Ranking the Pac-12 football coaches based on career results
When writers and editors rank players, coaches or teams, there is always a need to make one basic distinction. The best coaches on an overall level are often different from the best coaches “right now.” Coaches can have superior career results yet perform worse than another coach in the present moment, generally regarded as the past year or two years. A great example of this comes from the Southeastern Conference. Nick Saban of Alabama has the best career results of any coach in the SEC, hands down, but it’s just as clear that Kirby Smart of Georgia is the best coach in the league “right now.”
With that simple distinction in mind, we present our rankings of the best coaches in the Pac-12 in terms of career results.
If we used the “right now” standard, Kyle Whittingham of Utah would be No. 1. He has won the Pac-12 two straight years. He beat Lincoln Riley twice last season. Right now, he is getting the most out of his program.
Overall, however, Whittingham is definitely not No. 1 in the Pac-12. Here are our rankings:
KENNY DILLINGHAM, ARIZONA STATE
Dillingham is about to coach his first-ever game as an FBS head coach. ASU hosts Southern Utah on Thursday, August 31.
JUSTIN WILCOX, CAL
Wilcox’s tenure in Berkeley has veered from mediocre at best to miserable at worst. There’s not much “there” there.
JEDD FISCH, ARIZONA
Fisch did a good job last season, but he needs to get Arizona to a bowl game to rise on this list. His career is still young, too. He has been good, but he doesn’t have a lot on the resume just yet.
JAKE DICKERT, WASHINGTON STATE
Dickert has made bowl games at Washington State whereas Fisch has not. That’s why Dickert is ahead of Fisch.
Wazzu hasn’t been able to reach top-tier status in the Pac-12, however. Crucial home games have slipped away from the Cougars the past few seasons. That’s why Dickert isn’t higher on the list. Like Fisch, though, this is a coaching career which is just starting. Let’s see where Dickert goes. Let’s see how high he can climb in the future.
DEION SANDERS, COLORADO
Deion Sanders went 19-2 in conference games at FCS program Jackson State. Why is he not higher than Stanford’s Troy Taylor, who also coached at an FCS program at Sacramento State? We’ll give you the answer next:
TROY TAYLOR, STANFORD
Deion Sanders’ conference record at Jackson State: 19-2. Great!
Troy Taylor’s conference record at Sacramento State: 23-1. Greater!
DAN LANNING
Lanning doesn’t have the achievements of Taylor and Sanders, but he turned in a respectable season in the Pac-12 last year. Taylor and Sanders are just getting started as FBS head coaches after working in the FCS. Lanning does have the better FBS coaching resume, if only because he has an FBS season under his belt. If you wanted to say that the FCS coaches now in the Pac-12 have better resumes, we wouldn’t argue with that. We would only say that Lanning has an FBS head coaching resume and Taylor and Sanders do not.
JONATHAN SMITH, OREGON STATE
Smith’s 2022 season at Oregon State was better than Lanning’s at Oregon. Smith is therefore ahead of Lanning in terms of career results.
KALEN DEBOER, WASHINGTON
DeBoer’s 2022 season at Washington is better than Jonathan Smith’s 2022 season at Oregon State. DeBoer is ahead of Smith.
KYLE WHITTINGHAM, UTAH
Whittingham is the best coach in the Pac-12 “right now,” but his many years of struggles before finally breaking through in 2021 leave him third on the list. It is obvious that Whittingham is part of an elite top three, with the other nine coaches in the Pac-12 either having mediocre resumes (Wilcox) or having very young tenures which are just getting off the ground (basically everyone else we have mentioned).
Within that top three, though, Whittingham is clearly third.
CHIP KELLY, UCLA
Yes, Chip Kelly hasn’t done much at UCLA. Nevertheless, in a rankings list based on career results, Kelly is legitimately second-best on this list, ahead of Kyle Whittingham. It’s pretty clear.
Kelly has reached a national championship game. He has, unlike Whittingham, won the Rose Bowl. His dominant four-year run at Oregon (2009-2012) outstrips Whittingham’s Sugar Bowl win at Utah (2008) and Whitt’s last two Pac-12 championship seasons. It’s not a blowout, but Kelly still does have more high-end achievements to his credit.
LINCOLN RILEY, USC
Riley hasn’t made the national championship game, unlike Chip Kelly, but he has three College Football Playoff appearances as a head coach. No one else in the Pac-12 has one. Riley has lost more than two games in only one of his seasons as a college head coach, and that was in an 11-3 season in which his USC team still overachieved relative to preseason expectations. Riley has coached three Heisman Trophy winners before turning 40 on September 5 of this year. He also coached a Heisman runner-up (Jalen Hurts in 2019) and a Heisman finalist (Dede Westbrook at Oklahoma).
No one else’s resume is even close, even though Riley is still a very young head coach.
