NCAA Football: 5 most valuable college coaches

2.) Jimbo Fisher, Florida State

Age: 48
Salary: 4.1 million

Sometimes it’s harder to revitalize a program than to build one from scratch — nobody knows this better than Jimbo Fisher. Fisher arrived at FSU in 2007 after winning big as the offensive coordinator under Nick Saban, and later Les Miles, at LSU.

LSU was a top-tier program, well-organized, well-run — it was everything you’d expect from an SEC school. FSU, on the other hand, was not like that. Fisher arrived as the “head-coach-in-waiting” and was immediately greeted by the litany of problems that plagued the end of the Bobby Bowden era in Tallahassee. There was in-fighting amongst the coaching staff, the offense and the defense had a highly adversarial relationship — players had splintered into cliques and didn’t get on well with one another — at one point former defensive assistant Chuck Amato is rumored to have tried to stage an insurrection aimed at removing the “head-coach-in-waiting” title from Fisher in order to give it to himself.

For as great of a coach as Bowden was (the winningest FBS coach of all-time), his final few years at FSU were an unmitigated disaster. When Fisher finally took over in 2010 — after Bowden was pushed out — his first job was to clean up the mess he had inherited. His second job was to find a way out from Bowden’s sizable shadow.

That’s a tall order for anyone, let alone a first time head coach.

Four years later Fisher is 45-10. The Seminoles’ record has improved each year and the BCS title currently resides in Tallahassee — and it’s almost all thanks to Jimbo. Fisher, like his close friend and former boss Nick Saban, has a hand in everything. He controls all facets of his program — micro and macro — from locker-room seating arrangements to offensive play-calling to the construction of new buildings (like the indoor practice facility FSU opened last Summer).

And it seems the more control Fisher exerts, the better off Florida State is. Before last season FSU replaced half of its coaching staff (hired away by other schools) and 11 NFL draft picks. People expected a 12-2 team that won the ACC and the Orange Bowl the year before to take a step back. Instead FSU shattered offensive records on the way to its third national title in school history.

Fisher recruits as well as anyone in the country, Saban included. Not surprisingly, last year was the first year FSU’s roster was comprised entirely of Fisher’s recruits. And he turns those recruits into good NFL prospects too. Fisher has had 25 players drafted in his four years as a head coach, a trend that is not likely to stop anytime soon (next year’s first round will be loaded with Seminoles).

And above all, Fisher seems content in Tallahassee. He signed an extension at the end of last season. His family is highly involved in the community. Him and his wife’s charity is well-supported by Tallahassee and Florida State University. When his children grow up, I wouldn’t be shocked to see Fisher test himself in the NFL. But for the foreseeable future, Fisher will be leading Florida State and few schools in the country can claim to have a more valuable head coach.

Just one, in fact.