Rating the SEC- coaching staffs

[Coach34]

1. Alabama- Saban is the best defensive coach in college football, and probably the best recruiter. His teams are what Jackie believed in completely- be good on defense, special teams, and have an offense that runs the football while not turning it over. McElwain is a solid OC.

2. Florida- Urban and crew would have been number 1, but I really believe losing Mullen has hurt him slightly. We'll see what kind of DC Teryl Austin is after leaving the Arizona Cardinals secondary.

3. State- I know our Rebel brethren will raise hell about this, but I don't care. No SEC team improved more last season than State did. That's coaching. State went from last in the SEC in rushing to 1st- over national champion Alabama and their Heisman winner. Koenning and Hudspeth also seem to be doing a good job of working with the offense. Mullen upgraded his DC this offseason by telling Torbush to find a job and bringing in Diaz. Chris Wilson coming in from Oklahoma is an upgrade as well for D

4. Mississippi- back-to-back Cotton Bowls and solid recruiting classes put Nutt's group 4th. We'll see what Nix can do this season with the pressure on his shoulders most of the time.

5. South Carolina- we'll see if Spurrier's still got in 2010. He has a solid offense and a good D in Columbia. Ellis Johnson is a very good DC.

6. LSU- Miles should be higher, but Gary Crowton is probably going to end up getting him fired. Miles is one of the few SEC coaches that doesn't run the offense or defense. Crowton's offense was out of sync all season. Chavis is a good DC and will have them solid on D. In spite of all that, they still finished 3rd in the SEC last season. Big year for this coaching staff.

7. Auburn- Chizik's group was solid on defense last year. Malzahn's offense started quick, but fizzled some as the season progressed. This group has the talent to show they belong in the top half of coaches in 2010

8. Arkansas- Petrino's offense is very good good, but Willy Robinson better have an improved defense or there is going to be hell to pay from the Pig faithful. They were awful on defense last year

9. Georgia- Richt and his offensive staff have been good, but they have struggled defensively lately. We'll see what Todd Grantham is made of this season as he makes his SEC debut to turn around one of the SEC's worst defenses last year

10. Tennessee- Derek Dooley makes his debut in Knoxville. He kept the OC in tact, and hired Boise's DC.

11. Kentucky- Joker takes over. He doesnt have to do much to outshine Croom. Their offense won't change at all, and neither will their defense.

12. Vandy- I think Bobby Johnson started the rumor himself that he was sleeping around and his wife caught him just to have an excuse to get out of Vandy because he couldnt take it anymore. Hats off to this group for coming to work everyday.

 

[Coach34]

1. Alabama- Saban is the best defensive coach in college football, and probably the best recruiter. His teams are what Jackie believed in completely- be good on defense, special teams, and have an offense that runs the football while not turning it over. McElwain is a solid OC.

2. Florida- Urban and crew would have been number 1, but I really believe losing Mullen has hurt him slightly. We'll see what kind of DC Teryl Austin is after leaving the Arizona Cardinals secondary.

3. State- I know our Rebel brethren will raise hell about this, but I don't care. No SEC team improved more last season than State did. That's coaching. State went from last in the SEC in rushing to 1st- over national champion Alabama and their Heisman winner. Koenning and Hudspeth also seem to be doing a good job of working with the offense. Mullen upgraded his DC this offseason by telling Torbush to find a job and bringing in Diaz. Chris Wilson coming in from Oklahoma is an upgrade as well for D

4. Mississippi- back-to-back Cotton Bowls and solid recruiting classes put Nutt's group 4th. We'll see what Nix can do this season with the pressure on his shoulders most of the time.

5. South Carolina- we'll see if Spurrier's still got in 2010. He has a solid offense and a good D in Columbia. Ellis Johnson is a very good DC.

6. LSU- Miles should be higher, but Gary Crowton is probably going to end up getting him fired. Miles is one of the few SEC coaches that doesn't run the offense or defense. Crowton's offense was out of sync all season. Chavis is a good DC and will have them solid on D. In spite of all that, they still finished 3rd in the SEC last season. Big year for this coaching staff.

