Preview 2018 College Football Head Coach Rankings: No. 1 to 130

By: Pete Fiutak | July 14, 2018 3:17 am

The CFN Preview 2018 college football head coach rankings, along with a prediction of where they’ll all be five years from now.

CFN Preview 2018 Head Coach Rankings

Contact @ColFootballNews & @PeteFiutak

So, really, how do/should/would you do a ranking of head coaches going into a college football season?

By how good they’re perceived to be? That’s all about opinion.

By past records and accomplishments? That’s fine, but that’s about what happened and not what’s going to come.

Who’s on the hot seat? Who’s the hot guy? Who’s doing the most with the least, and vice versa? Who’s going to matter the most this season? Where they’re projected to finish in the final ranking of all 130 guys in a Coach of the Year piece? Who’s in trouble, and who’s going to have statues built in their honor?

How about all of the above, and any other factor you want thrown in?

Yeah, the criteria is very, very loose here.

Also, an added twist – projecting where each head coach will be five years from now.

These are men with families and lives and jobs, but the harsh reality is that there are 20 new head coaches about to take over, and there will be about the same number of openings after this season.

How many of the 130 schools have enjoyed their current head coach since 2014 and are going into their fifth seasons with the same guy? 40, and just 27 have been around longer than that. Roughly 70% of the current college football head coaches probably won’t be at their current gigs in 2022.

So where will they be working in five years? It’s all just wild and wacky speculation, of course, but here we go with that, and the 2018 Preview ranking of all the 130 college football head coaches.

Team-by-Team Predictions & 2018 Schedules
ACC | Big Ten | Big 12 | Pac-12 | SEC
C-USA | Ind | MAC | MWest | Sun Belt

130. David Beaty, Kansas

Record With Current Team: 4th season, 3-33
Where He’ll Be In Five Years: The offensive coordinator for a Texas-based Group of Five program.
– Kansas 2018 Team Preview

129. Brad Lambert, Charlotte

Record With Current Team: 6th season, 17-41
Where He’ll Be In Five Years: Special coaching assistant at a Power Five school in North Carolina.
– Charlotte 2018 Team Preview

128. Scottie Montgomery, East Carolina

Record With Current Team: 3rd season, 6-18
Where He’ll Be In Five Years: High-rising NFL assistant after a few seasons as a top receivers coach.
– East Carolina 2018 Team Preview

127. Mike Neu, Ball State

Record With Current Team: 3rd season, 6-18
Where He’ll Be In Five Years: Quarterback coach for an NFL team.
– Ball State 2018 Team Preview

126. Mike Jinks, Bowling Green

Record With Current Team: 3rd season, 6-18
Where He’ll Be In Five Years: Offensive coordinator for a Group of Five program.
– Bowling Green 2018 Team Preview

125. Bob Davie, New Mexico

Record With Current Team: 7th season, 30-45
Where He’ll Be In Five Years: Working as a Fox college football color analyst.
– New Mexico 2018 Team Preview

124. Everett Withers, Texas State

Record With Current Team: 3rd season, 4-20
Where He’ll Be In Five Years: North Carolina defensive coordinator and defensive backs coach.
– Texas State 2018 Team Preview

123. Doug Martin, New Mexico State

Record With Current Team: 6th season, 17-44
Where He’ll Be In Five Years: Settled in, he fights the good fight for New Mexico State as it’s rumored to be on the verge of rejoining the Sun Belt.
– New Mexico State 2018 Team Preview

122. Sean Lewis, Kent State

Record With Current Team: First season
Where He’ll Be In Five Years: Wisconsin offensive coordinator under Paul Chryst.
– Kent State 2018 Team Preview

121. Brent Brennan, San Jose State

Record With Current Team: 2nd season, 2-11
Where He’ll Be In Five Years: UCLA wide receivers coach.
– San Jose State 2018 Team Preview

120. Randy Edsall, UConn

Record With Current Team: 2nd season, 3-9 (2nd stint)
Where He’ll Be In Five Years: Special assistant on the defensive side for an NFL team.
– UConn 2018 Team Preview

119. Chad Lunsford, Georgia Southern

Record With Current Team: 1st full season, 2-4
Where He’ll Be In Five Years: After a few years of his option attack giving Sun Belt teams fits, he takes over for Ken Niumatalolo at Navy.
– Georgia Southern 2018 Team Preview

118. Steve Campbell, South Alabama

Record With Current Team: First season
Where He’ll Be In Five Years: After making USA a consistent winner, he settles in as the program is on the verge of becoming a Sun Belt power.
– South Alabama 2018 Team Preview

117. Chuck Martin, Miami University

Record With Current Team: 5th season, 16-33
Where He’ll Be In Five Years: Offensive coordinator and quarterback coach for a mid-level Power Five school.
– Miami Univ. 2018 Team Preview

116. Matt Viator, ULM

Record With Current Team: 3rd season, 8-16
Where He’ll Be In Five Years: Back as a fantastic head coach in the FCS ranks, looking to take a team back to the playoffs.
– ULM 2018 Team Preview

115. Nick Rolovich, Hawaii

Record With Current Team: 3rd season, 10-16
Where He’ll Be In Five Years: Quarterbacks coach for a Group of Five program.
– Hawaii 2018 Team Preview

114. Tim Lester, Western Michigan

Record With Current Team: 2nd season, 6-6
Where He’ll Be In Five Years: Looking to be the one who turns everything around at Syracuse.
– Western Michigan 2018 Team Preview

113. Shawn Elliott, Georgia State

Record With Current Team: 2nd season, 7-5
Where He’ll Be In Five Years: Settling in as the Appalachian State head coach – as the school makes a move to Conference USA.
– Georgia State 2018 Team Preview

112. Mark Whipple, UMass

Record With Current Team: 5th season, 12-36 (2nd stint)
Where He’ll Be In Five Years: Retired after going out on a high note with a second straight bowl appearance.
– UMass 2018 Team Preview

111. Dana Dimel, UTEP

Record With Current Team: First season
Where He’ll Be In Five Years: After a few solid years at UTEP, he takes over at Kansas State after Bill Snyder finally steps down.
– UTEP 2018 Team Preview

110. Mike Bloomgren, Rice

Record With Current Team: First season
Where He’ll Be In Five Years: After taking a few years putting together a fantastic running game, he’s on the verge of getting a bigger gig.
– Rice 2018 Team Preview

109. Jay Norvell, Nevada

Record With Current Team: 2nd season, 3-9
Where He’ll Be In Five Years: Offensive coordinator for a mid-level Power Five program.
– Nevada 2018 Team Preview

108. Joe Moglia, Coastal Carolina

Record With Current Team: 6th season, 51-15
Where He’ll Be In Five Years: Retired, but working as an assistant with Fordham … and making more money than every college football head coach as part of an executive advisory board on Wall Street.
– Coastal Carolina 2018 Team Preview

107. Willie Fritz, Tulane

Record With Current Team: 3rd season, 9-15
Where He’ll Be In Five Years: Settled in after finally turning Tulane into a consistent winner.
– Tulane 2018 Team Preview

106. Phillip Montgomery, Tulsa

Record With Current Team: 4th season, 18-20
Where He’ll Be In Five Years: The North Texas head man has the offense rolling and the team a regular in the bowl hunt.
– Tulsa 2018 Team Preview

105. Jay Hopson, Southern Miss

Record With Current Team: 3rd season, 15-11
Where He’ll Be In Five Years: Defensive coordinator at Ole Miss.
– Southern Miss 2018 Team Preview

104. Kalani Sitake, BYU

Record With Current Team: 3rd season, 13-13
Where He’ll Be In Five Years: Defensive coordinator for a Power Five program.
– BYU 2018 Team Previe

103. Chris Creighton, Eastern Michigan

Record With Current Team: 5th season, 15-34
Where He’ll Be In Five Years: Still at Eastern Michigan, coming off his third winning season in four years.
– Eastern Michigan 2018 Team Preview

102. Tony Sanchez, UNLV

Record With Current Team: 4th season, 12-24
Where He’ll Be In Five Years: Still at UNLV. Winning and going bowling, but still this close to turning the program around … really.
– UNLV 2018 Team Preview

101. Luke Fickell, Cincinnati

Record With Current Team: 2nd season, 4-8
Where He’ll Be In Five Years: The American Athletic title is still just a bit out of his reach, but he’s close.
– Cincinnati 2018 Team Preview