(Via Email)
Bear Bryant maintained that after a victory the players deserve the credit, and after a loss the coach deserves the blame. Or in Herban Meyer’s case, always ALWAYS blame your players [Her Loyal Sons]. Be that as it may, coaches have their hand in everything, from getting those 5-star recruits on campus to turning today’s mid-level prospect into tomorrow’s 1st round draft choice. They draw up plays in the dirt and make sure their kids walk the line. In short, they are the single biggest architect of any school’s program, and despite deserve a share of the cheers as well as the jeers.
So here’s your chance.
Below you will find links to a survey of each of the BCS conferences, where you’ll be asked to rank every coach against his conference brethren in the following categories:
1. Recruiting (weight = x2)
The life blood of any program. Putting the best team on the field is the best way to give your team the chance to win. If the cupboards are always stocked with Parade All-Americans, it won’t be long before all the right breaks come your way and you’re knockin on the door. This is purely a subjective ranking, if you wanna take into account the fact that it’s harder to recruit at Vandy and Wake than it is as USC and FSU, that’s your prerogative. There is no wrong answer.
2. Player Development (weight = x1½)
What good is a 5-star recruit if he washes out of the program? Or doesn’t qualify? That could have been a roster spot for a hard working 3-star kid who wanted to prove himself. Does the coach have a rep of coaching players up into draft picks or is it a school where Signing Bonuses go to die? Recruits are keenly aware of this, and long term trends can either be a big drag or a nice boost to a recruiting base.
3. Gameday Coaching (weight = x1)
Sometimes is doesn’t matter who has the better team, someone is just gonna get flat out-coached. Weather it’s the perfect opening strategy or masterful halftime adjustments, what’s between a coach’s ears can make up for a lot of what may be missing between the hash marks. Game planning to fit both your own and your opponent’s personnel is key. It’s tough to make a career outta always bringing a knife to a gun fight player-wise, but if a team has the edge on the sidelines, it can usually chalk up an extra W or 2 per year. Being on the short end can just as easily mean another couple of L’s despite a talented roster.
4. Program Control (weight = x½)
Everyone wants to see their school’s players on Sportscenter, just not as a mugshot…Still winning is winning, and as long as the championships keep rolling in they can attend all the ‘super-special’ Dillard’s and Foot Locker sales they can stand. This only appears on here in so far as that no program wants the dreaded Death Penalty. If a school gets in enough hot water, it can be a Sword of Damocles that may scare off potential recruits.
Below are the preliminary results by conference.
(Except for the ACC and Pac-10, they don’t have a large enough sample size yet. Keep voting).
After that each coach has a letter grade assigned based on his total average score and the number of coaches in that conference. For example, it’s tougher to be a unanimous #1 in a conference with 12 coaches than it is one with only 8 coaches.
Below that are the vote totals by conference and school.
Links are at the very bottom.
| SEC | Total | Recruiting | Development | Coaching | Control |
| Auburn: Tommy Tuberville | 4.72 | 5.55 | 3.99 | 3.96 | 5.13 |
| Georgia: Mark Richt | 4.97 | 3.78 | 6.31 | 4.74 | 6.17 |
| Florida: Urban Meyer | 5.12 | 3.30 | 7.05 | 4.17 | 8.49 |
| Alabama: Nick Saban | 5.92 | 3.47 | 7.67 | 6.59 | 9.13 |
| South Carolina: Steve Suprrier | 6.07 | 6.77 | 6.08 | 4.04 | 7.35 |
| LSU: Les Miles | 6.09 | 4.66 | 7.14 | 6.44 | 7.98 |
| Tennessee: Phillip Fulmer | 6.68 | 5.37 | 7.15 | 7.46 | 8.94 |
| Ole Miss: Houston Nutt | 7.46 | 8.14 | 6.53 | 7.98 | 6.53 |
| Mississippi State: Sylvester Croom | 7.53 | 9.42 | 5.70 | 8.11 | 4.28 |
| Kentucky: Rich Brooks | 7.63 | 9.38 | 6.21 | 7.92 | 4.32 |
| Vanderbilt: Bobby Johnson | 7.83 | 9.91 | 6.31 | 8.60 | 2.54 |
| Arkansas: Bobby Petrino | 7.96 | 8.26 | 7.86 | 7.98 | 7.00 |
| Big East | Total | Recruiting | Development | Coaching | Control |
| Rutgers: Greg Schiano | 2.88 | 2.65 | 2.95 | 3.24 | 2.93 |
| South Florida: Jim Leavitt | 3.72 | 3.93 | 3.24 | 3.10 | 5.54 |
| West Virginia: Bill Stewart | 3.93 | 3.65 | 4.20 | 3.54 | 5.02 |
