Who are the most overrated coaches in college football? Who are the coaches that promise the moon but deliver precious little in the face of high expectations?
Ahead of the 2023 college football season, we identified five coaches that maybe get more hype than they’ve earned and explain why things look a little bit bleak despite the renewed hopes for the coming year:
5. Chip Kelly, UCLA
The success that Kelly had at Oregon feels like a million years ago with the way that college offenses have evolved since then combined with his inability to bring that same high-octane offense to UCLA.
Kelly has done a good job of returning UCLA to respectability in the Pac-12 after going 10-21 in his first three seasons. But it seems clear that what he had in Eugene just hasn’t followed him to SoCal.
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4. Mario Cristobal, Miami
Speaking of former Oregon head coaches, Mario Cristobal is another guy who has thus far struggled to take his success with the Ducks elsewhere.
The Miami Hurricanes went just 5-7 in his first year at the helm despite Cristobal bringing on an all-star cast of coaches to assist him and becoming one of the highest paid coaches in college football.
In 2022 the defense was tough to look at at times while the offense failed to score more than 14 points in five games.
3. Steve Sarkisian, Texas
We may never know what Steve Sarkisian could have achieved at USC due to the personal problems that led to his firing after just 1.5 years. But the results we’ve seen at Texas thus far don’t indicate that they missed out on much.
In a year where Texas had the Big 12 conference right there for the taking, they once again fell short of even making the Big 12 Championship Game.
Now that Sarkisian has successfully recruited Arch Manning, he is tasked with getting after last ounce of potential out of the Manning scion. If Manning doesn’t excel under his tutelage, it’ll be a bigger stain on his career than any mistake he made at USC.
2. Jimbo Fisher, Texas A&M
If recruiting won championships then Jimbo Fisher would be up there with Nick Saban and Bear Bryant. But the fact of the matter is, since being hired by Texas A&M in 2018 the Aggies have been perpetual underperformers.
He’s 1-4 against Alabama, 2-3 against Auburn, 2-3 against Mississippi State and 2-2 against Ole Miss. He does have a winning record against LSU and Arkansas, but if he can’t consistently win in his own division – albeit the best one in college football – how can anyone reasonably expect him to win the SEC, let alone a national title?
1. Lane Kiffin, Ole Miss
But if we’re talking about the Grand Poobah of overpromising and underdelivering, it has to be Lane Kiffin.
What Kiffin did at Florida Atlantic was superb, and he’ll always have a place in Nick Saban’s heart. But as a head coach Kiffin’s unique offense and personality just doesn’t seem to translate to huge wins.
In eight seasons coaching Power Five teams – Texas, USC and Ole Miss – Kiffin has two seasons where his teams were ranked in the top 25. He’s 1-4 in bowl games with those three schools and while NCAA sanctions kept him from taking USC further in 2010 and 2011, he just doesn’t have that career-defining win that justifies the love he always gets.
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Who do you think are the most overrated coaches in college football?