7. Auburn- Chizik's group was solid on defense last year. Malzahn's offense started quick, but fizzled some as the season progressed. This group has the talent to show they belong in the top half of coaches in 2010

8. Arkansas- Petrino's offense is very good good, but Willy Robinson better have an improved defense or there is going to be hell to pay from the Pig faithful. They were awful on defense last year

9. Georgia- Richt and his offensive staff have been good, but they have struggled defensively lately. We'll see what Todd Grantham is made of this season as he makes his SEC debut to turn around one of the SEC's worst defenses last year

10. Tennessee- Derek Dooley makes his debut in Knoxville. He kept the OC in tact, and hired Boise's DC.

11. Kentucky- Joker takes over. He doesnt have to do much to outshine Croom. Their offense won't change at all, and neither will their defense.

12. Vandy- I think Bobby Johnson started the rumor himself that he was sleeping around and his wife caught him just to have an excuse to get out of Vandy because he couldnt take it anymore. Hats off to this group for coming to work everyday.

 

[AzzurriDawg4]

I hear ya man, preach on.

 

[Buford T. Justice]

Good job.

 

[jackstefano]

He kept the OC in tact .. .

I hear he's pretty in tents too.

 

[FlabLoser]

Nutt is an up and down coach. The last 2 years, he was cruising on Special Ed's talent. So he gets little credit for 2 cotton bowls and even worse of a grade for the decline of Jevan Snead.

 

[patdog]

Houston Nutt - 129-78 career record
Gene Chizik - 13-24 career record

Nutt's a proven good (not great, but good) coach. Chizik hasn't really proven anything yet, though he may.

 

[DawgatAuburn]

As a head coach, he doesn't have much to show, although I would argue that judging him on his Iowa State record might be akin to judging Coach K based off his stint at Army. Neither puts you in an optimal situation. Chizik does have a pretty impressive resume as a defensive coach throughout his career, and he was at least smart enough to hire Malzahn to run the offense.

 

[therightway]

Also their offense seemed to be a little slow last year without any real playmakers. It will be interesting to see how their OC adapts to not having Tebow. Auburn has two really good coordinators, but their position coaches are real *** clowns. Trooper Taylor and Curtis Luper are the biggest thugs you will find on a college coaching staff. We are much better off with the departure of Torbush. He will get roasted this year in the Big 12 when he goes against their pass happy offenses. Ole Miss has a good defensive staff but their offense will really be in question. Nutt really runs the offense and without any real player like Dexter, he has got to bewondering who is going to step up for them. South Carolina has some really good coaches but they can never get the talent to make a strong push.

 

[patdog]

But going 3-5 in the SEC at Auburn isn't enough to put him ahead of a proven good coach like Nutt. He only improved them 1 game in the SEC over the train wreck of a season they had in 2008. And they had better talent than that record that year because of tall the internal turmoil. I mean how many teams fire their offensive coordinator DURING the season?</p>

 

[patdog]

I know they didn't have a great season last year, but Richt is the most successful coach in UGA history. He has a 90-27 recordwith 5 top 10 national rankings 9 seasons. You gotta rank UGAs coaches #3 just based on his record.

 

[DowntownDawg]

1) Bama - Saban just has it. He seems like such an ***, but he wins. Why can't Cohen do both?
2) Florida - Agree that losing Mullen hurt. He was stacked with talent last year and they were underwhelming. Otherwise, winning 2 NC's in 3 years gets you the top spot in the league, regardless of Bama's year.
3) Mississippi - Nutt has recruited at OM better than Orgeron did and better than he did and Arkansas. That has been a huge surprise. At the end of the day he's taken a program that was really bad and gone to two straight Cotton Bowls. And I am wary of them this year. Nutt always does his best work when there are low expectations and he can come out of nowhere.
4) LSU - Miles made some bonehead decisions last year, but being a HC is about so much more than what happens during the game. He's won championships and has continued to recruit well.
5) Georgia - Richt has been down of late, but his body of work is really pretty strong, and it's not ancient history like Spurrier.
6) State- As you said, we've improved a great deal. Mullen is hungry and he got the message to the team and they were tons better last year. Still too early to get a great read, but if he can get us bowling this year, it will be another great job on his part.
7) Arkansas - Petrino wins at the collegiate level. Enough said. If we were just looking at head coaches, then Petrino would probably pass a few, but there are big questions on defense though., so we'll see.
8) South Carolina - Spurrier is just outdated and tired. His past resume
alone puts him ahead of the rest of the league, but they are largely
irrelevant.
9) Auburn - Chizik. I still think the groan from War Eagle nation when he was hired will eventually be justified. Malzahn will eventually take a head job somewhere and Auburn will fall off.
10) UT - Too early to tell on Dooley. Early returns are not great.
11) Kentucky - Bleh
12) Vandy - Maybe they can go back to being the league's whipping boy.

