2024 Top 25 head coach rankings: Steve Sarkisian, Lincoln Riley and Lane Kiffin all crack Top 10
We’ve reached the end of the 2024 offseason head coach rankings at On3.
Over the last month, I’ve released head coach rankings for each Power 4 conference and the Top 10 Group of 5 coaches in the country.
We started the series looking at the 16 head coaches in the SEC. Then I ranked the 18 head coaches in the Big Ten, followed by the 17 head coaches in the ACC. We wrapped up the Power Conference rankings with a look at the 16 coaches in the Big 12.
I then took a swing at the Top 10 head coaches in the Group of 5.
Now it’s time for the Top 25 coaches in all of college football for 2024.
While the sport continues to adapt to a new landscape (i.e. continued conference realignment), 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.
There’s a clear-cut No. 1 with Kirby Smart assuming his mentor Nick Saban’s throne, but what about the rest of the Top 10? Who might surprise some making the Top 25?
Read on. Debate on.
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.
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.
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.
4. Ryan Day, Ohio State
Day hasn’t beaten Michigan in three years, but he continues to win most all his other games (56-8 as a head coach) and sign Top 3 recruiting classes. He was a missed field goal away from likely winning a national championship in 2022, and the Buckeyes, who return the bulk of their Top 10 defense and have one of the best 2024 transfer portal hauls, will be top title contenders next season.
Because of the Wolverines’ recent run, Day faces more pressure than any head coach on this list, but he could erase a lot of doubt if he wins big next fall. He’s an excellent recruiter and a savvy offensive mind. Ceding play-calling duties and hiring Chip Kelly as Ohio State’s new OC was a bold decision that could be for the betterment of the program, too.
5. 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.
6. Dabo Swinney, Clemson
Despite his worst season in 13 years (9-4, .500 in league play) Swinney is still the No. 1 coach in the ACC. He has two national titles to his name, and is just a season removed from his eighth ACC Championship.
Still, Swinney is under real pressure to overcome a staleness around his program and reverse his reluctance to use the transfer portal. He has made several staff changes in recent years — going outside the Tigris family for hires like Garrett Riley and Matt Luke. Can the Tigers rebound in 2024?
7. Mike Norvell, Florida State
Norvell has skyrocketed up the rankings after two straight strong seasons at FSU, including a 13-1 year in 2023 when the Seminoles were left out of the College Football Playoff.
He’s now a Top-10 head coach in the entire sport, rebuilding the culture and expectations in Tallahassee. No head coach has been better at perennially mining the transfer portal for talent — and then getting the most out of those players. Norvell has positioned FSU to potentially leapfrog Clemson as the king of the ACC for the foreseeable future.
8. Kyle Whittingham, Utah
Overwhelmed by a cascade of injuries, the Utes slipped to 8-5 last year— the program’s worst full season since 2017 (7-6). Whittingham has overseen one of the most consistent programs in the nation, with eight Top 25 finishes and two Pac-12 Championships in the last three years.
Whittingham, who is set to enter his 20th season with Utah, has maintained remarkable staff continuity (coordinators Andy Ludwig and Morgan Scalley have each been on staff for the last nine years). The Utes are the favorites to win the Big 12 this fall, providing Whittingham with a third conference to win a championship in.
9. Lincoln Riley, USC
Last season was a disaster for Riley and the Trojans, as USC stumbled to 8-5 despite bringing back Heisman Trophy winner Caleb Williams. USC’s continued defensive failings finally forced Riley to make some major staff changes this offseason.
Still, 2023 was an overall outlier year in Riley’s head coaching career. He remains an offensive savant and QB whisperer. He’s recorded double-digit win seasons in four of six years as a head coach, and he’s on a recruiting heater here in 2024 — suggesting USC is serious about its move into the Power Two.
10. 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.
11. Dan Lanning, Oregon
It’s funny — you could make the case this ranking is too high for Dan Lanning or too low.
