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SEC coaches ranked from worst to first entering the 2025 season

SEC coaches ranked from worst to first entering the 2025 season

USA Today8 hours ago
The SEC is the dream destination for college football coaches. Since 2006, the league has captured the national championship all but six times. The US LBM Coaches Poll reflects the SEC's dominance with nine teams inside the top 25 and the Oklahoma Sooners and Missouri Tigers representing the top vote-getters. So that's 11 teams inside the top 27 according to the coaches vote. It's a place where good coaches turn into icons.
And a place where, sometimes, good coaches lose their status.
In 2025, for the first time in a long time, the SEC returns every coach from the previous season. Some are long-timers. Some are still fresh. Some aren't going anywhere. Some are on the hot seat.
But current job status isn't the only metric for our 2025 SEC coaches rankings. Below, you'll find our list from No. 16 to No. 1. We measured by on-field success, at the current job and in their career, and reputation, mainly with run-ins with the NCAA or other administrators. A coach's time as a coordinator was not considered.
It's easy to figure out who ranks first, but that's no fun. The list is best consumed from bottom to top. So, without further ado, the rankings.
16. Hugh Freeze - Auburn
Other national rankings of coaches will have Freeze higher. And based off on-field results, Freeze deserves higher. But scandal has dogged the Tigers coach since before he was at Auburn, and the disappointment suffered there over two seasons hasn't done much, if anything, to rehabilitate his image.
15. Jeff Lebby - Mississippi State
Lebby has just one year of coaching under his belt, so not a ton to go off. The Bulldogs went just 2-10 last year, but it's hard to put a ton of blame on Lebby, who was playing with a bare cupboard. Still, with no background, he checks in at No. 15.
14. Clark Lea - Vanderbilt
The sheer fact that Lea took Vanderbilt to a bowl last year ensures he won't finish in last place when it comes to coaches' rankings. The Commodores will never be among the Southeastern Conference elite on the football field, but if Lea can have them hanging around .500 most years, he's doing a heck of a job.
13. Sam Pittman - Arkansas
Arkansas fans have become frustrated with Pittman as the coach's folksy nature doesn't play so well when the team disappoints. The Razorbacks met expectations last year at .500, but won their bowl to provide Pittman with three such trips in five years. But his job is in jeopardy, especially as Arkansas is expected to drop this year.
12. Brent Venables - Oklahoma
Since we're not counting coordinator work, Venables ranks here. The last time OU finished with two losing seasons in three seasons, John Blake was coaching and Bill Clinton was president. Yet that's where the Sooners are under Venables. The good news is that just about everyone thinks Oklahoma will be better this year. Perhaps a lot better.
11. Billy Napier - Florida
If anyone wants to quibble with Napier being this high, they have every right. But given the criteria of the list, his time at Louisiana holds some sway. A 19-19 record three years into his tenure in Gainesville makes his seat awfully warm right now, anyway.
10. Mike Elko - Texas A&M
Elko worked wonders in his two seasons at Duke, earning the promotion to Texas A&M. The Aggies then did what they have been prone to do for most of the last decade-plus: disappoint, but not to an extreme extent. Still, A&M fans want more than eight wins a season. Soon, the administration will, too.
9. Mark Stoops - Kentucky
Stoops is almost impossible to rank because his entire career has come at Kentucky, a historically moribund program. But last year marked the first season since 2015 the Wildcats failed to make a bowl, showing Stoops knows what he's doing, even if UK never quite turned the corner into even a semi-powerhouse.
8. Shane Beamer - South Carolina
Only four years into his head coaching career, Beamer is trending up. Given that it's only been four years, though, it's understandable if folks want to rank him lower. South Carolina is trending upward, though, and if the Gamecocks meet expectations this year, Beamer will have earned this spot, if not something higher.
7. Eli Drinkwitz - Missouri
Drinkwitz is the poster child for how quickly things can change. Two years ago, he'd have ranked near the bottom of this list after three regular seasons at exactly .500 each at Mizzou. An 11-win season in 2023 and another 10-win year last year have Drinkwitz firmly planted in the upper-middle of the SEC list.
6. Josh Heupel - Tennessee
Since a ho-hum first season at Tennessee in 2021, Heupel has had the Volunteers up near the top of the SEC. Eleven wins, nine wins, and 10 wins in each of the last three years impress, considering how much coaches have struggled in Knoxville since Phil Fulmer left more than 15 years ago.
5. Steve Sarkisian - Texas
Much like Freeze at the bottom (top?) of this list, others will have Sarkisian higher than fifth here. But, again, we're considering an entire resume. That isn't to say Sarkisian has been lucky at Texas, but the Longhorns' massive talent certainly helps. Entering 2025 as the No. 1 team in the country, though, is a pressure unseen for Sark.
4. Lane Kiffin - Ole Miss
Kiffin's online and offline antics used to be the talk of the SEC. Now, in the era of extreme personal branding, they seem quaint. Meanwhile, all Kiffin has done is keep the Rebels up near the top of the SEC, occasionally ruining championship hopes of the elite, even if Ole Miss probably won't ever get there itself.
3. Kalen DeBoer - Alabama
Certainly, DeBoer's first season at Alabama frustrated some. Crimson Tide fans aren't used to winning fewer than 10 games a season, and the team collected just nine last year. DeBoer's track record suggests that won't happen again, though, as with a 113-16 career record, the South Dakota native has found success everywhere he's been. And let's not kid ourselves, either, how many teams would have killed for a nine-win regular season last year?
2. Brian Kelly - LSU
Kelly comes with controversy, too, as his time at Notre Dame was laden with it. Few would argue Kelly is winning any personality contests in the SEC, though on the field, the results are hard to ignore. The LSU coach has won 10 games or more in seven of his last eight years and has 13 seasons with 10-or-more victories in his 21 seasons on the sideline.
1. Kirby Smart - Georgia
Two national championships. One national runner-up. Kirby Smart is the class of the conference until Georgia falls off the planet or another coach can match that output. The Bulldogs are among the favorites for another title this year, too.
Contact/Follow us @SoonersWire on X, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Oklahoma news, notes, and opinions.
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