 

[therightway]

For some reason I thought that they had a better season since they were in a New Years Day bowl. How in the hell did they lose to UK at home. I had totally forgotten that they started off 5-0 last year. That was a complete failure to only win 2 more games after the first week of October and one of those was Furman.

 

[Coach34]

means their staff was not in the top half of the conference in 2009. These rankings are fluid and change year to year...If we base on career record Pat, wouldnt Spurrier be 3rd?

 

[patdog]

and hasn't been for about a decade or so. There are now 9 "New Year's Day" bowls, although some of them aren't played on New Year's Day any more.

 

[o_hgsmith]

last year. I mean they did go from a losing record to 8 or 9 wins. Their offense was also significantly improved as well. Mullen increased your win total from 4 to 5.

 

[patdog]

Richt had a good season as recently as 2008. Very big difference there.

 

[olemissbydamn]

means their staff was not in the top half of the conference in 2009. These rankings are fluid and change year to year...If we base on career record Pat, wouldnt Spurrier be 3rd?

Didn't you guys force Torbush out. How is that any different?

 

[DerHntr]

Mullen increased your win total from 4 to 5

but, but, but....we looked so much better winning that extra game and almost won several others

/seriously though. our other stats were clearly improved and the team did look better than in the past. but you are correct.

 

[Coach34]

Auburn winning 5 games in 2008 was a hiccup in their program and not indicitive of their talent. It was clearly time for Tooberville to go.

State had been a joke under Crooms as well as Jackie's last 3 seasons. Auburn improved from 5 to 8 wins, but the gap of improvement was nowhere near the gap we covered in going from an SEC joke to having Fla and Tebow on the ropes last year as well as other teams. Obviously State has to be in a bowl in 2010 for Mullen to be worthy of this ranking, but I would definitely say our improvement as a program was much more than what Auburn did last season.

 

[Coach34]

SC has never had a 5 year stretch of non-losing seasons. Spurrier is coaching at Miss State East.

I think this season will answer your question about Spurrier and Richt. Georgia should never play in the Indy Bowl.

 

[patdog]

Spurrier's I-A record in 5 years at South Carolina is 31-28 (18-22 vs the SEC). In the 5 years just before he got there, their I-A record was 32-26 (19-21 vs the SEC). So tell me again how much better he's made them.

 

[rebelrouseri]

a sell out (i.e., if the fans didn't buy x amount of tickets, the school would) so they pretty much bought it out from under UT who had a better record and was from the east.

 

[Coach34]

Georgia goes to SC in week 2, then faces Arkansas at home in week 3, and then travels to Starkville for a Bulldog fight in week 4....

SC plays Georgia in week 2, then goes to Auburn in week 4...

Spurrier has to win 8-9 games this season...Georgia has some really big early games with a young QB and a struggling defense

We'll see if Richt is the guy you say he is or not

 

[JimHalpert.nafoom]

has proven that his decline is more of a personal problem than a coaching problem.

I agree that his tends to be very up and down, though. He'll probably never win the SEC, but you'll go to decent bowl games most of the time.

 

[FlabLoser]

He only improved them 1 game in the SEC over the train wreck of a season they had in 2008.
</p>

Meahwhile the 3rd ranked coach did not improve his team's record. See, there's more to it than that. He walked into a shitstorm at Auburn and had them being an above average team.

 

[brantleyjones]

Auburn's defense was solid last year? Did you <span style="font-weight: bold;">ever</span> watch them play? They gave up 31 points to LSU's 112th ranked offense, got run all over by Ark, and blew a 14 point lead to KY. Yes, they played their hearts out against Bama, but still couldn't hold the lead at the end. Then they gave up like 700 yards to Northwestern. They won last year by outscoring people. When their offense went south, they lost.

