![]() ![]() After 13 seasons, five national championships and the most successful run in the modern game, it's still ticking. That lasted only two years, and when he returned to the college game, at LSU's SEC West rival Alabama, the clock began ticking until he would leave again. In five seasons, he won the Tigers' first national title in 45 years. He came to LSU with a reputation of not staying anywhere too long. He won at Toledo and Michigan State but not enough to win a conference title. Saban didn't start out as the greatest coach in the past 50 years. As one of his favorite players, Crimson Tide lineman Jerry Duncan, said recently, "God, what a man." As the Texas philosopher/football coach Bum Phillips, a one-time Bryant assistant at Texas A&M, said, "He could take his'n and beat your'n, and he could take your'n and beat his'n." He made players out of boys and head coaches out of assistants. He won three more in the 1970s playing several platoons, waves of players on each side of the ball. Paul (Bear) Bryant, 323-85-17 career record Ivan Maisel Paul "Bear" Bryant adapted and thrived no matter the style of football. It is, as always, for entertainment purposes only. Or weed it and reap the benefit of knowing better than the panel. Take this list, pour a beverage, and read it and weep. Nine HBCU coaches made the top 150, from No. John Gagliardi, the all-time leader in wins (489) at any level, is No. Not only that, all four NCAA divisions and the NAIA are represented. 6), whose first great star may have been Darrell Royal (No. Fleck has revivified the Gophers, coached Bud Wilkinson (No. 65), whose name has returned to the lips of Minnesota fans now that P.J. ![]() If coaches define eras, then the greatest benefit of this list is how it creates a historical mosaic of the sport.įor instance, Rockne coached Frank Thomas (No. The 150 greatest games in college football history.10, Frank Leahy, coached at Notre Dame, where pressure has extracted a cost since Rockne transformed the school into the first national college football program in the 1920s. The two coaches with the shortest (13 seasons) tenures in the top 25, Rockne and No. Twenty of the top 25 coaches (as defined by our panel) coached more than 20 seasons. It's reasonable to believe that the debate over whether Bryant is a better coach than Saban will endure at Alabama for as long as hounds have teeth.īoth men are great examples of how coaches define eras. Bryant may have earned the edge from our panel because of the longevity of his success. In fact, that 1995 Huskers team finished fourth among our 150 Greatest Teams. "You're not as bad as you think you are," the Nebraska coach said. Osborne met him at midfield and told him not to worry. Saban wondered whether he had what it took to be a head coach. Defending national champion Nebraska defeated the Spartans 50-10. Saban loves to tell a story that took place in the opening game of 1995, his second season as a head coach and his first game at Michigan State. It is a nice daydream to consider what Rockne might have accomplished had his TWA flight from Kansas City to Los Angeles not plummeted into a Kansas prairie.Īll season long, ESPN will celebrate the 150th anniversary of college football. The only decade not covered by these four coaches is the 1930s. 4 Tom Osborne together coached from the end of World War II to nearly the end of the 20th century. 2 Nick Saban just concluded the 2019 regular season. The first four men selected among the 150 Greatest Coaches, as selected by our blue-ribbon panel of 150 media members, administrators and former players and coaches, span more than a century of the sport. In a sport in which we root for laundry, a coach humanizes those colors, becomes as much a symbol as the mascot. ![]() A player lasts no more than four years these days, if he's good and stays healthy, three.īut a coach? A coach is different. The lifespan of a game is measured in hours. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |