00:00And then Davo Sweeney, who we haven't really talked about yet today, but we brought this up here a couple
00:07of weeks ago when you were talking about putting this together.
00:09But what have you done for me lately, the last three years, weighing that against his national championships?
00:16How difficult was that to do?
00:18Well, a couple of things.
00:19So I have the spreadsheet on my computer, which is I've been doing this since 2015.
00:26And the first year I did it, we had Urban Meyer at number one.
00:29It was Ohio State was coming off the national championship, which put Urban Meyer number one.
00:33But Lincoln Riley has been in our top ten, to your point, each of the last five seasons, 2020 to
00:402024.
00:40So this is the first time he wasn't in the top ten.
00:44And then Davo has been in the top five like every year.
00:47Every year, Bobby, I gave him the benefit of the doubt of he's got two national titles.
00:51Nobody else does other than Kirby.
00:53And you just kept saying that every year.
00:54Well, he has two.
00:55And look at his record at Clemson.
00:57And it slipped just a little bit each year to the point where I was debating putting him at, like,
01:03number 11.
01:04But I'm like, he's still a top ten coach.
01:06He does have the two national titles.
01:08But, you know, you start to come up with ways of, like, he's got to get it done this year
01:13because they were seven and six.
01:14His three-year record isn't as good as some of those other guys in the top 15.
01:18And I'm not making excuses for him, but it is kind of a prove-it year because Mike Elko sitting
01:24right behind him, if there was a superlatives list, there's, like, the guy that, you know, the best no-nonsense
01:32coach that you don't really talk about much.
01:33It's probably Mike Elko and what he's done between Duke and Texas A&M the last couple years.
01:39As much as a no-nonsense, under-the-radar head coach with Elko sitting there at 11, is Lane Kiffin
01:47the opposite when it comes to that, sitting there at 8?
01:50Well, I always tell people, like, if you look at what he's done at Ole Miss, they've been a top
01:55-eight program with him.
01:58He's done an excellent job.
01:59It's just everything else is what we pay attention to.
02:03And he is definitely going to be in the spotlight this year at LSU.
02:07There's a, you know, high pressure on him to win.
02:10I do think he's been a top-ten coach.
02:12I remember the first time we put Lane Kiffin in the top-ten in the reaction on social media.
02:17But if you really look at the track record over the last several years, he's been that.
02:22And, you know, when you make a list like that, you know, critics are going to focus immediately on the
02:28negative,
02:28what these coaches don't do correctly and not what they've actually done.
02:32And, I mean, yeah, he set up Ole Miss for a semifinal playoff run.
02:36He wasn't there on the sideline.
02:37But the work he did there was pretty tremendous.
02:41One of the coaches you have who you've got a couple guys who had long-tenured runs
02:46and have just recently changed schools.
02:47You mentioned James Franklin earlier.
02:50Kyle Whittingham comes in at 12, right behind Elko, who we were talking about.
02:54Him and Elko kind of seem like two sides of the same coin.
02:57Bill, when you look at Kyle Whittingham, what would you – given that he was at Utah
03:01for basically two decades as a head coach and his whole career more or less as a player
03:07and a coach, what would you define or what – how would we define success for Kyle Whittingham
03:15at Michigan over his tenure there, which I'm guessing will probably be somewhere
03:20between four to seven years?
03:22You know, I think a couple playoff appearances.
03:24I'm not saying they have to win a national championship, but I think that's one of the
03:27big reasons he went there.
03:29You know, a stat I point out is Utah has had more seasons with ten or more wins
03:35in the last seven years than Michigan has.
03:38So – and it just seemed like Utah was that program, Bobby, that we – they just couldn't
03:43get in the playoff.
03:44And it would be bad circumstances some years.
03:46Like, they would drop a game late.
03:48But, I mean, all those ten-win seasons and all that success he had at Utah, I think it
03:53goes into our ranking of him.
03:55He's been steady.
03:57He's in that alley of coaches that includes him.
04:00Rhett Lashley is another one I really like.
04:02You know, I mentioned SMU earlier, what he's been able to do there the last three years,
04:06and I think they're going to be a perennial ACC contender.
04:09I'm a big Jeff Braum fan because I always say, look at what he's done in Louisville
04:13and Purdue and tell me a coach that can do that over the last four years and develop
04:19the quarterbacks the way he has.
04:21And I kind of like them as a sleeper team this year with Lincoln Keenholtz and the
04:25running backs and Clev Lubin coming back on defense.
04:28So – but the problem at Louisville, he's kind of that giant killer, but what happens
04:32every year, they kind of lose one they shouldn't.
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