Who is the worst headcoach to win a national championship?

I know it has been talked about before, but a recent article about Nick saban kinda makes me wonder if we are too hard on some of the common names that get associated with the title, and not hard enough on other names not associated with the title of worst coach to win a national championship. Saban said in an interview,

“… BLANK played really good against us when I was at Michigan State,” Saban said, per The Montgomery Adviser’s Alex Byington. “We actually won the game, 34-31, … but it was because they played a different quarterback half the game. If they’d have played (Blank) the whole game I don’t know what would have happened.”​

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He is referring to a team that is marching towards a 2nd national championship in 3 years with an even better team than what they had 2 years prior, but the HC is still trying to settle a needless quarterback battle on the road 6 weeks into the season that was generated because fans wouldn't shutup about the potential from a highly talented freshman quarterback that was threatening to play full time with the New York Yankees instead of playing quarterback for the school.


The common names that get tossed out for "Worst Coach to win a national championship" are Chizik, Coker, Erickson, Brown, and Ross.

-Ross's is byfar the craziest, because it came out of nowhere.

- Chizik's was mostly because of 2 players in a year that the SEC totally tore itself apart

- Brown was on the cusp of so many championships, but he just needed that generational player to seal the deal

- Coker just inherited the greatest team of all time, but never could rebuild it

- Erickson was much like Coker

All were extremely lucky to win those championships, but you cant say they ever got in the way of winning a championship.

I ultimately think a good coach that constantly gets in his team's way of a title is more deserving of "the Worst coach to win a championship" than a mediocre to average coach who rides the horses that got him to the promise land. I think Llyod Carr maybe the worst based on the talent he had for 13 years at Michigan, his inability to beat Tressel (1-6) and other elite coaches to make a competitive rivalry, and his just outright bizarre coaching moves that costed him titles. Atleast the others never tied their hands behind their backs during their championship runs.

FThomas said:

Not sure I would even remotely call Bobby Ross a bad head coach. He took Maryland to 3 ACC championships and rebuilt Georgia Tech. he then took the Chargers and Lions to the playoffs 5 out of his eight years in the NFL (and neither of those teams were all star caliber). Both the Lions and the Chargers were struggling before he arrived and significantly worse after he left.

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He was an average coach not a bad one. "Worst" in this case more refers to someone who probably shouldnt have a national championship based on coaching pedrigree, decisions, and team. Bobby really SHOULDNT have a championship, but the ball bounced his way just for one season, and he made the most of it. Really until 1990, the best teams he beat were overinflated North Carolina teams

NoNC4Tubs said:

IMO, Chizik should win this one in a landslide... :cool2:

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Probably, mostly because 1) its auburn 2) he probably has a worse record due to his ISU tenure and 3) most people probably feel Coker and Chizik are probably the furtherst away from HOF coaches out of the names on the list of national championship coaches. But again I would argue that in no world would Chizik bench his reliable quarterback because the fans are chanting for someone else. More or less Chizik didnt do anything to hamper a national championship run, nor did he face a bunch of paper tigers to do it either.

selmaborntidefan said:

https://www.tidefans.com/forums/showthread.php?t=160914



Here is a post from February 2012 that provides some candidates.

AT THAT TIME, I thought it was too soon to consider Chizik because he had not yet imploded.

Of course, he wasn't even coach ten months later.

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I found my post in that one, and I can see I was still very raw about 2007, 2010, and 9-5-11. Because my list is way different than it was 6-7 years ago.


*** Word to the wise, if you post some dumb take or prediction, you might want to edit it when it is proven wrong because Selma will find it years later. Just look at the folks not happy about the CNS hiring

FThomas said:

I think Ross is an above average coach (not great). he took weaker teams and made them better than his predecessors. When he moved on to a new team, his old teams were all worse off for it (at both the college and professional level this was true). That suggests above averages to me. As such, I can think of several coaches that won championships who have a demonstrably lesser list of accomplishment and success: Davis, Miles, Coker, Cizik, etc.)

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That's fair.


Stallings biggest friend in that leaves him out of that discussion is Spurrier. A lot of people realize that Spurrier teams in the 90's costed a lot of people the generational national championship in the 90's. I think Stallings also gets a pass because he trounced Dye, and had to coach against Fulmer in his early years. Competition really helps status. Its why Im way harder on Coker than Chizik. Coker just had to beat Florida St and VT to get to a national championship. Chizik had to go through the SEC West when it was arguably at its strongest to get anywhere.

KrAzY3 said:

It has to be Chizik. He umm, acquired one of the top college quarterbacks of all time. He was at an SEC football power during the height of the SEC west's football dominance.

