Most overrated college coaches

[zjcvols]

Considering only coaches who are active today, it is possible to objectify the question pretty easily. How they're "rated" can be based on how much a school sees fit to pay them, and whether or not they're worth it ("overrated" or not) depends on what success they've delivered for that price tag.

Following that line of inquiry, it is reasonable to conclude that Jim Harbaugh, Charlie Strong, Kevin Sumlin, and James Franklin all rank high on the over-rated scale:

• Highest paid coach never to win a national title: Jim Harbaugh ($7,004,000 / year) ... next highest: Charlie Strong ($5.1M). NOTE: plenty of coaches who make less have won national championships and continue to coach...I stopped counting after finding eight.
• Highest paid coach never to win a conference title: Kevin Sumlin ($5M) ... next highest: James Franklin ($4.4M). Plenty making less than Sumlin who have won their conference, as well.
• Highest paid coach never to win a division title: James Franklin ($4.4M). Ditto earlier comment about more cost-efficient coaches lower on the pay scale.

Everyone believes Harbaugh is bound to "pay off" soon ... and he might. Then again, he may not. Same with Sumlin at A&M, and Strong at Texas. Most rational folk are already concluding that Franklin is a bust, even many Penn State fans. Only time will tell on any of them.

For now, they are the four highest-paid coaches in college football today who have yet to see college championships at the levels highlighted, whether at their current school or any previous stop.

Name all the current FBS coaches not named Jim Harbaugh that have been to the Super Bowl as a head coach in the last five years.................................

 

[VFL-82-JP]

Name all the current coaches not named Jim Harbaugh that have been to the Super Bowl as a head coach in the last five years.................................

What in all of Kellogg's Corn Flakes does that have to do with college football?

The 5 highest-paid college coaches are, in order, Nick Saban, Jim Harbaugh, Urban Meyer, Bob Stoops, and Jimbo Fisher.

Guess which of those 5 have never won a national title? I'll give you a hint: it's not the lowest-paid one...or the next...or the next. It's one of the two who make over $7M a year.

 

[zjcvols]

Richt has always been overrated, in my opinion. You could always count on him at UGA to lose 1 and usually 2 games he shouldn't. Miles has just faded, imo.

I'm 100% in agreement with you. Richt has won two conference titles in 15 years during Tennessee's down time and Florida has Ron Zook/Will Muschamp for seven years. Not impressed.

 

[zjcvols]

What in all of Kellogg's Corn Flakes does that have to do with college football?

The 5 highest-paid college coaches are, in order, Nick Saban, Jim Harbaugh, Urban Meyer, Bob Stoops, and Jimbo Fisher.

Guess which of those 5 have never won a national title? I'll give you a hint: it's not the lowest-paid one...or the next...or the next. It's one of the two who make over $7M a year.

You are trying to imply Jim Harbaugh is overpaid which is beyond absurd. Harbaugh is one of the ten best head coaches in all of football period.

 

[zjcvols]

Going back a few years here.

Vince Dooley.

Didn't even average 8 wins a year
Only really good teams he had were with a freak athlete in Herschel Walker. Treated like a god. I don't get it.

I kind of agree but six SEC titles in 24 years, plus three before Herschel. Six top 15 finishes before Herschel. Kind of hard to argue that's pretty good success.

 

[zjcvols]

My personal top five of overrated right now:

Mark Richt
Les Miles
Kirk Ferentz
Todd Graham
Tommy Tuberville

 

[99gator]

He chunked the ball up on the edge, he didn't even need a good QB to do it. I didn't see anything genius about it, obviously he was good enough.... still overrated in my book, what he did SC was more impressive to me. It's alright if you disagree.

There is no straws to grabs, it's an opinion. My opinion on him as a person has gone up and down and up again... still think he was overrated at FL as a coach and I think he did a very good job at SC overall.

I literally have no clue what you are talking about. The best I can figure here is the following.

There was a period in 1996....where Florida was so good, most of the teams they played gave up and gave Florida the same defensive look because everything else was suicide.

So, they didn't play zone because Wuerffel was too good reading coverage. They had gotten burned by certain blitzs with slants and all kind of other stuff that they gave up on that. So, a lot of teams brought pressure, kept whatever defensive help they still had in the middle of the field, and played press coverage.

And Wuerffel and company abused them with the fade. And despite getting torched by that, they picked that poison because at least the sideline might help as an extra defender.

But, Florida, as a general rule, attacked every part of the field....short, intermediate, long.....outside the hashmarks and inside the hashmarks.

One of the more famous things Florida did was throw seam routs in the middle of the field and decimated zones with timing that would hit the route behind the linebacker and in front of the safety. if the linebacker dropped too far, the qb would dump it to a back for an easy 10.

The "they chucked it on the edge" is so dismissive. Then, the kicker is, with all that offensive success and the juggernaut that was.....only Fred Taylor stands out as a legitimate high end pro player. Darrell Jackson and Jabar Gaffney had decent careers. Ike Hilliard was Ok. All that is generous because that's how they compare to the rest of Florida's personnel that did next to nothing in the NFL.

 

[VFL-82-JP]

You are trying to imply Jim Harbaugh is overpaid which is beyond absurd. Harbaugh is one of the ten best head coaches in all of football period.

He is paid $3M a year more than the next coach who has never won a national title. Urban Meyer, who really is one of the ten best head coaches in all of football, makes $1M a year less than him.

Jim Harbaugh is an over-rated also-ran, so far. If he wants to prove that wrong, he can win a championship. Until then...he's with Sumlin, Franklin, and Strong.

 

[VFL-82-JP]

I'll put this Harbaugh question in a slightly different way for you.

Mark Richt is a good football coach who could never win the big one.

Jim Harbaugh is a good football coach who could never win the big one.

The difference between them is, Mark Richt isn't being paid a Sabanesque $7M / year.

 

[zjcvols]

I'll put this Harbaugh question in a slightly different way for you.

Mark Richt is a good football coach who could never win the big one.

Jim Harbaugh is a good football coach who could never win the big one.

The difference between them is, Mark Richt isn't being paid a Sabanesque $7M / year.

Yeah, also none of those coachesWENT TO THREE STRAIGHT NFC CHAMPIONSHIP GAMES AND WENT TO A SUPER BOWL.

 

[VFL-82-JP]

If you say it in all-caps, does that mean you're super-serious about it?

So you're saying he lost the big game. Didn't I just say that?

 

[zjcvols]

He is paid $3M a year more than the next coach who has never won a national title. Urban Meyer, who really is one of the ten best head coaches in all of football, makes $1M a year less than him.

Jim Harbaugh is an over-rated also-ran, so far. If he wants to prove that wrong, he can win a championship. Until then...he's with Sumlin, Franklin, and Strong.

Jim Harbaugh is going in year six of being a college football coach. He was too busy making NFC conference title games for a few years. He took a program that won a SINGLE game in 2005 and by 2010 had the #4 team in the country.

The reason he's paid $7M is because he's the only college football coach to make a Super Bowl. The only coaches to have a more impressive resume is Nick Saban, Urban Meyer, and maybe Bob Stoops.

 

[zjcvols]

If you say it in all-caps, does that mean you're super-serious about it?

So you're saying he lost the big game. Didn't I just say that?

No I was hoping my all caps would get through to your awful, incorrect opinion but obviously it didn't.

 

[VFL-82-JP]

Jim Harbaugh is going in year six of being a college football coach. He was too busy making NFC conference title games for a few years. He took a program that won a SINGLE game in 2005 and by 2010 had the #4 team in the country.

The reason he's paid $7M is because he's the only college football coach to make a Super Bowl. The only coaches to have a more impressive resume is Nick Saban, Urban Meyer, and maybe Bob Stoops.

Two of whom are paid significantly less than him. And both of whom have won national titles, something Harbaugh never did, at any level.

See? We keep circling back to the truth. Over-rated, based on salary and results.

 

[VFL-82-JP]

No I was hoping my all caps would get through to your awful, incorrect opinion but obviously it didn't.

You can insult me all you like, it doesn't make your argument any less weak.

I will refrain from dropping to that level. I'll just base my arguments on facts about the coaches we're discussing.

 

[zjcvols]

Two of whom are paid significantly less than him. And both of whom have won national titles that Harbaugh never did, at any level.

See? Over-rated, based on salary and results.

Except, you know he's not. That's not how this works.

Harbaugh has spent 15 games at Michigan. He improved that team by five games and has them in the top 8. He led Stanford to its greatest season in program history. Not only that, he also averaged 11 wins a year in the NFL for four years, something nobody has done currently coaching in college football. He deserves every penny of that $7M and I 100% guarantee you Michigan fans are very happy paying him that much.

 

[VFL-82-JP]

Except, you know he's not. That's not how this works.

Harbaugh has spent 15 games at Michigan. He improved that team by five games and has them in the top 8. He led Stanford to its greatest season in program history. Not only that, he also averaged 11 wins a year in the NFL for four years, something nobody has done currently coaching in college football. He deserves every penny of that $7M and I 100% guarantee you Michigan fans are very happy paying him that much.

11 wins a year in a league where 16 wins a year is the max is kind of like 8 wins a year in a league where 12 wins a year is the max. The translation from college to pro and back isn't quite that clean, but you're the one who brought it up so you gotta live with the comparison.

Plenty of coaches have won 8 games a year for a few years in a row. Plenty. Dozens. None of them, other than Saban, make $7M / year.

So you're left with this as a defense for him: people are happy to overpay him.

 

[zjcvols]

You can insult me all you like, it doesn't make your argument any less weak.

I will refrain from dropping to that level. I'll just base my arguments on facts about the coaches we're discussing.