He’s only been a head coach for two seasons, but in that time he’s won 22 games, flirted with a pair of Pac-12 Championships and recruited at the best rate in school history. Lanning has also assembled one of the top staffs in the country, and he seamlessly replaced offensive coordinator Kenny Dillingham with Will Stein last offseason — a noted strong quality for a first-time head coach.
Lanning is at the forefront of using NIL to his program’s advantage, and is building a monster in Eugene. Despite his youth and inexperience, Lanning was a hot commodity on the coaching market this year, as the former Georgia DC was a rumored top target for Texas A&M and Alabama. His next challenge is solving Oregon’s Washington problem (0-3 last two seasons) and winning more close games.
12. Lance Leipold, Kansas
Leipold is widely considered college football’s miracle worker. He built a dynasty at Wisconsin-Whitewater, winning six D-III national championships. He then won a pair of MAC division titles at Buffalo, but his most impressive rebuild job is what he’s done at Kansas, taking over a moribund program that went 0-9 in 2020 and was 9-60 the prior six seasons to his arrival in 2021.
In Year 1, he beat Texas. In Year 2, he snapped Kansas’ long bowl drought, and last season he went 9-4 despite juggling multiple quarterbacks. Leipold coaches a fun, creative brand of offensive football, and while culture-builder is an overused term for most coaches, it isn’t for him.
13. James Franklin, Penn State
Franklin is 21-5 the last two seasons, yet Penn State is viewed as an underachieving program because it cannot beat Ohio State (seven losses in a row) or Michigan (last win in 2020). Franklin has also burned through offensive coordinators with the Nittany Lions, but he looks to have finally landed on the perfect fit in Kansas’ Andy Kotelnicki.
Still, that’s a projection. But the opportunity is there for the program to take the next step under its veteran head coach. Franklin has recruited at a Top 15 clip and returns a stacked roster in 2024 — just in time for the expanded playoff. If he can start winning some games against Top 25 teams (5-10 the last three seasons), then Penn State might actually contend for a conference title again.
14. Mike Gundy, Oklahoma State
The Cowboys went 7-6 in 2022, and then sputtered out of the gate last year (2-2), leaving some to wonder if Gundy was ready for a fresh start elsewhere. But then the Pokes surged the rest of the season, reaching the Big 12 Championship for the second time in three years and finishing the season in the Top 25.
Oklahoma State’s 10-3 season was Gundy’s eighth double-dight season since 2018. The elder statesman’s has taken the team to a bowl game an impressive 18 straight years.
15. Jamey Chadwell, Liberty
Chadwell moves to the top of the rankings after going 13-0 in the regular season in Year 1 with the Flames. The former Coastal Carolina head coach has three seasons with at least 11 wins in the last four years, including two conference championships.
He coaches a unique, fun-spread option offense that has ranked in the Top 5 nationally in two of the last three seasons. As long as Chadwell is at Liberty, the Flames could be the perennial Group of 5 representatives in the expanded 12-team College Football Playoff.
16. Chris Klieman, Kansas State
Like Leipold, Klieman has translated his lower-level success to real highs in Power Conference football. He won four FCS national championships at North Dakota State and already has a Big 12 Championship and another 9-4 season at Kansas State.
The Wildcats play a tough, physical brand of football, and have won at least eight games in four of five seasons under. Klieman.
17. 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.
18. Luke Fickell, Wisconsin
Year 1 was a letdown for Fickell, as the Badgers went from preseason Big Ten West favorites to struggling for bowl eligibility. The transition away from the program’s traditional smash-mouth football to Phil Longo’s ‘Dairy Raid’ proved clunky, and Wisconsin’s special teams were an abject disaster.
Still, Fickell is a shrew program builder who won big at Cincinnati (57-18, lone Group of 5 coach to crack the CFP). He’s developed some 20 NFL Draft picks the last few seasons, and has already utilized better resources to ink a Top 25 recruiting class and bring in a host of impact transfers at Wisconsin.
