2024 SEC football head coach rankings from 1 to 16: Kirby Smart is the top dog and then who?
It’s the spring, which means pollen-covered cars, March Madness and head coach rankings!
That’s right, it’s time for the 2024 series ranking the head coaches from each Power Conference, the Top 10 in the Group of 5 and an updated Top 25 for all of college football.
While the sport continues to adapt to a new landscape, coupled with losing venerable coaches like Nick Saban, Jim Harbaugh and Chip Kelly, these head coach rankings will look much differently than they did a year ago.
For the uninitiated, these lists are totally subjective. This is meant to be a fun exercise, but it’s my rankings.
While career achievements are taken into account, college football has become a sport that’s constantly changing, so recent performance (wins, recruiting, working the transfer portal, hiring assistants, producing NFL Draft picks, etc) is weighed much more heavily than what you’ve done in the past.
Entering the 2024 season, the SEC features two new teams (so two more coaches to rank), and two new head coaches at Texas A&M and Mississippi State.
No. 1 Kirby Smart, Georgia
Smart is the undisputed top-ranked coach in America right now. He’s won at least 11 games in six of the last seven years, has a pair of national titles and just inked another No. 1 recruiting class.
Georgia has sent more talent to the NFL than any program in the country in the last few seasons, and the Bulldogs are the early favorites for the national championship in 2024.
No. 2 Brian Kelly, LSU
Kelly has done everything but win a national championship at the FBS level. He’s won at least 10 games in seven straight seasons, producing a Heisman Trophy winner in quarterback Jayden Daniels in Year 2 at LSU.
This offseason, he overhauled the Tigers’ defensive coaching staff, poaching Blake Baker and Kevin Peoples from Missouri and Bo Davis from Texas. LSU currently has the No. 1 ranked 2025 recruiting class. With Saban gone, Kelly’s chances of winning a national title in Baton Rouge just went up.
No. 3 Kalen DeBoer, Alabama
While DeBoer’s resume as FBS head coach is fairly light, the man rarely loses — whether it’s at Sioux Falls or Washington (104-12). He won 21 straight games with the Huskies, beat Texas twice and made the national championship in Year 2, which is why he became the coveted target to replace Nick Saban at Alabama.
DeBoer is an elite Xs and Os coach, a great developer of talent and a big-game slayer (12-2 vs. Top 25 teams). He seems undaunted by the pressure of following a legend, and he’s quickly assembled a great staff. The biggest unknown is DeBoer’s ability to consistently recruit Top 3 classes.
No. 4 Steve Sarkisian, Texas
Sarkisian won 10 games for the first time in his career in 2023, resurrecting the Longhorns’ program back to national prominence by winning the Big 12 and making the CFP. He’s arguably the best play-caller in college football and is certainly one of the top offensive minds.
After failed stints at Washington and USC, Sarkisian is building a monster at Texas. He’s recruiting top classes and is aggressively utilizing the transfer portal. It seems a matter of when, not if, he’ll become a national champion head coach.
No. 5 Lane Kiffin, Ole Miss
Kiffin just led the Rebels to their first 11-win season in school history, and like Sarkisian, has overcome a rocky start to his head coaching career (be it the one-and-done season at Tennessee or the stint at USC). Before Kiffin arrived in Oxford, Ole Miss had just three 10-win seasons in 48 years. He could top that in 2024 with the Rebels pushing their chips for a potential SEC title run.
Kiffin has maximized the transfer portal and is an excellent offensive mind. Next up: leading Ole Miss to the playoff and winning more games against Top 25 foes.
No. 6 Josh Heupel, Tennessee
A year after leading the Vols to their best season in nearly 25 years, Heupel managed to win nine games in 2023 despite erratic quarterback play. That shouldn’t be an issue in the future, though, as the Nico Iamaleava era starts this fall and 2025 5-star commit George MacIntyre is waiting in the wings.
