I listed 5 honorable mention. I struggled with whether or not to list Spurrier last or Wilkinson. I went with Spurrier. The problem I have with Wilkinson was that he did it against weak opposition for all those years.
I don't think Bear Bryant was that great. At Bama he was able to give every single kid under the sun a scholarship just so he could bench them to prevent other teams from getting them.
To say the Bear wasn't a great coach is mind-boggling. He did hoarde players but all coaches could have done that and he couldn't hoarde all of them. There was plenty more talent than what they had but he still won a lot of big games. Eddie Robinson was a master recrutier also and no matter what you think of the program and who they played he was the best ever on his level. Bud played to many lousy teams at Oklahoma?????? Might want to rethink that one. A 45 game win streak is still unbelieveable. Paterno deserves to be on any top list strictly due to his tenure and what he did for the program. He is the Penn State program IMO. He took a program from no where and brought it to the top. What about Yost from Michigan, wasn't he the best in the early years? Anyway, every coach mentioned except for the joke post is deserving except for Switzer IMO. He wasn't there long eonough to be considered IMO. Great thread.
Paterno hanging on too long and ruining a great record does take away from what he had done up until that time. He doesn't get extra credit for coaching 45 years and the last 15-20 sucking (which is what he will do if he lasts until the end of this decade which he plans on doing). Just doesn't work that way. Switzer's legacy is built upon the fact that he beat Tom Osborne's team, you know that lil university from Nebraska you may have heard of. He beat him to the tune of a 12-5 record. And 16 years is plenty. I would argue more about longevity with Spurrier, who is 10th on my list. And yes, Oklahoma's schedules under Wilkinson were quite mediocre, although the winning streak is quite amazing, I will give you that. Robinson being 1-AA, I just can't put in a list of 1-A coaches. Sorry. He's been awesome but not at the 1-A level. You're exactly correct about Yost, best coach pre-1900.
top five Since there have been many great coaches, I will name my favorites in no particular order. 1) the BEAR 2) "Gentleman Johnny Vaught 3) Charlie McClendon 4) Joe Paterno 5) Bobby Bowden. GIVE'M HELL TODAY TIGERS!!!!!!!! :tigbas:
