The Southeastern Conference (SEC) easily has the best roster of college football coaching talent in the country. The conference includes five coaches that have coached in the National Championship game with four of them winning it all. The fifth being Les Miles who plays against Ohio State for the BCS Championship in January. Almost every coach in the conference has coaching experience in the NFL as well. Here is a ranking of the 12 coaches currently in the SEC. It is debatable. Feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments.

1. Urban Meyer - Florida Gators - Meyer is 70-15 in seven seasons as a head coach. He led the 2004 Utah Utes to an undefeated record. He is 31-7 in his three seasons as the coach of the Gators including a National Championship in 2006, his second season at the school. He is 4-0 in bowl games. He also recruited robo-quarterback Tim Tebow to UF. Florida, supposedly rebuilding this year, went 9-3. His career record is 70-15.



2. Mark Richt - Georgia Bulldogs - Richt has been the coach of the Bulldogs for seven seasons now. During that time the Dogs have been 71-19 with a 40-17 record in the SEC. He is 4-2 in bowl games. Georgia was 10-2 this year and will play in the Sugar Bowl. Any coach that can average 10+ wins a season while coaching in the SEC is one heck of a football coach. The Bulldogs came very close to playing in the National Championship this year.



3. Steve Spurrier - South Carolina Gamecocks - Spurrier won the 1996 National Championship with the Florida Gators. Before becoming the head coach of Florida he was the coach at Duke. He made the Blue Devils winners and had a record of 20-13-1 as their head coach. As the Gators coach he went 122-27-1 during the course of 12 seasons. After failing as a coach in the NFL he returned to the SEC to rebuild the lowly South Carolina Gamecocks. In his first three seasons there his record is 21-16. Overall he has a record of 163-56-2 in college football. Spurrier also won the Heisman Trophy as a player.



4. Les Miles - LSU Tigers - After an average career as head coach of the Oklahoma State Cowboys Miles has done very well with a loaded LSU program he inherited. As the OSU coach he was 28-21 with a Big 12 record of 16-16. In his three seasons as the coach of the Tigers, he is 33-6 and will be playing for the National Championship in January. He is popular with LSU fans for his high risk play calling and often going for it on 4th down. He likely rises to #2 on this list if he wins the National Championship and follows it up with another 11 season win next year. Overall he is 61-27 with a bowl record of 3-2.



5. Nick Saban - Alabama Crimson Tide - Trader Nick has a college coaching record of 98-48-1. He has coached at Toledo, Michigan State, LSU and currently for the Crimson Tide. He failed as coach of the NFL’s Miami Dolphins. His greatest college success came at LSU where he was 48-16 in five seasons and won the National Championship in 2003. Alabama went 6-6 during his first season as their head coach.

BEST OF THE REST

---

6. Tommy Tuberville - Auburn Tigers - Tubby might be the most hated coach in the SEC. He is witty, creative, and his teams are always competitive. As Auburn’s coach he is 79-33 in nine seasons with a conference record of 50-24. Before coaching the Tigers he was the head coach at Ole Miss where he was 25-20 in four seasons. His overall bowl record is 5-3. The Tigers will be playing in the Chick-Fil-A bowl.

---

7. Houston Nutt - Ole Miss Rebels - Nutt won at Arkansas which is a tough task to accomplish. The Razorbacks went 8-4 this year and beat the #1 ranked LSU Tigers at Tiger stadium. His record at Arkansas was 75-48 and 42-38 in conference play. After being disrespected by school officials for several years, he resigned as coach of the team, and was immediately snatched up by conference rival Ole Miss. Nutt coached at Murray State before going to Arkansas. Overall his career record is 111-70 with a bowl record of 2-5.

---

8. Rich Brooks - Kentucky Wildcats - It is a near impossible job to win football games at Kentucky, but Brooks has some how turned the Cats into a pretty good football team. In 2007 they went 7-5 after going 7-5 the year before. They also beat the LSU Tigers who went on to play in the National Championship. His only other college head coaching experience came at the University of Oregon. His overall record at Kentucky is 23-35.

---

9. Sylvester Croom - Mississippi State Bulldogs - After many seasons as a NFL assistant coach, Croom returned to the SEC, where he played at the University of Alabama. After a rough first three seasons, the Bulldogs went 7-5 in 2007 and made their first bowl game in several seasons. State plays in the very competitive SEC West. If Croom can build on his 2007 list he will climb even higher on this list. At MSU he is 16-30 and 8-24 in SEC play.

---

10. Bobby Johnson - Vanderbilt Commodores - Vandy probably doesn’t even deserve to be in the SEC. The academic admissions are very high, so you can imagine the improbable task of recruiting football players to the school. Johnson has led Vandy to wins over several SEC schools since taking the job in 2002, including the school’s first win over Tennessee in 30 years. Vandy was 5-7 in 2007.

---

11. Phil Fulmer - Tennessee Volunteers - Living in the state of Tennessee it’s always amusing to hear UT fans moan about just how bad a coach Fulmer is and how much the majority of UT fans want him replaced. Fulmer has only ever coached at Tennessee. He stabbed his mentor and former Vol head coach Johnny Majors to get the job back in 1992. Phil is so low on this list because he is at a very traditionally rich football school, he recruits really well, and yet his teams almost always under perform. He has been living on his 1998 National Championship for a decade now. His record through the 98 Championship was 67-11 (86%). Since winning the big one he is 79-34 (70%). The Vols have not won the SEC Championship since 1998. Overall he is 146-45 in fifteen years. The Vols have been to a bowl game all but one year of his tenure.

---

12. Bobby Petrino - Arkansas Razorbacks - Petrino is #12 on this list for a couple of reasons. #1: He has never coached a game in the SEC. #2: The cowardly way he left the Atlanta Falcons with three games remaining in their season to take the Arkansas job. Bobby had a lot of success coaching the Louisville Cardinals before accepting the job with the Falcons. He was 41-9 at Louisville and 2-2 in bowl games. That record came in Conference USA and the Big East. It will be interesting to see how good of a college football coach he can be in a ‘Big Boys’ conference. He likely will have a tough time recruiting at Arkansas.