30 best college football coaches of all time, ranked

12. Knute Rockne, Notre Dame 1918-1932

Knute Rockne is probably the old-school head coach that most people still know to this day. The College Football Hall of Fame called Rockne “American football’s most-renowned coach”. That’s the Hall of Fame calling him that. He was innovative, revolutionary, and greatness personified. Rockne was a chemist at the University of Notre Dame, but put science on the back burner to become the school’s football coach. Rockne is the reason Notre Dame is still considered a top job today. He put the Fighting Irish on the map.

Rockne was only the Notre Dame head football coach for 13 seasons. During those 13 seasons, he went 105-12-5. He won the national championship three times in South Bend. It’s the greatest winning percentage for any coach in history.

Outside of the 1918 season, where college football as a whole was hit by the impacts of World War I and the Spanish Flu, he was almost perfect as a coach every season. He had more than one loss in a season twice in his career. Every one of his teams was either the best or close to the best team in the country. Again, this wasn’t a Notre Dame team that was known for dominance before Rockne got there. He changed the history for Notre Dame.

It all came to a tragic end. In 1932, he died in a plane crash while going to tape scenes for the movie “The Spirit of Notre Dame”. He likely would have put together some untouchable records if he kept coaching. He was just 43 at the time of his death, but he left quite the legacy in such a short time.