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Saban, Harbaugh, and More: Ranking the last 10 National Championship Winning Coaches

Ranking the last 10 championship-winning college football coaches based on their full careers—not just their title seasons. See who tops the list.

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Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh shakes hands with Alabama coach Nick Saban after U-M's 27-20 overtime win over Alabama at Rose Bowl Stadium in Pasadena
Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh shakes hands with Alabama coach Nick Saban after U-M's 27-20 overtime win over Alabama at Rose Bowl Stadium in Pasadena

By Mike Huesmann

It’s always fun to look back and conceptualize lists, and this was no different. In finding the last 10 championship winning coaches, I wasn’t sure how far we would have to go back. The answer to that was 18 seasons. Due to multiple coaches having multiple titles, Les Miles in 2007 is the oldest title winner to make this list and, obviously, Ryan Day the most recent. In ranking these 10 championship winning coaches I am not ranking only the title winning season, but rather the coaches body of work as a whole. It might not be the perfect metric, though it will be unkind to the coaches who had one elite team or generational player.

10. Gene Chizik, Auburn (2010)

Chizik coached Auburn to an undefeated season in 2010 on the back of Cam Newton having one of the most dominant seasons of any individual that I’ve seen in 35 years of watching college football. This team had a knack for winning close games. However, in six seasons as a head coach, two at Iowa State and four at Auburn, this was his only season with more than eight wins. Two years after this the Tigers went 3-9 and he has not been a head coach since.

9. Ed Orgeron, LSU (2019)

Arguably the best individual team in college football history. The 2019 LSU team was littered with future NFL talent and no one can say they aren’t among the elite single season teams. But much like Chizik, Orgeron would be out of a job two years later. In fact, he would never have another winning season. Orgeron may be unfairly down this list due to his three-season disaster at Ole Miss where he went 10-25, but those are the rules I applied.

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8. Les Miles, LSU (2007)

There was as a time when Miles was a top notch, elite coach who was ranked among the top five in the nation. But this list is full of those guys. His title in 2007, where the Tigers went 12-2, might be the least inspiring team on this list. Miles was a heck of a coach who had many good seasons at LSU and Oklahoma State. The scandals and his awful tenure at Kansas (3-18 over two seasons) knock him down this list.

7. Jimbo Fisher, Florida State (2013)

This is where the dissenters may come in. Some might feel I should have Fisher lower than Miles, whom he served as assistant coach for, but the numbers don’t support that. Fisher holds a career 72.7 winning percentage, Miles officially at 59.6 percent. That’s a significant difference. Fisher was also much better in his “failures” than Miles was, though the playing fields and expectations were much different. Each had one national title, Fisher’s was qualitatively much better.

6. Ryan Day, Ohio State (2024)

We now get to our recent and most polarizing coach (strictly on-field speaking) here. Day boasts a career 88 percent winning rate and is 70-10 as the Buckeyes head coach. Yet, his detractors will claim he was born on third base and didn’t beat anyone good until this year. His recent struggles against Michigan don’t help. But he has not lost many games he shouldn’t have and the talent he’s getting to Columbus, Ohio is remarkable. Wild to think a loss to Tennessee a few months ago might have put him out of a job.

5. Dabo Swinney, Clemson (2016, 2018)

The remaining five coaches will all be Hall of Famers, and Swinney deserves it with the rest of them. Winner of two national titles and a dominant ACC run, he took over a team that was struggling, but had recent success, and he vaulted them to the elites of the game. It took him nine years to win a national title, but only three to get double-digit wins. He has since accomplished that feat 13 out of 14 years. In addition to his two national titles, he has finished runner-up twice. Swinney has a winning percentage of 79 percent.

4. Kirby Smart, Georgia (2021, 2022)

The best active college coach in the game and one who many people will tell me should be higher on this list. He might be unfairly in the No. 4 spot, but the decider here was the top three have won at multiple places, while Smart has only done it at Georgia. And what a job he’s done. The modern, elite Bulldogs were not what he inherited from Mark Richt. He has built them into a juggernaut we expect to win most, if not every, game. I don’t think he’s done winning titles. His record of 105-19 gives him an 85 percent winning rate.

3. Jim Harbaugh, Michigan (2023)

The only man on this list who has also coached a team to a Super Bowl, where he lost to brother John. He’s among the best coaches at any level in the sport. He turned around San Diego then went to Stanford and had a 12-1 season in year four. After that he spent four seasons with the San Francisco 49ers, went to a Super Bowl, had three playoff appearances and never had a losing record. Michigan then called and he went home. In nine seasons he won double-digit games six times and the 2023 team finished undefeated. In 2024 he coached the San Diego Chargers to the NFL playoffs, one year removed from a 5-12 season.

2. Urban Meyer, Florida (2008) and Ohio State (2014)

The only man on the list to win titles with two schools in this time period, but more on that caveat later. There is much to dislike about Myer as a person, but he is an elite college football coach who is among the best builders in the history of the game. He turned around Bowling Green, Utah, Florida and Ohio State. He also won a third title, 2006, but that doesn’t make our time period, though it helps his body of work. I will yell until I’m blue in the face that, after Nick Saban, he’s the best college football coach of the last 25 years.

1. Nick Saban, Alabama (2009, 2011, 2012, 2015, 2017, 2020)

Could there be anyone else topping this list? Saban also won a title at LSU but that doesn’t make our timeline. He won an astounding six titles in this period and is widely considered the greatest of all time. There aren’t words to say how good he did at Alabama and what a juggernaut he had going. We may not see another one like him ever. He won 292 college games, 11 SEC titles, 1 MAC title, did a good job at Michigan State, and we should all dip our hats to him. 

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