Unveiling the nation's 10 best and five worst coaches

[HarveyGlass]

Wake Forest has one of the best overall athletic programs in the country, they have money to throw around(not necessarily for football).  And Prosser doesn't have trouble getting top recruits to play basketball for him, as evidenced by the three top50 players he already has committed to play ball next year.

But that's all irrelevant when it comes to Grobe sniffing the top25.  It has only happened once, and that was last year.

Grobe's head coaching record speaks for itself, especially the Ohio numbers since there aren't any Miami's or FSU's in the MAC...

• 2006 -- 11-3(WF)
  
• 2005 -- 4-7(WF)
  
• 2004 -- 4-7(WF)
  
• 2003 -- 5-7(WF)
  
• 2002 -- 7-6(WF)
  
• 2001 -- 6-5(WF)
  
• 2000 -- 7-4(Ohio)
  
• 1999 -- 5-6(Ohio)
  
• 1998 -- 5-6(Ohio)
  
• 1997 -- 8-3(Ohio)
  
• 1996 -- 6-6(Ohio)
  
• 1995 -- 2-8-1(Ohio)

His fourth and fifth years at Wake Forest had his bosses thinking about a new direction, I guarantee.

[smazza]

As to Meyer. What else do you want a coach to do? anyways the best coach in the country right now might be schiano in my opinion.

meyer is showing leavitt how to recruit

[Joe]

Wake Forest has one of the best overall athletic programs in the country, they have money to throw around(not necessarily for football).  And Prosser doesn't have trouble getting top recruits to play basketball for him, as evidenced by the three top50 players he already has committed to play ball next year.

But that's all irrelevant when it comes to Grobe sniffing the top25.  It has only happened once, and that was last year.

Grobe's head coaching record speaks for itself, especially the Ohio numbers since there aren't any Miami's or FSU's in the MAC...

• 2006 -- 11-3(WF)
  
• 2005 -- 4-7(WF)
  
• 2004 -- 4-7(WF)
  
• 2003 -- 5-7(WF)
  
• 2002 -- 7-6(WF)
  
• 2001 -- 6-5(WF)
  
• 2000 -- 7-4(Ohio)
  
• 1999 -- 5-6(Ohio)
  
• 1998 -- 5-6(Ohio)
  
• 1997 -- 8-3(Ohio)
  
• 1996 -- 6-6(Ohio)
  
• 1995 -- 2-8-1(Ohio)

His fourth and fifth years at Wake Forest had his bosses thinking about a new direction, I guarantee.

Harvey, with all due respect, please put the pipe down.

He's had more winning seasons the last 6 years at WF than the previous 12 at WF.

Further at Ohio he had 33 wins in 6 years. That's more than the they had had COMBINED the 14 seasons before he arrived.

Finally, he's at a school with an undergraduate enrollment of 4,200; ranked in the top academically, and has only 60,000 national alumni. It's not a private school like Notre Dame where you have 8,000 or USC 16,000 students and can disguise some of those students with academic problems. Further, Wake doesn't exactly have the tradition of either of those schools.

Now they do recuit well for basketball, but your talking 12-13 guys as compared to 80. It's very very hard to recruit at Wake Forest and what Jim Grobe did this past year, even with the ACC in an off year, was probably one of the best coaching jobs you will ever see in college football.

Is he the best coach out there? No. But he's definitly in the conversation.

[HarveyGlass]

2007 was a fantastic coaching job.  His best ever, and maybe the best in the ACC in a long time, especially in light of his QB and RB going down.

But I'm not about to believe that 2007 is the real Jim Grobe, and the 4-7 before that, and the 4-7 before that, and the 5-7 before that, those were the flukes. 

You're telling me The Great Grobe, who had 6 wins, total,  in the previous three years against teams not named Duke, East Carolina, and NC A&T is a top ten coach?  I'll have to disagree.

BTW, I live in Winston-Salem, NC, so I am familiar with Wake's enrollment and tradition.  Believe it or not, I actually root for the Deacs.  They're my ACC team of choice(at gunpoint lol) being stuck in god-forsaken ACC country.

[Joe]

Harvey,

You are really not taking into account how hard it is to get good players to Wake Forest. He's NEVER going to have consistent seasons there because he'll never be able to get top notch talent because of the academic standards when compared to the student body size.

If we were at a decent sized private school I could see it, but simply put Wake is the smallest in D-IA (Think Army and Navy are a little bit bigger)

[HarveyGlass]

All I'm saying is I would be very disappointed if my school hired him.  And that shouldn't be the case with a top10 coach.  To me, there is no question that all eight of the coaches ranked on that list behind him should be above him.  He's better than RichRod?  Tuberville?

I probably shouldn't have said he was "garbage" in my first post, but I'm prone to a little hyperbole.

[Bullpride08]

Joe and smazza (gosh help me for saying this about smazza) make great points and I always wonder why people say certain coaches are bad coaches just good recruiters....uhh recruiting is part of college coaching and the last I checked there has been tons of guys that can recruit like crazy but not coach, see Ole Miss coach, Zook...list is huge.

Nah, I think Mack Brown going against other elite coaches often gets beat, but he beat USC in the Rose two years ago.  He consistently has a top 10 program and recruiting class, and he did it at UNC too....you must put him in the top 10 for that reason.  Urban Meyer is totally in the top 10, and it has little to do with what he's done at UF, but rather everyone should moreso marvel at his accomplishments at Utah, and BGSU...Boise State was a darling this year, well Utah did it three years earlier.  Those were no smoke and mirrors or with another man's recruits.

What Grobe has done at Wake is amazing, and he's kept them winning as other smoke and mirror coaches in the ACC have fallen by the side of the road like Amato, Al Groh at UVA, Bunting, have all been fired or are close to it.  I do agree at this juncture that Richt is overrated, but his trouncing of Vtech in the Peach Bowl made me re-assess him.  He took a defeated team into the lockerroom and came out in the 2nd half with world beaters.  That's motivation and adjustments the sign of good coaching.

The total package is still the total package.  If a guy can recruit and is at least a good coach then that's a recipe for championships case closed.  The only problem i have with that list is if you really want to rank the 1-A coaches then how about body of work....none have equalled that of Bowden or Paterno and the last I checked those guys are still producing ranked teams and beating those aforementioned guys.  Spurrier too!

[bullncquest]

What do y'all think of Wake's new Pressbox that is now under construction?  They sure do know how to raise money!

[WoDoS]

As to Meyer. What else do you want a coach to do? anyways the best coach in the country right now might be schiano in my opinion.

meyer is showing leavitt how to recruit

Yeah right..  :  I don't suppose that NC trophy he just won with "somebody else's recruits" helps..  :Duh

[HarveyGlass]

What Grobe has done at Wake is amazing, and he's kept them winning as other smoke and mirror coaches in the ACC have fallen by the side of the road like Amato, Al Groh at UVA, Bunting, have all been fired or are close to it.

No offense, but that's what I'm talking about, Grobe's success is a myth.  He has not, "kept them winning".  He had a wonderful year last year, beyond anyone's wildest dreams, but it was the first thing remotely close to a winning season in his past 4 years at Wake.  Obviously, I'm very anxious to see what he does this year, but I'd bet dollars to donuts that he doesn't win five games.  Again.

bullncquest, I think it looks beautiful from the drawings.  It will be very nice.  I'm having a hard time believing that it will be ready by September 8, though.  The west side is basically just a few concrete supports right now and nothing else, with only a month and a half to go.