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Dan Mullen had a top college quarterback in 2014 that is close to or better than Cam Newton, had a far better defense than that Auburn defense, and had to go through the weakest SEC season since 2006. Most would agree than Mullen is a better coach than Chizik, but he did some remarkably stupid things in 2014 to cost himself a playoff berth. At some point you have to make the most of the cards you are dealt, and Chizik did what many better coaches did and that was win a national championship in the premier division in football, and go undefeated also. 2010 Auburn had 2 players worth a darn, and didn't choke.

I think Chizik knew his limitations, and was smart enough not to get in the way of a national championship run. Cant say the same for folks like Carr, who lucked out and got the easiest National championship game, and totally botched 2-3 better Michigan title runs by trying to be an elite coach. Chizik is a lesser coach than all of them, but he didn't constantly choke away championships.

JustNeedMe81 said:

Whew, That was lot of folks that was suspended in that thread LOL.
.

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Yeah some of these old threads show some serious all expenses paid vacation package winners.

KrAzY3 said:

I consider building and managing a roster to be key parts to the head coach job in college, there are no GMs to hand that task off to.
.

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Good point

Here is where I believe Carr over Chizik.

1) His early career is not as good as many think

A lot is made about him winning vs 7 ranked teams in 97, and how he was 5-1 vs Ohio State through 6 years. Let address both

A) the 7 ranked teams

Colorado
Iowa
PSU
Ohio St
MSU
Wisconsin
Washington St

Only finished with 8 or more wins, and 1 finished with a losing season. So it wasn't as big of haul as it looks on paper. Add to the fact that the Rose Bowl vs Washington St was against an unbelievably lucky Mike Price team. Had they played UCLA they would've gotten killed, and Nebraska would've been undisputed National champs with their illegal play vs Missouri

B) 5-1 vs Ohio St. That looks good until you realize that he finished 6-7 vs Ohio St. Meaning the game was almost an automatic win until Tressel. There are 16 coaches that have beaten Tressel at Ohio St. 4 to beat him more than once, and Carr isn't one of them. Carr has as many wins vs Tressel as Ron Zook, Tiffer, Hope, Ferentz, and Toledo. It pretty much points to a weak conference + a weak rival for 6 years being the biggest contributing factors to Carr's overall success. It was basically Tom Osborne without Barry Switzer not being there to slap him around anymore.

2) 1999

In 1999, FSU and VT played for the national championship, but neither of them were the 2 best teams. Michigan and Alabama both were BETTER than those teams. Why didn't either get there?

A) Alabama- lost to La Tech and Tennessee. Tennessee is a forgivable loss that would probably still got Alabama in NOLA had they not had the unforgivable La Tech loss

B) Michigan- While people will still say Illinois would've still kept them out, a win over Michigan St would've gave them a Big 10 title and wins over 6 ranked teams (3 top 10). Why couldn't Michigan beat MSU? Lets look at CNS's quote without the BLANK.

… Tom Brady played really good against us when I was at Michigan State,” Saban said, per The Montgomery Adviser’s Alex Byington. “We actually won the game, 34-31, … but it was because they played a different quarterback half the game. If they’d have played (Brady) the whole game I don’t what would've happened​

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TBF no one in the country knew what Brady was ultimately capable of, but everyone knew except Llyod Carr and Michigan fans that you don't play a different qb each quarter on the road against a top 10 rival during week 6. It is one of the absolute dumbest coaching decisions by a national winning coach. Sure Nick Saban had a qb battle vs Ole Miss in 2015, but that was week 3 at home, and he made up his decision pretty fast.

Then there was misses in 2002,2003, 2006, and 2007. I give Osbourne a lot of criticisms but atleast he sealed the deal when he had the opportunity... Fine 83 he didn't, but can you really blame him for not wanting his national championship being a tie vs #5 Miami

3) Lack of quality wins vs great coaches:

Sure he owns the record vs Nick Saban and Joe Pa, but good grief that needs some serious context on both. Joe Pa was nowhere near at his prime anymore, and Nick Saban was building MSU. Aside from those 2, the only coach that is considered great that he owned a winning record on was Barry Alverez. Barry is a B or C level at best on all time greats. Chizik was atleast undefeated vs Spurrier at the height of his power at South Carolina, and did manage to beat very good teams in 2010.

But I think having an unexpected national championship in the midst of mediocrity looks better than one that was expected surrounded and followed by numerous chokes. I don't think Carr would've done better enough to distance himself from Chizik had he been Auburn's coach in 2010.