2025 College Football Head Coach Rankings: Top 25 Coaches originally appeared on College Football News.
Who are the best college football head coaches in the game right now?
There are only three among the 136 with an FBS-level national title – Kirby Smart, Dabo Swinney, and now, Ryan Day.
Nick Saban and Jim Harbaugh were done last year, Mack Brown left the stage, and now a whole slew of stars are seemingly on the verge of doing something amazing.
Based on our loose criteria of wins, championships, past success, future projections, who does the most with the least, and because there’s no way to put it, feel.
Basically, who’s hot?
Here’s our preseason call on who the 25 best college football coaches are heading into the 2025 season.
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2025 College Football Head Coach Rankings: Top 25
Georgia coach Kirby Smart takes the field with his team before the start of the SEC championship game against Texas in Atlanta on Saturday, Dec. 7, 2024.© Joshua l. Jones Athens Banner-Herald USA TODAY NETWORK / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
25 Troy Calhoun, Air Force
2024 CFN Coach Rank: 24
Wins as FBS Coach: 135
The guy works miracles as he almost always comes through. He won 29 games from 2021 to 2023 before going 5-7, and this year will be a fight after losing more talent than normal.
24 Kirk Ferentz, Iowa
2024 CFN Coach Rank: 23
Wins as FBS Coach: 204
The consistency is incredible. He hasn’t had a losing season since 2012, and that’s not changing in his 27th season. By the way, this all came after starting 4-19 in Iowa City.
23 Jamey Chadwell, Liberty
2024 CFN Coach Rank: 14
Wins as FBS Coach: 60
It’ll be interesting to see what’s next with one more big year. Great at Coastal Carolina, he won 21 games in two years at Liberty. He’s helped by easy schedules, but wins are wins.
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22 Mario Cristobal, Miami
2024 CFN Coach Rank: 41
Wins as FBS Coach: 84
He improved at Miami in each of the last three seasons, and now this needs to be the breakthrough campaign. He’s only 12-12 in the ACC so far.
21 Mike Gundy, Oklahoma State
2024 CFN Coach Rank: 18
Wins as FBS Coach: 169
Blow off the bizarre 2024 season. There were injuries, bad luck, and nothing seemed to work right. You don’t succeed as long as Gundy has without figuring out how to fix things.
20 Lincoln Riley, USC
2024 CFN Coach Rank: 5
Wins as FBS Coach: 81
It’s so puzzling how this isn’t working. He’s too good a college coach to be struggling this much. It’s USC. It’s should be in an expanded College Football Playoff every other year.
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19 Lane Kiffin, Ole Miss
2024 CFN Coach Rank: 8
Wins as FBS Coach: 105
If we were REALLY doing this right, he’s a top three Guy Who’s Coaching College Football. Ole Miss has six double-digit-win seasons in the last 62 years. Kiffin owns three of them.
18 Kalen DeBoer, Alabama
2024 CFN Coach Rank: 9
Wins as FBS Coach: 46
Look, everyone. Winning nine regular games as an SEC team is really, really hard. Okay, it’s Alabama, so that doesn’t cut it, but DeBoer is that good, but … get to the CFP this year.
17 Matt Campbell, Iowa State
2024 CFN Coach Rank: 26
Wins as FBS Coach: 99
In case you didn’t notice in all the Arizona State craziness, Deion-mania, and the rest of the Big 12, the Iowa State program that never won ten games in a season won 11 last year.
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16 Bill Belichick, North Carolina
2024 CFN Coach Rank: NR
Wins as FBS Coach: 0
Totally lost in his greatness are his three losing seasons in the last four at New England. He’s still the greatest football coach of all-time, and now he gets a chance to show it in a different way, making the move from movies to TV.
15 Rhett Lashlee, SMU
2024 CFN Coach Rank: 43
Wins as FBS Coach: 29
Three seasons, two straight 11-win campaigns, a splashy run to an ACC Championship appearance, and a trip to the College Football Playoff. That’s not bad.