It'll be more of the same this year. Their best DL used up his eligibility. The DB who made the interceptions to allow them to hold off N'western did too. They have 3 good linebackers. All of the depth will be freshmen. Their secondary is a mix of the inexperienced and the walking wounded. The only things I see going for them on defense are the LB's and Chizik.

Offense will be a whole different story. Another year in Malzahn's offense. Micheal Dyer. Darvin Adams. If Cam Newton can read defenses and hit the broadside of a barn, they're going to be awesome, but they'll be involved in a<span style="font-weight: bold;"> lot</span> of high scoring games. Ark at AU should be highly entertaining (as might AU at MSU).

 

[Coach34]

and with 8 starters returning plus underclassmen, they should improve on that

 

[Superior]

anonymously, and never felt the need to log in and post anything until today. That was the stupidest thing I have read on here. Mullen and Co. have won 5 games. 5. In one year. And you honestly believe his staff is the the third best in the SEC. Damn, that is truly the dumbest thing I have read in a long time.

 

[markymark.sixpack]

1. Bama
2. Florida
3. Georgia - c'mon man, Richt has had that team in the top 20 damn near every year he's been there.
4. Auburn - Still don't like the Chiz, but Malzahn gets them this high
5. USC - Ellis is superb
6.UM - Way more proven at this point than our staff...
7. MSU - we've got to see what Diaz has really got
8.Ark
9. LSU - this staff is a joke. All they've done well is recruit to one of the easiest schools out there to recruit to. This is their last year in the Red Stick. Even Coach34 could average 7-8 wins per year with all the talent in BR.
10, 11, 12 = Push between KY, Vandy, and TN

 

[BoDawg.sixpack]

"No SEC team improved more last season than State did."

No SEC coaching staff sucked as hard as Mullen's predecessors either. Mullen took the X's and O's of the game andmade chicken salad out of fresh manure.
Woody McCorvey was outscored by Ellis Johnson's defense, breaking new ground inregressive offensive philosophy.

The five fumbles against Ga Tech still sticks out in my mind though. We'll see if we've improved in turnovers next year

 

[thatsbaseball]

nm

 

[brantleyjones]

31 points to LSU. They lost a defensive battle with <span style="font-weight: bold;">KY!</span> Did you see their bowl game? It was flag football. They won in OT and NW's QB threw like 6 INT's. 8th in a 12 team conference is hardly "solid", especially with MSU, ARK, and KY in said conference (and the only one of those they beat last year was MSU, in only MSU's 2nd game in Mullen's system, and with the infamous Torbush 3 man rush. They didn't exactly shut State down in the first half either. Their offense won that game, or State's defense lost it.)

Antonio Coleman is gone. Warren McFadden is gone. One of their returning starting DB's broke his neck last year. Two are coming off serious injuries (knee/Achilles heel?).

That said, the last 3 or so games of the season their 3 starting linebackers played every snap, so their depth could hardly be worse (and those 3 LB's came from a group of 4, so they're probably double dipping on the number of returning starters), but the depth will be <span style="font-weight: bold;">all</span> freshmen, in the SEC. With Newton, Dyer, and McCaleb, they'll probably run the ball more (I could out run Chris Todd), and maybe keep the defense off the field more, but if Malzahn scores too quickly, or not often enough, their defense is going to be in a lot of trouble, or Gene Chizik is a genius, which I'll concede if AU has a better than mediocre defense. Which they did <span style="font-weight: bold;">not</span> have last year, except against AL and maybe WV.

And Tubby did not suddenly forget how to coach. Nor did Wayne Borgas or Tony Franklin. He and his assistants quit recruiting for whatever reasons. The AU teams you've seen the last 3 years are not the AU teams of the early millenia. They've been really thin on defense, and will be again this year.

 

[patdog]

Meahwhile the 3rd ranked coach did not improve his team's record.

MSU improved from 2-6 to 3-5. But yeah, Coach34 has our coaching staff rated way too high.It's potentially a very good staff, but it has a LOTto prove to be rated anywhere near #3 in the SEC.

 

[o_TomnolenReb]

you are a ********. that's all.