Heupel’s go-go offense has caught the attention of some of the best quarterbacks and wide receiver prospects in the country, but if the Vols are going to take the next step as a program, they have to start recruiting better than a fringe Top 10 program.
Still, Heupel inherited a mess three years ago and has proven to be a strong hire for Tennessee. He’s hired quality assistants, and the Vols have become a preeminent player development program.
No. 7 Eli Drinkwitz, Missouri
Drinkwitz is coming off the best coaching job of his career, leading the Tigers to a surprising 11-2 season and a win over Ohio State to finish in the Top 10. Before the season, he shrewdly delegated play-calling duties to new OC hire Kirby Moore, which allowed Drinkwitz to focus on his entire team and move worked brilliantly.
From Moore to defensive coordinator Blake Baker, now at LSU, and others, Drinkwitz has been fantastic when it comes to assistant coaching hires. While the Tigers are a middle of the road recruiting program, Drinkwitz has taken advantage of Missouri’s friendly state laws when it comes to NIL.
He’s beloved by his players, and he could challenge for a College Football Playoff spot this fall with team that returns quarterback Brady Cook and explosive wideouts Luther Burden, Theo Wease and Mookie Cooper.
No. 8 Mark Stoops, Kentucky
Stoops is the Wildcats’ best football coach since Bear Bryant, elevating the program with multiple 10-win seasons for the first time in more than four decades. It’s the reason he was Ross Bjork’s favored target for the Texas A&M opening before the offer was vetoed at the 11th hour.
And at the same time, Kentucky has underachieved the last two seasons — going 7-6 in back-to-back years. The offense continues to churn through OCs, with a different coordinator for five straight seasons now. Maybe Bush Hamden is the answer?
Stoops’ ranking requires perspective, though: Kentucky football was basically nothing before he arrived and the ‘Cats have made eight straight bowl games. He’s raised the expectations, which is why 7-6 is seen as a poor season.
No. 9 Mike Elko, Texas A&M
Elko is 16-9 in two seasons as Duke’s head coach, leading the Blue Devils to one of their best seasons in school history in 2022. He got the Texas A&M job because of his coaching (and player development) acumen, plus a personality that should play well with the Aggies’ fickle booster base.
If Elko can win in Durham, he could do big things in College Station considering Texas A&M’s resources and recruiting footprint. He hired a strong staff (especially OC Collin Klein) and quickly plugged holes on the Aggies’ roster with a number of notable transfer portal additions. The sample is small, but Elko has also shown to be a very good game-day coach. It won’t be any surprise if he rises up these rankings in the years to come.
No. 10 Hugh Freeze, Auburn
Freeze remains the most difficult coach to rank in the SEC. How do you weigh his accomplishments previously at Ole Miss (two wins over Nick Saban) versus his recent results at Liberty and Auburn?
Year 1 on the Plains was full of frustration for Freeze, as the Tigers went 6-7 with an embracing blowout loss to New Mexico State and a no-show against Maryland (without starting quarterback Taulia Tagovailoa) in the bowl game. Freeze said it himself that, “I don’t think I did a very good job.”
Auburn’s staff has undergone all sorts of turnover this offseason, too.
And yet, Freeze showcased his recruiting chops with another Top 10 class. The Tigers have done strong work in the portal, too. At every other stop in his career, Freeze has gotten the quarterback situation right. His potential success at Auburn hinges on him getting it right again, though.
No. 11 Brent Venables, Oklahoma
Venables bounced back from a tough first season as a head coach, guiding the Sooners to a 10-win season in advance of the program’s move to the SEC. A bad loss to UCF squandered a chance to play for the Big 12 Championship, but Venables did beat Texas in Red River and fixed a bad Oklahoma defense.
In short order, Venables has lived up to his reputation as an elite recruiter. He’s inked two Top 10 classes the last two cycles and done strong work in the portal as well.