19. Kirk Ferentz, Iowa
Ferentz has feasted on beating up bad teams in the Big Ten West for the last 25 years, managing to win two division titles since 2021 despite fielding historically terrible offenses. He was finally forced to move on from his son Brian Ferentz as Iowa’sm much-maligned offensive coordinator, but a long and drawn-out search ended up with a rather uninspiring hire in Tim Lester.
But while it’s easy to criticize Ferentz for his stubbornness or his program’s problems with nepotism, his track record of success — from winning games (10-win seasons in three of the last four years) to developing no-name recruits into NFL prospects — speaks for itself. With Iowa churning out Top 10 defenses (hat-tip to longtime Ferentz lieutenant Phil Parker) on an annual basis, if the Hawkeyes can even field a semi-serviceable offense they could contend for a CFP spot in the newly-expanded field.
20. Jeff Brohm, Louisville
Mama’s call home proved immediately profitable for the Cardinals’ program, as Brohm returned to his alma mater and took the program to its first ACC title game appearance. The Cards went 10-4, including an upset over Notre Dame.
Previously, Brohm won the Big Ten West in his final season at Purdue and has four Top-10 wins since 2018. He’s an excellent Xs and Os play-caller and has become one of the more aggressive coaches in the transfer portal.
21. Matt Rhule, Nebraska
The Cornhuskers went 5-7 in Rhule’s first season in Lincoln, losing four consecutive one-score games to end the year. Nebraska was plagued by many of the same pitfalls that have beset the program in recent years (a zillion turnovers, poor quarterback play), but Rhule has the team primed for a major Year 2 leap in 2024.
Flipping 5-star quarterback Dylan Raiola from Georgia could be the key to unlocking a new future for the Cornhuskers. Rhule has been a turnaround wizard at every collegiate stop (a total of three double-digit win seasons at Temple and Baylor), and with the resources he has in Lincoln, there’s no reason he can’t resurrect the once proud, tradition-rich program.
22. Jonathan Smith, Michigan State
Smith rebuilt his alma mater into a competent, competitive program the last five years, finishing in the Top 25 in his final two seasons at Oregon State. He’s a strong offensive coach, with plenty of upside now he’s at a school with a better recruiting footprint and overall financial backing.
The former Beavers quarterback brought budding sophomore star Aidan Chiles with him to East Lancing, and while turning around the Spartans’ program is going to take some time, Smith has the right personality, makeup and staff to get the job done.
23. Dave Doeren, NC State
Doeren became the Wolfpack’s all-time winningest head coach last season, overcoming all manors of offensive ineptitude to win eight games for the fourth straight season. He still hasn’t busted through the glass ceiling and taken NC State to an ACC Championship, but the Wolfpack have legitimate conference title hopes in 2024 with the offseason work Doeren has done via the portal (quarterback Grayson McCall, tailbacks Jordan Waters and Hollywood Smothers and receivers Noah Rogers and Wesley Grimes).
In 11 seasons in Raleigh, Doeren’s program has been steadily consistent and has become a model for development (17 NFL Draft picks since 2018) and strength and conditioning.
24. Jeff Traylor, UTSA
Traylor was a long-shot candidate for the Texas A&M job, but the Roadrunners held onto their winning head coach. Traylor is 39-14 in four seasons in San Antonio, delivering a pair of Conference USA Championships. UTSA went 9-4 in 2023 — 7-1 in its first season in the AAC.
Traylor seems primed for a future Power 5 head coaching job, and the longtime Texas high school coach would be a perfect fit at some Big 12 schools (like Baylor perhaps?).
25. 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.
Just Missed: Willie Fritz, Houston, Mark Stoops, Kentucky, Dave Clawson, Wake Forest, Jon Sumrall, Tulane and Mike Elko, Texas A&M.