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Top 15 active college football head coaches ranked by all-time wins. RotoBaller's list of the winningest CFB head coaches heading into the 2026 season.
In an era where coaches don't get much time to build a program, being among the winningest coaches in college football is impressive.
Although a ton of new faces have entered the head coaching ranks in recent seasons, there is still a batch of long-tenured decision-makers strolling the sidelines, and they have a ton of wins to show for it.
Check out this list of the top 15 active wins leaders among FBS coaches in college football.
t-14. Pat Fitzgerald - 110 Wins
In 17 seasons at Northwestern, Fitzgerald tallied 10 bowl game appearances, with five wins. His 110-101 overall record isn't all that impressive without context, but it's extremely difficult to win at Northwestern, as the Wildcats were facing a wide talent gap in most of their matchups.
Pat Fitzgerald's reaction when he heard it's his 18th spring game 😆#B1GToday pic.twitter.com/kk9NhetqfJ
— Big Ten Network (@BigTenNetwork) April 15, 2026
Fitzgerald was let go after the 2022 season, following an investigation that uncovered some shady things going on in the program. However, he's back in the coaching ranks in 2026 with Michigan State.
t-14. Butch Jones - 110 Wins
Jones took over for Brian Kelly at Central Michigan and Cincinnati, meaning the programs were already in great shape when he arrived. He won four conference titles in six years with those schools, which elevated him to the Tennessee job in 2013. His two nine-win seasons in 2015 and 2016 were the high point of his coaching career, but even those seasons felt like underachieving given the talent he was working with in a weak SEC East.
He's now heading into his sixth year at Arkansas State and is coming off two straight bowl wins.
13. Dan Mullen - 113 Wins
Mullen had an exceptional tenure at Mississippi State, qualifying for a bowl game in each of his last eight seasons with the Bulldogs. With Dak Prescott at QB, he led State to being the first ever No. 1 overall team in the College Football Playoff rankings in 2014. His work in Starkville earned him the Florida head coaching job, which started hot but flamed out.
In his first year with UNLV, the Rebels won 10 games and made the Mountain West Conference title game. Don't be surprised if we see Mullen back in the Power 4 head coaching role this time next year.
12. Lane Kiffin - 116 Wins
Kiffin got his college head-coaching start in 2009 at Tennessee, then famously left in the middle of the night after one season to take his dream job at USC. It didn't work out in Los Angeles, but Kiffin has had a revival after a tenure as Nick Saban's offensive coordinator in Tuscaloosa. He won 26 games and won two conference titles at Florida Atlantic, then took Ole Miss to its greatest three-year stretch in program history.
#JustDifferent @Raiders @LSUfootball 18 years later 🐅 pic.twitter.com/GpaJi64qbT
— Lane Kiffin (@Lane_Kiffin) April 7, 2026
Now, he holds a top-five coaching job in America, and money and talent will never be an issue. LSU expects to win a National Championship immediately.
11. Kirby Smart - 117 Wins
Smart has only been a head coach for 10 years. Needless to say, he's racked up wins in a hurry.
Georgia has won at least 11 games in eight of Smart's 10 seasons at the helm, including six seasons of at least 12 wins. Finding a way to win a College Football Playoff Game has been a struggle over the last three years, but Georgia will always be in the mix.
10. Dave Doeren - 118 Wins
Doeren had a hot start to his coaching career at Northern Illinois, winning 23 of 27 games and capturing two straight MAC titles. He's entering Year 14 at NC State and has 11 bowl appearances thus far in Charlotte. The fan base wants more in a weak ACC, but he's been consistent and puts together solid teams.
All that said, he needs to compete for a conference crown soon, or it might be time for a change.
9. Ken Niumatalolo - 119 Wins
Niumatalolo enjoyed a fantastic 16-year tenure as Navy's head coach, but it flamed out after he tallied an 11-23 record over his final three seasons. That doesn't erase his 11-win seasons and American Conference title game appearances in 2015 and 2019.
He led San Jose State to a bowl game in 2024 before a rough 3-9 showing in 2025. The program would be smart to give him time to build a winner. He has a proven track record of success.
8. James Franklin - 128 Wins
No, Franklin never won a national championship in State College, but he resurrected the program and posted a 104-45 record in 12 seasons at the helm, including one Big Ten Championship and five seasons of at least 11 wins. In 2024, he had the Nittany Lions one win away from the CFP National Championship Game.
James Franklin created a buzz in Lane Stadium when he told fans, “We’re going to shock the world together.”
