The summer football news cycle is beginning its deep slumber. There’ll be a few commitments here and there for the next two weeks, but it’ll be mostly quiet until SEC Media Days kick off July 20.
That’s why we’re seeing all sorts of preseason lists and rankings. Somebody has to fill the internet with content, after all. Most of it is benign, fun stuff, but there’s always room for something a little more controversial.
One easy way to stir things up is by ranking SEC head coaches. Put one coach ahead of another and watch the fan bases start pounding away on the keyboards. But that’s not what happened when USA Today’s Blake Toppmeyer published his ranking of the 16 head coaches Tuesday morning.
Here’s the complete list:
USA Today’s SEC Head Coach Rankings
- Kirby Smart, Georgia
- Steve Sarkisian, Texas
- Kalen DeBoer, Alabama
- Lane Kiffin, LSU
- Josh Heupel, Tennessee
- Mike Elko, Texas A&M
- Eli Drinkwitz, Missouri
- Jon Sumrall, Florida
- Clark Lea, Vanderbilt
- Brent Venables, Oklahoma
- Alex Golesh, Auburn
- Pete Golding, Ole Miss
- Shane Beamer, South Carolina
- Will Stein, Kentucky
- Jeff Lebby, Mississippi State
- Ryan Silverfield, Arkansas
A lot of that makes sense.
Ole Miss fans probably went straight to No. 12 to see where first-year coach Pete Golding landed, and they did have to pass by you-know-who on the way. But No. 12 feels right for Golding.
For starters, Golding’s only head coaching experience came in last season’s College Football Playoff games. He went 2-1 in those games, including the Sugar Bowl win against Georgia. It was impressive, but it’s still too small of a sample size to draw any real conclusions. It’s enough to keep him ahead of fellow first-time head coach Will Stein at Kentucky. And Mississippi State’s Jeff Lebby has just one SEC win in two seasons.
The 11 coaches in front of Golding all have head coaching experience and success in those roles. That gives them a slight edge in a ranking like this.
Moving Up Is Easy
If rankings like Toppmeyer’s were based on potential instead of past results, Golding would be a lot higher.
He’s one of the most respected defensive coordinators in the nation. His football knowledge is on par, if not ahead, of several coaches on this list. And we’ve already seen his recruiting ability over the last few months. Ole Miss has a top‑20 signing class, has been in the mix for some of the nation’s best recruits and could still climb. Signing day isn’t until November.
What Golding needs to move up in rankings like this is the one thing that actually matters: winning games.
A 10‑win season this fall would show he can lead a team from January through December, not just through a postseason run. Replicating what he did in those three playoff games over the course of a full season would do the trick.
How high he could climb depends entirely on how other teams perform, and that’s impossible to project right now. And if Golding wants to reach the top of the list, he’ll need to do it for a few more seasons.
Doubtful anyone in Oxford would complain about that.