14 Josh Heupel, Tennessee
2024 CFN Coach Rank: 16
Wins as FBS Coach: 65
Remember when it was so tough, and slightly embarrassing, for Tennessee to find a coach? With 30 wins in the last three years, and a CFP appearance, this is working.
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13 Kenny Dillingham, Arizona State
2024 CFN Coach Rank: 76
Wins as FBS Coach: 14
We liked him last year, love him this year, and there’s no reason to think that the high-energy style won’t continue to work. There’s no sneaking up on ASU anymore, though.
12 Kyle Whittingham, Utah
2024 CFN Coach Rank: 10
Wins as FBS Coach: 167
Close to the end of his amazing run with the Utes, last year’s dud of a season was a blip. He has the team to rip through the Big 12 and once again show just how good he is.
11 Jeff Brohm, Louisville
2024 CFN Coach Rank: 12
Wins as FBS Coach: 85
Purdue fell off the map the moment after he took the Boilermakers to the 2022 Big Ten Championship game. Winning 19 games at UofL isn’t a bad two year start.
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10 Jeff Monken, Army
2024 CFN Coach Rank: 48
Wins as FBS Coach: 82
One year in the American, one conference championship, and the program’s first 12-win season. You want the coach who does the most with the least? Here you go.
9 Brian Kelly, LSU
2024 CFN Coach Rank: 4
Wins as FBS Coach: 195
He’s still the winningest coach in Notre Dame history, he still has two FCS national titles, and at just about anywhere else, 29 wins in three years would be a smashing start. At LSU, he’s supposed to win the national championship.
8 James Franklin, Penn State
2024 CFN Coach Rank: 11
Wins as FBS Coach: 125
You’re allowed to criticize the man if your head coach won more than 34 games over the last three seasons with a College Football Playoff appearance. He’s been better than you think.
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7 Dan Lanning, Oregon
2024 CFN Coach Rank: 7
Wins as FBS Coach: 35
It was a dud of a College Football Playoff appearance last year, but 35-6 with a Big Ten Championship is a fantastic way to start a head coaching career. Bigger things are coming.
6 Steve Sarkisian, Texas
2024 CFN Coach Rank: 15
Wins as FBS Coach: 83
It’s time to show he can push the ball in from the one, but he’s got the program on the doorstep of major things. Sarkisian has 25 wins in the last two years at a powerhouse place that, before him, enjoyed just one ten-win season since 2009.
5 Dabo Swinney, Clemson
2024 CFN Coach Rank: 3
Wins as FBS Coach: 180
Clemson might be good enough to get back to the CFP, but has he done enough to get back to a national championship level? As is, the Tigers are still the star of the ACC.
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4 Curt Cignetti, Indiana
2024 CFN Coach Rank: 19
Wins as FBS Coach: 30
The guy took Indiana to an 11-win season and the College Football Playoff in his first year. Indiana … in football. He came to Bloomington with an 83% winning clip at all levels. Now he’s at 83.3%.
3 Marcus Freeman, Notre Dame
2024 CFN Coach Rank: 13
Wins as FBS Coach: 31
The hottest head coach going, the trip to the national championship appears to be just the beginning, with a great recruiting class coming in and another strong team about to hit the field.
2 Ryan Day, Ohio State
2024 CFN Coach Rank: 2
Wins as FBS Coach: 70
Yeah, fine, the Michigan thing has become an issue, but when you own a national championship and win close to 88% of your games, you’re doing something right.
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1 Kirby Smart, Georgia
2024 CFN Coach Rank: 1
Wins as FBS Coach: 105
Smart did what a lot of other great coaches couldn’t by taking a superpower-level program and making it an actual superpower. 105 wins, 19 losses, two national titles, and no slowdown in sight.
College Football Head Coach Rankings26-50 | 51-75 | 76-100 | 101-136
Related: College Football Coaches With the Most Wins: Ranking All 136 Coaches
This story was originally reported by College Football News on Aug 8, 2025, where it first appeared.
