Bruce Feldman's Top 25 college football coaches: Norvell, Kiffin make big jumps in '24
Since Stewart Mandel and I began doing these dueling Top 25 coach rankings, this seems to be by far the hardest year to do it.
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Bruce Feldman's rankings
1. Kirby Smart, Georgia
2. Dabo Swinney, Clemson
3. Lance Leipold, Kansas
4. Kalen DeBoer, Alabama
5. Ryan Day, Ohio State
6. Brian Kelly, LSU
7. James Franklin, Penn State
8. Kyle Whittingham, Utah
9. Lincoln Riley, USC
10. Mike Norvell, Florida State
11. Steve Sarkisian, Texas
12. Chris Klieman, Kansas State
13. Jeff Brohm, Louisville
14. Mark Stoops, Kentucky
15. Kirk Ferentz, Iowa
16. Dave Clawson, Wake Forest
17. Josh Heupel, Tennessee
18. Matt Rhule, Nebraska
19. Luke Fickell, Wisconsin
20. Mike Gundy, Oklahoma State
21. Lane Kiffin, Mississippi
22. Jonathan Smith, Michigan State
23. Hugh Freeze, Auburn
24. Jedd Fisch, Washington
25. Rich Rodriguez, Jacksonville State
Just Missed the Cut
Troy Calhoun, Air Force
Jamey Chadwell, Liberty
Matt Campbell, Iowa State
Jeff Traylor, Texas-San Antonio
Mario Cristobal, Miami (FL)
Eli Drinkwitz, Missouri
PJ Fleck, Minnesota
Dave Doeren, North Carolina State
Willie Fritz, Houston
Mack Brown, North Carolina
Jason Candle, Toledo
Jeff Monken, Army
18. Matt Rhule, Nebraska
It was a shaky first season in Lincoln, but in fairness to Rhule, it's been shaky there for a long while. The 49-year-old Rhule knows how to get things turned around. His 5-7 debut wasn't disastrous, and he's had some big recruiting wins already, especially landing quarterback Dylan Raiola. Rhule's overall college record (52-50) isn't jaw-dropping, but stretches of his season-by-season record are. At Temple, he went 2-10 in Year 1 and won 10 games two years later. He went 1-11 in Year 1 at Baylor. Two years later: 11-3.