His resume indicates he’ll do just that based on results at Vanderbilt and Penn State.
It’s all about keeping the momentum and excitement going.https://t.co/5KSdv5LtGq
— Damien Sordelett (@DamienSordelett) April 21, 2026
He was a great hire for the Hokies, a program that has not won 10 games since 2016. In the wide-open ACC, Franklin has the opportunity to have the team in the College Football Playoffs consistently. He led Vanderbilt to back-to-back nine-win seasons in the early 2010s. He can do the same or better with Virginia Tech's resources.
7. Bret Bielema - 134 Wins
The bulk of Bielema's wins and success come from his seven-year stint at Wisconsin, but he's starting to build a consistent winner at Illinois. The Illini have won 19 games since 2024, the program's most in two years in its history. Can he keep up with the winning after the departure of quarterback Luke Altmyer? I won't bet against him.
6. Troy Calhoun - 139 Wins
Troy Calhoun, a former Air Force quarterback, is heading into his 20th season with the Falcons, and he might not be going away anytime soon. The 59-year-old has five seasons of at least 10 wins on his resume, an impressive feat considering the recruiting restrictions a military academy has to deal with.
Out of 136 teams, only 4 have held the same HC since the end of the BCS era: Iowa’s Kirk Ferentz (1999), Air Force’s Troy Calhoun (2007), Clemson’s Dabo Swinney (2009), and NC State’s Dave Doeren (2013). pic.twitter.com/h6TptEvszI
— RedditCFB (@RedditCFB) December 12, 2025
Nine wins in the last two years isn't what you want to see, but Calhoun has always found a way to turn things around after a rough patch.
5. Rich Rodriguez - 140 Wins
During his first stint at West Virginia from 2001 to 2007, Rich Rodriguez led the Mountaineers to five straight seasons of at least eight wins and four Big East titles in five seasons. He left for Michigan in 2008, only to flame out with a 15-22 record in three years. He had some strong seasons out of the gate at Arizona, but he ultimately fell out of favor there, too, and did not hold a head coaching gig from 2018 to 2021.
Rodriguez landed the head job at Jacksonville State in 2022, and he successfully led the Gamecocks in the program's jump from the FCS to Conference USA. He tallied an 18-8 record in the school's first two years of FBS play, and he captured a CUSA title in 2024. Now, he's looking to revive West Virginia after a 4-8 showing in his first year back with the program. Can he recapture the magic in Morgantown? It'll be fun to find out.
4. Bronco Mendenhall - 146 Wins
It was a surprise to see Mendenhall leave BYU for Virginia in 2016 after winning 99 games in 11 seasons, and that decision didn't age well. He spent five years with the Cavs before being fired following two straight .500 seasons. He took three seasons off before jumping back into coaching at New Mexico in 2024, and now he's in Year 2 at Utah State.
He's shown he can win at a high level in the past, so hopefully, he can find some stability with the Aggies.
3. Kyle Whittingham - 177 Wins
Utah moved on from Whittingham after a 10-2 season in 2025, his seventh campaign with double-digit wins since taking the job over from Urban Meyer in 2005. Whittingham's teams have played with a Big Ten style of defense and pounding the rock in the PAC-12 and Big Ten, so this is an absolutely gorgeous fit for the two sides.
The 66-year-old's career is not everlasting, but he has plenty of energy in the tank, and it wouldn't surprise anyone if the Wolvarines are ready to compete for the Big Ten crown early in his tenure.
2. Dabo Swinney - 187 Wins
Has Swinney built up enough goodwill that the program will give him several years to build Clemson back into a contender? Maybe, but his unwillingness to adapt to the new landscape of college football makes it tough to be optimistic about the future.
The worst start for Clemson under Dabo Swinney 😬 pic.twitter.com/Fbih0Q9OiE
— Bleacher Report CFB (@BR_CFB) September 20, 2025
That said, you can't erase his 187 wins, nine ACC Championships, and two National Championships. He's a clear Hall-of-Fame coach, regardless of what happens moving forward.
1. Kirk Ferentz - 221 Wins
Ferentz consistently does more with less. The Hawkeyes never have national-level recruiting classes.
They never land blue-chip transfers. Yet they develop NFL draft picks as good as any program, and they consistently win football games. Ferentz has now coached at Iowa for 27 seasons, an incredibly impressive run that has him sitting at 213-128. As of last season, he is the winningest coach in Big Ten history.
