In honor of the Penn State vs Alabama game, who's the greatest college FB coach?

[charlie and algernon]

Poll question: In honor of the Penn State vs Alabama game, who's the greatest college FB coach?

[El Supremo]

1. Darrell Royal - duh.

In his 20 seasons at Texas, Royal's teams won three national championships (1963, 1969, 1970), 11 Southwest Conference titles, and amassed a record of 167–45–5.

[JonLP24]

2. John Gagliardi

[caraher]

3. Fielding Yost

OK, very old-timey... but if we just look at stats and consider a combination of longevity & winning percentage, Yost is hard to beat. Per Wikipedia,

"During his 25 seasons as the head football coach in Ann Arbor, Yost's Michigan Wolverines won six national championships, captured ten Big Ten Conference titles, and amassed a record of 165–29–10. From 1901 to 1905, his "Point-a-Minute" squads went 55–1–1, outscoring their opponents by a margin of 2,821 to 42."

[era veteran]

4. The Bear won the National Championship @ Kentucky

How could anyone top that? Glory Days before I was born, we still talk of those days. "Bryant took UK to eight consecutive winning seasons (1946-53) and helped the Wildcats claim their first national championship and Southeastern Conference championship in 1950. He also sent UK squads to four bowl games which included the 1947 Great Lakes Bowl, 1950 Orange Bowl, 1951 Sugar Bowl, and the 1952 Cotton Bowl." ."The biggest win in UK football history came under Bryant. After leading Kentucky to its first SEC title and a 10-1 regular-season record, UK found itself matched with defending national champion Oklahoma in the 1951 Sugar Bowl. The Wildcats scored early and held off the Sooners, 13-7, breaking Oklahoma's 31-game winning streak which is currently the ninth-longest in NCAA history.

[Liberal_Dog]

9. Not Quite

In those days, the "National Championship" was awarded before the Bowl games were played. So, even though UK defeated the Sooners,the Sooners were still 1950 National Champions.

[era veteran]

10. We count it differently and so do a lot of others

1950
Kentucky: Sagarin
Oklahoma: AP, Berryman, Helms, Litkenhous, UPI, Williamson
Princeton: Boand, Poling
Tennessee: Billingsley, DeVold, Dunkel, Football Research, National Championship Foundation

[lazarus]

5. Bear Bryant

Created the "numbers defense" still used today.

http://books.google.com/books?id=tdB_Zc963tMC&pg=PA73&lpg=PA73&dq=bear+bryant+gaps&source=bl&ots=Q29uMMH2lB&sig=8yLMlAmzcItiB-cL1EpbWVMjh0Q&hl=en&ei=FqqKTJ7MMoGisAP83ZS2BA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=10&ved=0CEUQ6AEwCQ#v=onepage&q=bear%20bryant%20gaps&f=false

[madinmaryland]

6. Woody Hayes is not on the list.

:wtf:

[El Supremo]

7. Assault & Batterers need not apply.

[era veteran]

11. I liked Woody

[Liberal_Dog]

8. 47 Straight

Bud Wilkinson.

[SargeUNN]

12. I voted Bear Bryant and here is why

I watched him at Alabama during my childhood and wanted to play for him but wasn't good enough to play college ball. I was at Southern Miss when we went to Tuscaloosa and became only the second team to beat a Bryant team there in his storied career. Bryant was such a class act that when people tried to excuse the loss Bryant refused to follow them and instead gave USM credit for whipping Alabama soundly. I used in my coaching many techniques I learned from Bryant and even in my Sports Admin and coaching classes at USM Bryant was often pointed to as one to learn good ways of dealing with players and winning games.