the program to a bowl in the next eight seasons and will forever hold the distinction of being the head of the program that was the first ever No. 1 team in the College Football Playoff rankings.
He only had one 10-3 season in Starkville, and then he stepped into the Gator gig and won ten games in his first season. It was the next-step-up move, and he made the most of it. Now he has the team in place – thanks, Jim McElwain – to do a whole lot more.
Last Season Preseason Ranking: 5
– 2019 Florida Preview
3. Jimbo Fisher, Texas A&M
Ohhhhh, it’s coming soon, Texas A&M fans. Yeah, the schedule this season might be a whole bunch of nasty, but the Aggies are just good enough to pull off an upset at Clemson or at home against Alabama somewhere along the way. The talent level is rising after a phenomenal class, but first, Fisher should take the team another step forward this season.
It was slightly underappreciated on a national scale how he stepped right in and gave A&M its first nine-win season in five years, and its first bowl victory in four. Give it another year or two, and then look out.
Last Season Preseason Ranking: 3
– 2019 Texas A&M Preview
2. Kirby Smart, Georgia
Yeah, yeah, yeah … his Bulldogs lost the Sugar Bowl, but he was one miraculous Jalen Hurts performance – and one whiffed fake punt – away from winning a second straight SEC Championship and making another appearance in the College Football Playoff.
Really? You think this thing is about to slow down? If Smart didn’t bring in the best recruiting class in the nation last year, it was a close No. 2. If Smart didn’t bring in the best recruiting class in the nation two years ago, it was a close No. 2. If Smart didn’t bring in the best recruiting class in the nation three years ago … you get the point. Georgia is going to be very, very good for a long time.
Last Season Preseason Ranking: 2
– 2019 Georgia Preview
1. Nick Saban, Alabama
He might have gotten his clock cleaned by Dabo in the College Football Playoff National Championship, but before that, he and the Tide were on one of the greatest 15-game runs in the history of college football.
It was one miserable game – that obviously doesn’t take away anything from his legacy. If anything, it appears to have fired him up. There’s a different energy this offseason around Alabama with a greater sense of urgency and motivation to go along with all that talent he has amassed.
How’s this for a run? 11 straight seasons of ten wins or more, eight top four finishes in the last ten years, and most impressive of all, four straight years with just one loss.
He’s still pretty good.
Last Season Preseason Ranking: 1
– 2019 Alabama Preview