No, you aren't using facts. You are using a silly standard you created that nobody else has done to try and prove that somehow Jim Harbaugh is overrated because he hasn't won a national title and ignoring everything he has done in the NFL. No other coach has his combined success in college football and the NFL.

 

[zjcvols]

11 wins a year in a league where 16 wins a year is the max is kind of like 8 wins a year in a league where 12 wins a year is the max. The translation from college to pro and back isn't quite that clean, but you're the one who brought it up so you gotta live with the comparison.

Plenty of coaches have won 8 games a year for a few years in a row. Plenty. Dozens. None of them, other than Saban, make $7M / year.

So you're left with this as a defense for him: people are happy to overpay him.

Obviously, you don't know how the NFL works. Harbaugh's 49ers won more games than anybody not named Green Bay or New England but that was a nice try. Making three NFC Championships games straight is more impressive than winning three NCAA titles. See I can make stuff up too.

 

[VFL-82-JP]

No, you aren't using facts. You are using a silly standard you created that nobody else has done to try and prove that somehow Jim Harbaugh is overrated because he hasn't won a national title and ignoring everything he has done in the NFL. No other coach has his combined success in college football and the NFL.

Sure, plenty of other coaches, even a few still in the game at the pro or college level today, have had significantly more success than Harbaugh. Pete Carroll being a prime example: there's a guy who does know how to win a national title.

Fact is, Harbaugh is a lotta smoke for so little fire. Not a single national title, at any level. Only two conference titles in college, neither of them at the Power 5 level. A 70-30 career college record, which is pretty darn good, but not one of the top two in the college ranks today (he is the #2-paid, making him again...over-rated).

At the pro level, he won his division twice, his "conference" (NFC) once, and never won the big one. So he's a bridesmaid, more than anything else.

You typically don't value the bridesmaid higher than all the brides out there.

See? Over-rated.

 

[VFL-82-JP]

Obviously, you don't know how the NFL works. Harbaugh's 49ers won more games than anybody not named Green Bay or New England but that was a nice try. Making three NFC Championships games straight is more impressive than winning three NCAA titles. See I can make stuff up too.

News flash: there are only 32 teams in the NFL. So you're saying he coached the third-best team out of 32 while he was in the game. That's kind of like saying the 2nd-best team out of a college conference sized grouping (14 teams, say).

So he's LSU. He's Les Miles. But he's being paid like he's Saban.

See? Over-rated.

 

[99gator]

Harbaugh's teams played in 3 straight NFC championship games. Went to one Super Bowl.

He took Stanford from dog crap to 12-1 and an Orange Bowl win in 4 seasons.

There are only two schools that would not trade coaches with Michigan right now. Ohio State and Alabama.

 

[bamawriter]

Harbaugh is a great coach. But it seems like Michigan threw a massive salary at him with the expectation that he's work his way into it. The other top paid coaches earned it before it was handed over (Ferentz excluded).

 

[zjcvols]

Sure, plenty of other coaches, even a few still in the game at the pro or college level today, have had significantly more success than Harbaugh. Pete Carroll being a prime example: there's a guy who does know how to win a national title.

Fact is, Harbaugh is a lotta smoke for so little fire. Not a single national title, at any level. Only two conference titles in college, neither of them at the Power 5 level. A 70-30 career college record, which is pretty darn good, but not one of the top two in the college ranks today (he is the #2-paid, making him again...over-rated).

At the pro level, he won his division twice, his "conference" (NFC) once, and never won the big one. So he's a bridesmaid, more than anything else.

You typically don't value the bridesmaid higher than all the brides out there.

See? Over-rated.

Again, during his four year NFL run, only two teams won more games than him. That's elite. He was one of the top five coaches in the NFL during that span.

He took over a program that one single win the year before he got there. In four years, he had that program at 12-1 and led it to its greatest season ever. Unlike you, I'm actually using background for my facts, something you haven't done.

Current FBS coaches that have won a national title: Urban Meyer, Nick Saban, Jimbo Fisher, and Les Miles.

All those guys (except Saban) took over good situations at their school. Harbaugh doesn't have there college success, but he also was out there being one of the top NFL coaches. Ask Nick Saban how difficult it is coaching the NFL. He washed out. So, you take Harbaugh's brand name, his NFL success, and his ability rebuilding a program. He's easily one of the top five head coaches in college football and deserves to be paid like one.

 

[VFL-82-JP]

Harbaugh's teams played in 3 straight NFC championship games. Went to one Super Bowl.

He took Stanford from dog crap to 12-1 and an Orange Bowl win in 4 seasons.

There are only two schools that would not trade coaches with Michigan right now. Ohio State and Alabama.

Another who says, "he lost a lot of big games that he was in."

Bridesmaid. Can win games, but not the big one. Not worth $7M/year. Over-rated.

He can prove me wrong, if he ever wins a title. Good chance he never will, though. He hasn't in 13 years as a head coach yet.

Lotta smoke, little fire. Over-rated.