Ranking the 14 current SEC football head coaches
By Zach Ragan
One of the best — and most stressful — jobs in college sports is being an SEC football head coach.
It’s where the best coaches in the nation typically want to land.
That’s because there’s nothing like the gameday atmosphere in the SEC. The tradition and prestige are unrivaled in collegiate sports.
And the competition is pretty good, too.
Some of the most legendary coaches in college football made their name in the SEC — Bear Bryant, Steve Spurrier, Vince Dooley, Robert Neyland.
It stands to reason that there are at least a couple of future legends (or current legends) currently coaching in the SEC.
Here’s how we rank the current 14 SEC head coaches
14. Clark Lea — Vanderbilt Commodores
The sample size is small with Lea, a former Vanderbilt linebacker who took over as the Commodores’ head coach prior to the 2021 season, which is why he’s so low on this list.
Lea went 2-10 in his first season in Nashville. Vanderbilt’s only wins came against Colorado State (3-9 in 2021) and UConn (1-11 in 2021).
I don’t necessarily think Lea is a bad coach — he did a good job as Notre Dame’s defensive coordinator from 2018-2020. But it’s hard to imagine putting him above anyone else on this list.
13. Billy Napier — Florida Gators
This is another tough coach to rank. Napier is the only coach on this list that has zero Power-5 head coaching experience entering the 2022 season. There’s a lot of unknowns with Napier.
For now, I think we have to put Napier near the bottom of the list. Sure, he was tremendous at Louisiana (40-12 in four seasons), but he has to prove his worth in the SEC. But with that said, I think he has the potential to move WAY up this list after the 2022 season if he has a good first season leading the Gators.
12. Eli Drinkwitz — Missouri Tigers
Drinkwitz is 11-12 in his first two years as an SEC head coach. I really don’t think he’s a better coach than Napier, but I’m going to give Drinkwitz the edge for now (though I definitely expect that to change). Drinkwitz led Missouri to a win over a not-so-great Florida team in late November which is a plus for him, but the Tigers also finished with a losing record in 2021.