re: Who was the worst head coach to ever win a national championship?

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It was Ed's decision to bring in Joe Brady from the Saints

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That's the only good decision Ed has ever done in his entire career.

I wouldn't be surprised to find out though that someone else gave him the idea.

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The 2000 Miami team had all the same players plus Reggie Wayne, Dan Morgan, and Santana Moss. They should have won it that year too. They lost an early season game 34-29 to Washington. I might blame that loss a little more on the D, which was Davis’ forte. Maybe Davis wins it in 2001 if he sticks around - and maybe he doesn’t.

No matter how talented a team is, you still can frick them up. Just being able to avoid icebergs and get the mighty Titanic to New York is worthy of more credit than most people give it. No one cares about icebergs (trap games, poor performances, inspired opponents, bad luck, etc.) until you hit one and then it’s a front page story.

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Agreed. We need to be clear. We are ranking the worst of the list provided. To suggest these are the worst coaches ever is not the debate...it's the worst of the list.

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Stallings


I only put him on the list because of his time before he got to Alabama. He held two coaching stints, one in college and one in the NFL.

- At Texas A&M he was 27-45-1
- At Phoenix he was 23-34-1

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The Cardinals organization was most of that. You had idiot nepo babies meddling.

I have no idea about the stint at A&M

His early success at Alabama was exceptional even if he faded hard.

Agree about the quality human being part. At least that matches my perception

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To suggest these are the worst coaches ever is not the debate...it's the worst of the list.

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Yes, but a lot of comments here still sell these guys short.

A lot of so-called great coaches have failed to win national titles with teams that should have won it. A lot of so-called great coaches have also failed to work the same magic (or anything close to it) at more than one place. Only two coaches have won a natty with more than one program and none have won a Super Bowl with more than one franchise. Obviously you don’t just carry a championship blueprint everywhere you go like they’re engineering schematics for a skyscraper that you can duplicate anywhere.

A lot of highly respected coaches have been on the hot seat at times. People here love Tom Osborne, but when he was 5-12 against Switzer in the ‘70s and ‘80s (1-12 with both programs in the top ten) and was carrying a 7 game bowl losing streak into the 1995 Orange Bowl, he wasn’t exactly a legend and that was 20+ years after inheriting a juggernaut from Bob Devaney.

There’s a musical chairs aspect to coaching success. It sure helps a lot to be standing in the right place when the music stops. Barry Switzer and Jimmy Johnson are 2/3 coaches to win both a natty and a Super Bowl and we may never have heard of either of them without Chuck Fairbanks (OU) and Howard Schnellenberger (Miami) leaving abruptly and giving them golden opportunities. I highly doubt Dabo Swinney would have two natties if Terry Don Phillips (who just passed away) had flushed Bowden’s staff in 2008 and he had to take the long road to being the HC of a major program.

Coaching matters a lot. By no means am I saying it doesn’t. But the players matter more and there’s a lot that goes into winning besides the head coach’s role. Sometimes the right job opens up, the right player or assistant falls in your lap, or the right team loses and opens everything up for reasons that have nothing to do with your coaching.

Define "national championship".

Do you mean in the trophy era (BCS, CFP)?
Or are you including the years prior to that, with the final No 1 ranking in AP and UPI?

Including the 2nd, I'd say LaVell Edwards of the 1984 BYU Cougars. They lucked out never really playing anybody of note, went undefeated in the regular season, and beat 6-6 Michigan in the Holiday Bowl 24-17.

Also in that conversation was 1990 Colorado's Bill McCartney, whose team won the Missouri game on a 5th down missed by the refs, as well as beating Notre Dame in the Orange Bowl with a bad holding call that negated a punt return touchdown.

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mack brown??

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The same Mack Brown that won 288 games and is in the CFB HoF?

The same guy that led UNC to back to back 10 win seasons and a top 5 ranking in ‘97?

The same Mack that took over a Texas program that was in the tank, and led them to a natty in 2 appearances?

The same Mack Brown that had Texas as the winningest power program through the entire decade of the 2000’s?

Yeah, that dude sucks.

O then Chizik. Why is Lloyd Carr on there?

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Chizik for sure.

He's 24-38 without Cam Newton and Michael Dyer.

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Orgeron is 30-40 without Burrow and the bogus credit for interim records, and he was at better programs.

Stallings had ncaa issues with an agent and player, not recruiting violations.