| Cincinnati: Brian Kelly | 3.95 | 4.97 | 3.11 | 3.08 | 4.11 |
| Connecticut: Randy Edsall | 4.56 | 5.67 | 3.56 | 3.81 | 4.64 |
| Pittsburgh: Dave Wannstedt | 4.58 | 2.47 | 6.33 | 6.28 | 4.39 |
| Louisville : Steve Kragthorpe | 5.41 | 5.37 | 5.67 | 5.46 | 4.75 |
| Syracuse: Greg Robinson | 6.88 | 7.29 | 6.93 | 7.20 | 4.47 |
| Big 10 | Total | Recruiting | Development | Coaching | Control |
| Ohio State: Jim Tressel | 3.38 | 2.26 | 4.38 | 2.25 | 7.12 |
| Wisconsin: Bret Bielema | 4.73 | 5.41 | 4.39 | 3.82 | 4.80 |
| Illinois: Ron Zook | 4.77 | 2.24 | 6.04 | 6.63 | 7.40 |
| Penn State: Joe Paterno | 5.83 | 5.28 | 6.58 | 5.35 | 6.76 |
| Michigan State : Mark Dantonio | 5.84 | 6.38 | 5.35 | 5.52 | 5.84 |
| Iowa: Kirk Ferentz | 5.95 | 6.65 | 4.85 | 5.69 | 6.96 |
| Michigan: Rich Rodriguez | 6.08 | 4.73 | 7.28 | 5.71 | 8.61 |
| Purdue: Joe Tiller | 6.74 | 7.99 | 5.58 | 6.58 | 5.52 |
| Northwestern: Pat Fitzgerald | 7.15 | 8.82 | 6.28 | 7.54 | 2.35 |
| Indiana: Bill Lynch | 7.73 | 9.20 | 6.83 | 7.76 | 4.50 |
GRADING:
Ohio State: Jim Tressel A+
Oklahoma: Bob Stoops A+
Rutgers: Greg Schiano A
Missouri: Gary Pinkel A
Auburn: Tommy Tuberville A-
Georgia: Mark Richt A-
Florida: Urban Meyer A-
Wisconsin: Bret Bielema A-
Illinois: Ron Zook A-
Kansas: Mark Mangino B+
Texas: Mack Brown B+
Texas Tech: Mike Leach B+
South Florida: Jim Leavitt B+
Colorado: Dan Hawkins B+
West Virginia: Bill Stewart B
Alabama: Nick Saban B
Cincinnati: Brian Kelly B
South Carolina: Steve Suprrier B
LSU: Les Miles B
Penn State: Joe Paterno B-
Michigan State: Mark Dantonio B-
Iowa: Kirk Ferentz B-
Michigan: Rich Rodriguez B-
Tennessee: Phillip Fulmer B-
Connecticut: Randy Edsall C+
Pittsburgh: Dave Wannstedt C+
Oklahoma State: Mike Gundy C
Purdue: Joe Tiller C
Texas A&M: Mike Sherman C
Ole Miss: Houston Nutt C
Mississippi State: Sylvester Croom C
Kentucky: Rich Brooks C
Northwestern: Pat Fitzgerald C-
Nebraska: Bo Pelini C-
Vanderbilt: Bobby Johnson C-
Arkansas: Bobby Petrino C-
Iowa State: Gene Chizik C-
Louisville: Steve Kragthorpe C-
Indiana: Bill Lynch D+
Minnesota: Tim Brewster D+
Baylor: Art Briles D+
Kansas State: Ron Prince D
Syracuse: Greg Robinson F
Voting totals:
| SEC | 232 | ||||
| Big East | 153 | ||||
| Big 12 | 152 | ||||
| Big 10 | 104 | ||||
| ACC | 72 | ||||
| Pac 10 | 27 | ||||
| Tennessee | 73 | ||||
| Missouri | 66 | ||||
| Rutgers | 51 | ||||
| Auburn | 45 | ||||
| West Virginia | 31 | ||||
| LSU | 26 | ||||
| Ohio State | 24 | ||||
| Louisville | 22 | ||||
| Penn State | 22 | ||||
| Kansas | 19 | ||||
| Virginia Tech | 19 | ||||
| Iowa | 18 | ||||
| Alabama | 17 | ||||
| Florida | 16 | ||||
| Nebraska | 16 | ||||
| Pittsburgh | 15 | ||||
| Arkansas | 14 | ||||
| Georgia | 14 | ||||
| South Florida | 14 | ||||
| Oklahoma | 14 | ||||
| Connecticut | 13 | ||||
| Kansas State | 13 | ||||
| Clemson | 12 | ||||
| Vanderbilt | 11 | ||||
| North Carolina | 10 | ||||
| Wake Forest | 10 | ||||
| Texas | 9 | ||||
| USC | 9 | ||||
| Purdue | 8 | ||||
| Oklahoma State | 8 | ||||
| Boston College | 8 | ||||
| South Carolina | 7 | ||||
| Indiana | 7 | ||||
| Northwestern | 6 | ||||
| Cincinnati | 5 | ||||
| Michigan State | 5 | ||||
| Washington State | 5 | ||||
| Mississippi State | 4 | ||||
| Michigan | 4 | ||||
| Wisconsin | 4 | ||||
| Duke | 4 | ||||
| UCLA | 4 | ||||
| Oregon State | 4 | ||||
| Kentucky | 3 | ||||
| Illinois | 3 | ||||
| Minnesota | 3 | ||||
| Texas Tech | 3 | ||||
| Georgia Tech | 3 | ||||
| Maryland | 3 | ||||
| Virginia | 3 | ||||
| Cal | 3 | ||||
| Ole Miss | 2 | ||||
| Syracuse | 2 | ||||
| Colorado | 2 | ||||
| Miami FL | 2 | ||||
| North Carolina State | 2 | ||||
| Baylor | 1 | ||||
| Texas A&M | 1 | ||||
| Florida State | 1 | ||||
| Oregon | 1 | ||||
| Arizona State | 1 | ||||
| Washington | 1 | ||||
| Iowa State | 0 | ||||
| Arizona | 0 | ||||
| Stanford | 0 |
ACC:
| http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=n_2fYZdmiZb_2b905PFsBmHRMg_3d_3d |
Big 10:
| http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=KjvEtqHsteTXM02I0Wm6xQ_3d_3d |
Big 12:
| http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=ZzY2nxPwwJkS937XW869Jw_3d_3d |
Big East:
| http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=yySsYbPF_2b95p_2fjkOCaa94A_3d_3d |
Pac 10:
| http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=qZmpKLgXayf7wbGDXQPQog_3d_3d |
SEC:
| http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=UXh2rtq4Kyg7vh8mYkMC4Q_3d_3d |
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