You have to wonder what kind of pressure these national media dicks like Stewart Mandel must work under[mandel]. Or what kind of weed they are scoring out of Gainesville. Frank Beamer is 10-34 against Top 10 teams. What has Grobe, Rodriguez and the TCU dude done outside of their conferences? With Grobe I can almost buy into the hype. The ACC is a bit tougher than the Big East Soccer Conference.  Hell, Marshall has more National Championships than WVU!!

So what is Beamer’s excuse? He has had plenty of chances to beat the Big Boys but he falls just a bit short. These 4 guys do not deserve to be on this list until they win a National Championship.

1) Pete Carroll, USC: Carroll’s “worst” season since 2002 last year still involved 11 wins, a Pac-10 championship and Rose Bowl victory. He followed that up with a fifth straight top-three recruiting class.

2) Urban Herban Meyer, Florida: Now 61-12 in six seasons as a head coach, Meyer has demonstrated a keen ability to adapt to his personnel, winning a national title while utilizing a receiver (Percy Harvin) and a QB (Tim Tebow) in lieu of a reliable tailback. Not a bad recruiter, either.  “it is good to be Chris Rainey”.

3) Jim Tressel, Ohio State: Throughout last year’s 12-0 regular season, you could tell every last Buckeye marched to the beat of his coach. Tressel knows how to play to his team’s strengths, whether by playing conservative during the ’02 title season or spreading things out with Troy Smith.  Can’t beat an SEC team.  One could say that the Buckeyes are the SEC’s Bitch…

4) Mack Brown, Texas: Another year, another 10-win season for the ‘Horns, who have now posted six in a row. Last year’s 10-3 finish came despite starting a freshman quarterback (Colt McCoy) and enduring a season of injuries and suspensions to what became an oft-torched secondary.  Who could not win at Texas?  Take any one of these coaches on this list and they would do a million times better job than Mack Brown…
5) Bob Stoops, Oklahoma: As mentioned previously, Stoops’ reputation has taken a hit in recent years, but let’s keep things in perspective. The Sooners still won 11 games and a Big 12 title last year despite Rhett Bomar’s dismissal and Adrian Peterson’s injury. Does the winless season of 2005 hurt the Stoops image?

6) Frank Beamer, Virginia Tech: After suffering a brief drop-off post-Michael Vick, the Hokies have won at least 10 games in four of the past five seasons and had the nation’s top-ranked defense in each of the past two years (and No. 4 the year before that). 10-34 against top ten teams…wow…

7) Jim Grobe, Wake Forest: Grobe was already highly respected before last season. Then he led a moderately talented team (compared to the NFL-stocked rosters elsewhere in the ACC) to a conference title, even after losing his starting quarterback and tailback to injury. Clearly, the guy can coach. Unable to beat a mid-major in the Orange Bowl made me kind of sad.

8) Rich Rodriguez, West Virginia: Rodriguez has been running the spread-option since before anyone knew what it was, but it’s amazing how much recognition it can garner — and how you can post consecutive 11-win seasons — once you have Pat White and Steve Slaton.   Coach Rod who loves eating at the brand spanking new Waffle House in Morgantown taught Herban Meyer everything that he knows about the spread option.

9) Mark Richt, Georgia: You can’t argue with his overall results — 61-17 and two SEC titles in six seasons — but Richt drops a few rungs this year for his mishandling of the Dawgs’ quarterback situation early last season (when Georgia lost to Kentucky and Vandy) and the Sugar Bowl meltdown the year before.  Sure he gets a bum rap for parting his hair down the middle and looking like Helen Hunt, but he seems like a nice fella.

10) Gary Patterson, TCU: Does anyone get less credit for running a consistently successful program than this guy? Since 2002, the Horned Frogs have posted records of 10-2, 11-2, 11-1 and 11-2 (wedged around a 5-6 aberration) and beaten the likes of Oklahoma and Texas Tech.  Who the fuck is this guy? and why is he on this list?

Just missed: Rutgers’ Greg Schiano, Auburn’s Tommy Tuberville, USF’s Jim Leavitt, Navy’s Paul Johnson and Cal’s Jeff Tedford