Georgia’s Kirby Smart and Ohio State’s Ryan Day lead a ranking of the coaches in this year’s College Football Playoff.
Indiana’s Curt Cignetti has transformed the Hoosiers into a national powerhouse, earning the top seed in the playoff.
Several coaches on the list, like Oregon’s Dan Lanning and Texas Tech’s Joey McGuire, have set new standards for their respective programs.
Meet the most elite club in college coaching.
Two head coaches in this year’s College Football Playoff, Georgia’s Kirby Smart and Ohio State’s Ryan Day, have combined for three national championships, and a third has reached the championship game in Alabama’s Kalen DeBoer.
Two more previously made the playoff in Indiana’s Curt Cignetti and Oregon’s Dan Lanning. Texas Tech coach Joey McGuire has delivered the best regular season in program history and Texas A&M coach Mike Elko led the Aggies to their most success in the regular season in decades.
And that’s not to mention Miami’s Mario Cristobal, Oklahoma’s Brent Venables and two Group of Five prodigies soon set for the Power Four in James Madison’s Bob Chesney and Tulane’s Jon Sumrall.
The long list of accomplishments found among this group can make ranking the playoff coaches a fool’s errand. But let’s give it a shot, helped by the fact we can slot a coaching neophyte into last place:
1. Kirby Smart, Georgia
Smart won national championships in 2021 and 2022, snapping Alabama’s stranglehold on the SEC, and has since claimed the past two SEC crowns. He’s taken over for Nick Saban as the face of college coaching and will have Georgia among the best programs in the Bowl Subdivision for as long as he remains in Athens.
2. Ryan Day, Ohio State
Day delivered last season amid major scrutiny and has Ohio State surging, a loss in the Big Ten championship game notwithstanding. He’s gone 79-11 since taking over full time in 2019 and has yet to lose more than two games in a season.
3. Curt Cignetti, Indiana
Cignetti has taken college football by storm in transforming the Hoosiers into a national powerhouse. Following a stunning playoff berth in his debut, Indiana is this year’s top seed after capturing the program’s first Big Ten championship since 1967.
4. Dan Lanning, Oregon
Nearly every school in the country would love to have Lanning, who seems very content after solidifying Oregon’s place among the elite programs in the Power Four. He’s 46-7 overall over four years and has gone 17-1 in Big Ten play with one conference championship since the Ducks joined the league in 2024.
5. Kalen DeBoer, Alabama
DeBoer’s tenure in Tuscaloosa hasn’t quite popped, though he took on one of the most daunting challenges in FBS history by replacing Saban with the Crimson Tide. But he’s won everywhere: DeBoer went 67-3 at Sioux Falls, won nine games in his lone full season at Fresno State, led Washington to the championship game in 2023 and has Alabama back in the playoff this year.
6. Mike Elko, Texas A&M
Elko had A&M on the verge of an appearance in the SEC championship game before a loss to Texas on Black Friday. That disappointment aside, he’s been able to tap into the program’s immense potential after going 16-9 in two years at Duke and being named the 2022 ACC coach of year.
7. Mario Cristobal, Miami
Cristobal held Miami together amid a midseason swoon to make this the finest coaching job of his career. He’s now posted a pair of 10-win seasons with the Hurricanes after doing the same over four years at Oregon. Before that, Cristobal worked a borderline miracle by posting two winning seasons at Florida International.
8. Brent Venables, Oklahoma
Venables has had a choppy four-year run at Oklahoma, alternating losing seasons with double-digit wins during the program’s transition to the SEC. But he delivered this season thanks to leading a defense that carried the Sooners to key wins against Tennessee and Alabama. As a coordinator, he was a playoff superstar during Clemson’s run under Dabo Swinney. That Venables lands here speaks to the depth in this year’s playoff class.
9. Joey McGuire, Texas Tech
Texas Tech had just one winning finish in the six seasons before hiring McGuire away from his assistant job Baylor after the 2021 season. Following 23 wins in his first three years, McGuire has piloted a seriously talented (and expensive) roster to a program-record 12 wins, Tech’s first outright conference championship since 1955 and the No. 4 seed in this year’s tournament.
10. Jon Sumrall, Tulane
Sumrall gets the nod as the top Group of Five coach in the field after going 43-11 over his four years at Troy and Tulane. The future Florida coach has won three conference championships in his four seasons. His SEC ties should make him a good fit in Gainesville.
11. Bob Chesney, James Madison
Chesney took over for Cignetti and took James Madison to another level. The Dukes are in the top 10 for scoring margin, rushing offense and total defense. Set for UCLA after the Dukes’ season ends, he’s won at every stop of his career but has just two years of FBS experience.
12. Pete Golding, Mississippi
Golding will step in for LSU-bound Lane Kiffin for this playoff run and will be the permanent replacement moving forward. While he knows the SEC from his stints at Alabama and with the Rebels, Golding has never been a head coach on any level.