25 best college football coaches never to win a national title
- Head Coaching Record: 137-59-7 at LSU, 1962-79
- Closest He Came to Winning a National Championship: 1970; 9-3, lost the Orange Bowl, No. 7 final ranking
- Notable: 1970 SEC Championship, AFCA Coach of the Year (1970), SEC Coach of the Year (1969, 1970), College Football Hall of Fame (1986)
Charlie McClendon saw coaching excellence up close and personal when he played for Bear Bryant at Kentucky from 1949-1950. McClendon became an assistant coach at Vanderbilt in 1952 before joining the coaching staff at LSU in 1953 – and never left Baton Rouge.
Originally a member of Gaynell Tinsley’s staff with the Tigers, McClendon stayed on board when Paul Dietzel became head coach in 1955. In 1958, Dietzel led LSU to a national championship – the first in school history. Three years later, McClendon rose to the head coaching position and led the Tigers from the sidelines until 1979. His 18-year head coaching career remains the longest ever at LSU, and the 137 wins, 59 losses, 13 bowl appearances, seven bowl victories and six bowl game losses are all still records among head coaches at the school. And in those 18 years, the Tigers had only one losing season.
McClendon’s first season was one of his best as he led the Tigers to a 9-1-1 record, a win in the Cotton Bowl and a No. 7 final ranking in the final AP Poll. He matched that finish in 1970 (though the Tigers were ranked No. 6 in the final coaches poll that season) with a 9-3 record that included an undefeated conference record to secure McClendon’s first and only SEC Championship.
Well respected in the coaching profession, McClendon served as the executive director of the American Football Coaches Association from 1982 to 1994. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1986.
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