10 college football coaches with the best chance of winning first national championship next
By John Buhler
And then there were three... With Jim Harbaugh going to the NFL, Nick Saban retiring and Jimbo Fisher in the unemployment line, only three active college football head coaches have won a national championship at the FBS level. Kirby Smart at Georgia most recently did it in 2022. Dabo Swinney of Clemson won his latest in 2018. North Carolina's Mack Brown won his only one while at Texas in 2005.
Although Clemson and North Carolina could technically do it to give Swinney his third and Brown his second-ever respectively, the smart money is on Smart's Dawgs to make it three national championships in four years. However, the College Football Playoff field is expanding from four to 12 teams next season, meaning more and more teams will have a shot at joining this holy triumvirate.
With Harbaugh gone, Saban retired and Fisher out of a job, that removes nine national championship victories from the equation dating back to 2004. Other coaches besides the six mentioned have won championships since then, whether that be Urban Meyer thrice, Les Miles once, Gene Chizik once and Ed Orgeron once. I mean, losing nine of last 20 champions in just one offseason is a huge deal.
If it is not Brown, Smart or Swinney adding another one to the mantle next year, who else could it be?
10 CFB head coaches most likely to win first national championship next
10. Kyle Whittingham has been an institution at Utah for two decades
When attempting to do this exercise, I figured I needed at least one head coach from each Power Four league. The ACC's candidate was obvious and there are plenty to chose from in the expanded Big Ten and SEC. However, the Big 12 was hard to find just one. This is a league that I venture to guess will get a team into the top-four to start the bracket, but I doubt a Big 12 team will win one next year.
However, I am firmly of the belief that great coaching will be what prevails in the new-look Big 12 until somebody claims the power void at the top of the conference upon the Oklahoma and Texas defection to the SEC. Of all the head coaches I considered in the Big 12, I went with Kyle Whittingham of Utah for this one reason: He is the best head coach to have never gotten a team into the playoff.
Whittingham took over in Salt Lake for Urban Meyer in 2005 after he left for Florida. Utah was essentially a Group of Five team back then. It took a few years to acclimate to the Pac-12, but Whittingham established himself as a hall-of-fame-level coach. His teams are fast, physical and fun to watch. It will be interesting to see how the Utes run in the Big 12, but this team has a lot of upside.
Blessed with the superduper leadership of Cam Rising at quarterback, we cannot cross Utah off yet.