While there’s renewed optimism in Norman, Year 1 in the SEC could prove to be a real challenge for Venables — even with 5-star Jackson Arnold taking over for Dillion Gabriel at quarterback. He has a new play-caller with Jeff Lebby now the head coach at Mississippi State and OU’s offensive line is in total flux.
No. 12 Shane Beamer, South Carolina
After two straight seasons of exceeding expectations under Beamer, the Gamecocks regressed to the mean in 2023 — going 5-7 with a slew of frustrating losses. South Carolina dealt with all sorts of injuries last year (particularly at OL and with wideout Juice Wells), but the team ultimately wasted a solid season from quarterback Spencer Rattler. Beamer has had a bunch of staff turnover, this offseason, too.
Still, it’s South Carolina, and Beamer is well-liked and is stacking strong recruiting classes on top of one another (Top 20 in 2024 with two 5-star signees). And while the Gamecocks continue to see big names (Wells, Marshawn Lloyd, Jaheim Bell, Jordan Burch) leave the program via the portal, he’s done a decent job landing potential impact reinforcements (Rocket Sanders, Gilbert Edmond, Aaryn Parks).
No. 13 Billy Napier, Florida
No head coach in the SEC faces more pressure than Billy Napier in 2024, and the stakes were raised earlier this month when Steve Spurrier openly said, “There’s a feeling around the Gators of ‘What the heck are we doing?’”
Napier is just 11-14 in two seasons with the Gators. He secured a signature win over Utah in his debut as UF’s head coach, but pretty much everything since the 2022 opener has gone wrong. Florida’s defense has been a disaster for two seasons, its most electric playmaker (Trevor Etienne) transferred to rival Georgia this offseason and Napier’s recruiting has been at the same level as his predecessor Dan Mullen. There’s been all sorts of staff turnover during his tenure, too.
You can’t discount what Napier accomplished at Louisiana-Lafayette. He rebuilt the program, with 40 wins and two Sun Belt titles. Still, it seems unlikely he’ll be given the same patience to turn around Florida — especially with a nightmarish schedule this fall.
No. 14 Sam Pittman, Arkansas
Pittman is a beloved character in college football, but the shine has worn off the Pit Boss’ star since he led the Razorbacks to a surprising 9-4 season in 2021. Like Napier, Pittman must win now or else he probably won’t be on this list next spring.
Last season was disastrous for Arkansas, as the Hogs went 4-8 and saw star quarterback KJ Jefferson transfer from the program. Pittman has struggled to deal with continued roster turnover, with more than 50 players entering the portal over the last two years.
Pittman has championed the company line, but he’s also dealing with a potential Littlefinger situation with the return of former Hogs head coach Bobby Petrino as his offensive coordinator.
No. 15 Clark Lea, Vanderbilt
The expectation was that Lea would receive a long leash to rebuild his alma mater in his image, but the results have been so dire (2-22 in SEC games in three seasons), that suddenly the former Vandy fullback is facing pressure to deliver more wins.
After nearly making a bowl game in 2022, the Commodores took a major step backward last fall, losing all eight SEC games by an average of more than three touchdowns.
Lea inherited an impossible situation, but he hasn’t made it better. The Commodores have been hammered by portal defections, seeing their best players leave for teams like Georgia, Texas A&M, LSU and Colorado.
Initially, Lea was anti-portal, but he’s done a 180 on his roster construction this offseason — adding a dozen transfers.
No. 16 Jeff Lebby, Mississippi State
Lebby finds himself last in the 2024 SEC head coach rankings solely because he hasn’t been a head coach previously. The guy he replaced — Zach Arnett — was ranked at the bottom of this list last spring, too, but here’s guessing Lebby will have a much longer stay in Starkville.
The 40-year-old former offensive coordinator at Oklahoma, Ole Miss and UCF should make the Bulldogs more fun again with his ‘Run ’N Shoot’ scheme.
The challenge for Lebby is to make Mississippi State competitive again (like going bowling annually) in an SEC that’s now even deeper with the additions of Texas and Oklahoma.