National media outlet ranks SEC head coaches ahead of 2024 season; where Tennessee's Josh Heupel falls
Ahead of the 2024 season, 247Sports ranked the 16 SEC head coaches and they have a couple of guys who have never coached a game in the SEC ahead of Tennessee Vols head coach Josh Heupel. Georgia's Kirby Smart, unsurprisingly, comes in at No. 1. No arguments there — with Nick Saban now retired, no […]
Ahead of the 2024 season, 247Sports ranked the 16 SEC head coaches and they have a couple of guys who have never coached a game in the SEC ahead of Tennessee Vols head coach Josh Heupel.
Georgia's Kirby Smart, unsurprisingly, comes in at No. 1. No arguments there — with Nick Saban now retired, no one in the SEC has accomplished as much in college football as Smart.
A couple of new faces to the SEC cracked the top five, ahead of Heupel who comes in at No. 6 in 247Sports' SEC head coach rankings.
Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian is at No. 3 and Alabama's Kalen DeBoer is at No. 4.
Check out 247Sports' full SEC head coach rankings here.
Putting Sarkisian at No. 3 is at least somewhat understandable — even though he's coached zero SEC games. Sark, however, did lead Texas to a road win against Alabama last season (Heupel is 0-for-2 in Tuscaloosa). And he took the Longhorns to the College Football Playoff in 2023. Sark has only won 10 or more games once in his 10 seasons as a head coach so there's certainly an argument that he doesn't belong in the top five.
DeBoer at No.4 is a bit more questionable. Sure, DeBoer led Washington to the national championship game last season, but he has no clue what it's like to coach in the SEC. And Washington, despite going 14-1 last season, looked pretty shaky at times in 2023 against some subpar competition (narrow wins against a three-win Arizona State team, a three-win Stanford team, and a five-win Washington State team).
Heupel has proven he can win in the SEC. He's beat everyone that matters except Smart and the Bulldogs. DeBoer has done none of that.
I have a feeling these rankings will look significantly different after the 2024 season.
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