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Chris ranks the top 10 head coaches of all time in college football. Where do coaches like Nick Saban and Bear Bryant rank? Who was left off the list?
After that wild ending to the college football season where Ohio State's Ryan Day bested Notre Dame's Marcus Freeman in the national championship, we do it all over again for 2025. When it comes to the offseason, it is natural to take some looks at rankings of an all-time nature.
Who are the greatest college football coaches ever? Who else besides stalwarts like Nick Saban, Bear Bryant, and Bobby Bowden might be on this list? Some answers may surprise you and others may be based on where they are ranked.
Below are the top 10 head coaches of all time in college football.
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10. Joe Paterno - Penn State
This was not easy and may have been the one spot with the most debate. Coaches like Kirby Smart, Pop Warner, Barry Switzer, Dabo Swinney, and others can make their case. However, Joe Paterno, on the field, was one of the best in college football. Paterno won 409 games and two national titles.
Many refer to the 1986 game against Miami as one of the greatest defensive clinics ever in college football. The Nittany Lions caused six turnovers in all and held off Miami (FL) 14-10. Overall, Paterno teams went undefeated five times and did not sacrifice much in the way of academics.
Now, the Jerry Sandusky scandal sullies a considerable part of Joe Paterno's career. His ability to coach and win cannot be disputed.
9. Woody Hayes - Ohio State
Woody Hayes coached with the intensity of a tiger ready to pounce on a giant piece of meat. Ultimately, that got him fired. However, his ability to coach at an elite level cannot be disputed. Hayes stuck to his system, sometimes to a fault. On the other hand, it was immensely successful.
Hayes won 205 of his 238 games with the Buckeyes. He won five national championships and 13 Big Ten titles. In an era where physicality won, Ohio State's opponents knew what was coming and it did not matter.
Now, it did not matter how or why Hayes got fired. He remained beloved in Columbus and Ohio forever.
8. Eddie Robinson - Grambling
With an incredible run, Eddie Robinson transcended coaching. He was a mentor in life on and off the field. In 55 years, Robinson won as well. The Grambling coach won nine black college national championships along with 17 SWAC titles. Also, Robinson was over 400 games (408 in all).
However, it has to be noted that Robinson went undefeated in only his second year of coaching. After time off for World War II, Robinson came back to coach 53 more seasons. Four of his players are in the College Football Hall of Fame. Doug Williams once said that Robinson did more than foster minds and bodies. He taught and showed us life.
7. Bobby Bowden - Florida State
Florida State was a teetering school on the brink of forever being a middle-of-the-road college. Bobby Bowden changed all that. Over 43 seasons, Bowden won a whopping 379 games. The coach won two national titles and appeared in the top five at the end of every season from 1987 to 2000.
The Seminoles entered the ACC in 1992 and proceeded to win 12 of the first 14 conference titles. Bowden won often, developed two Heisman Trophy winners (Charlie Ward and Chris Weinke), and left Florida State a national power. More than the longevity, Bowden developed a slew of NFL players who went on to have incredible careers.
6. Tom Osborne - Nebraska
The Nebraska coach employed a rushing attack that could not be stopped. He used and employed players on both sides of the ball that exuded brute, physical strength.
The style worked as Nebraska nearly won a couple of national championships in the 80s. It seemed like Osborne would be best known as the coach who went for two instead of for the tie. That Miami game in 1983 did not make Osborne's career.
Ever heard of the "Fumblerooski"? Nebraska's coach Tom Osborne introduced this trick play during the 1984 Orange Bowl game. Quarterback Turner Gill intentionally placed the football on the ground, allowing guard Dean Steinkuhler to pick it up and run 19 yards for a touchdown.…
— Helmet Head (@HelmetHeadAi) February 5, 2025
Osborne's genius became more apparent after he retired. However, his last five years are the stuff of legend. He won three national titles as the Cornhuskers went 60-3. Osborne has a citizenship award named after him.
5. Frank Leahy - Notre Dame
The debates heat up when it comes to any list. However, if anyone focuses strictly on winning, Frank Leahy had the market cornered when it came to winning. Overall, Leahy went 107-13-9 in his coaching career.
Like Bud Wilkinson below, Leahy had players who went to school for four years and did not lose once. Now, Leahy did anything to win. Coaching consumed Leahy but his players benefited. Many went on to long and prosperous careers in the NFL. The coach had manners but knew his place was to win.
Notre Dame was fortunate to have Frank Leahy as a coach. Besides the titles, he almost gave his life to coaching. It was the main reason why he retired in 1953 at the age of 45.
4. Charles "Bud" Wilkinson - Oklahoma
Oklahoma was one of the most fearsome teams of the late 1940s and 1950s. A huge reason was because of Bud Wilkinson. Wilkinson racked up two winning streaks of over 30 games (31 from 1948-50 and 47 from 1953-57). His teams were so good that the Sooners often beat their opponents before they even took the field.
If that was not enough, he went on to an incredible career working college football games for ABC. Wilkinson succeeded at everything he did except for winning a U.S. Senate seat. However, few coaches will experience winning like what Wilkinson did at Oklahoma.
The Sooners will go down as the best team of the 1950s and maybe beyond. Like the coach above him, he did anything to win and usually succeeded emphatically.
3. Knute Rockne - Notre Dame
Can we win one for the gipper? Knute Rockne was much more well-known for being the father of modern coaching in college football. He was the boss. Rockne sold American high school kids on the prospect of playing for a Midwestern Catholic school. It was more than the four national championships. His teams went undefeated five times in 13 seasons.
Rockne enjoyed a .881 winning percentage while at Notre Dame, which tops all FBS college head coaches. Furthermore, if not for a tragic plane crash, he might have won a few more championships along the way. Rockne is the reason why Notre Dame still has a national television contract.
The well-oiled machine that was Notre Dame football became a Saturday institution because of Rockne.
2. Nick Saban - Alabama
When it comes to Nick Saban, if it was not for the person below, Saban would go down as the greatest college football coach of all time. He won at Michigan State and Toledo. However, the coach won the big game once with LSU. Then, Saban took a two-year break in the NFL. He came back to SEC rival Alabama.
Saban, in those 17 seasons, would transform Alabama back into the national power it was in the 1960s and 1970s. The coach won six national championships, appeared in the final three more times, and won 206 times in 235 games. Simply, he is one of the best of all time arguably across all of football, including NFL coaches.
“There’s the pain of discipline, and the pain of regret. If you choose the pain of discipline, you’ll never have to deal with the pain of disappointment.” Nick Saban
— Albert Caruana🇲🇹 (@CCExpress) March 1, 2025
The football coach remains and will be the gold standard for any coach who comes along and starts winning close to the level of Saban. Now, that speaks volumes.
1. Paul "Bear" Bryant - Alabama
The first thing anyone thinks about when looking through the annuls of SEC and college football history is this. One hears the words Paul "Bear" Bryant. Bryant won everywhere he went but history was made as coach of the Alabama Crimson Tide. For 25 years, Alabama exuded excellence as the Crimson Tide won 232 times. Overall, Bryant won 323 games.
Any and every list begins and ends with the coaching legend. He won six national titles in his time at Alabama. Bryant won in so many ways. He used one platoon system and waves of players. The more things changed, the more Alabama won. Alabama could beat you through the air or on the ground. Bryant won in all sorts of ways.
Bryant made players into men and fostered some incredible NFL talent. Also, he created a coaching tree that spanned into the 21st century. For a coach who started coaching in the 1940s, that may be his greatest achievement. No one could truly take this spot for Bryant!
