Who are the top 25 college football coaches? Curt Cignetti moves past Kirby Smart

Who are the best coaches in college football? It’s always a difficult question to answer. Are they the ones that win big at the biggest programs or those that show the ability to build from scratch and take teams to new heights?

As we ponder the first question, it’s worth noting the group of active coaches with a college football national championship grew by one with Indiana’s Curt Cignetti joining Kirby Smart, Ryan Day and Dabo Swinney after Indiana defeated Miami in the College Football Playoff championship game.

That result and others from last season have drastically altered our list from 2025. There’s with a new leader at the top and shuffling throughout the top 25 as some coaches have moved places. A team of 10 voters from USA TODAY Sports participated in the voting process and here are our results with last year’s placement on the list in parenthesis:

What Cignetti did in transitioning James Madison from the Championship Subdivision to being in position to reach the College Football Playoff would be enough to earn a spot on this list. However, he’s at No. 1 because of his insane success at Indiana. The Hoosiers are 27-2 and 17-1 in the Big Ten in his two seasons with a dominant run to the school’s first national title. Cignetti is simply the closest thing college coaching has to a Nick Saban-like figure.

Smart doesn’t rule college football with the same authority he did a few years ago, but he retains clear superiority over almost every other peer. See Georgia winning three of the past four SEC championships. Smart’s ability to recruit, retain and develop talent remains a weapon, even in this era of transfer free agency. Georgia is still a perennial contender and built to last amid the sport’s constant state of evolution. That’s a credit to Smart.

PRESEASON COACHES RANKINGS:Big Ten | SEC | ACC | Big 12

After much consternation in Columbus, Day won his national championship in 2024. Last year, he finally got over the hump against Michigan. While he inherited one of the greatest situations of any first-year coach in Big Ten history, Day has turned Ohio State into an even more effective factory for NFL talent since replacing Urban Meyer in 2019. His number are historically ridiculous with 82 wins in 94 games and top-five finishes in six of his full seven seasons.

Brian Kelly left Notre Dame with the idea that winning a national title was difficult. Freeman has changed that perspective with 43 victories in his four seasons that include a trip to the College Football Playoff championship game. It’s easy to forget, he’s still a young coach at the age of 40, and his success has drawn interest from the NFL. His task with the Fighting Irish is continuing to upgrade the roster and capture the school’s first national title since 1988. It’s a lot closer than when Kelly left, though.

Fair or not, Lanning won’t get his national due until Oregon wins a national championship. The Ducks have been closer than ever since he took over in 2022, including a 26-3 mark in two seasons as members of the Big Ten. The 2024 team went unbeaten in winning the conference title and taking the top spot in the College Football Playoff rankings, while last year’s group advanced to the national semifinals before losing to the Hoosiers. Overall, Lanning is a gaudy 48-6 but will feel unfulfilled until he has greater postseason success.

Just as Kiffin delivered the finest achievement of his career, taking Mississippi to the playoff, he left town amid an ugly breakup. That’s Lane for you. Ole Miss got the full Kiffin Experience — the good, the bad, the drama. Now, LSU wants a dose. Optics of Kiffin’s exit aside, he’s never been a better coach than he is now. He remains a masterful quarterback developer. He not only acquires top transfer talent, he blends it. His assignment at LSU: Prove he can handle the program’s demanding expectations.

Cristobal had a breakthrough season in 2005, leading the Hurricanes to the College Football Playoff after a postseason gauntlet that included defeats of Texas, A&M, Ohio State and Mississippi. After going went 12-13 his first two seasons at his alma mater, Cristobal but has won 23 of 29 games and his ability to use the portal successfully has created a strong, defensive-minded culture.

Texas missing the playoff in the face of whopper expectations took some shine off Sarkisian, but let’s keep perspective. Texas beat top rivals Oklahoma and Texas A&M, a pair of playoff qualifiers. Sarkisian solidified the program so that going 10-3 counts as underwhelming. He’s one of just four SEC coaches with multiple playoff victories on the resume. This season will be a litmus test of whether Sarkisian has peaked. He built another roster fit for national title contention.

DeBoer won 19 games through two seasons as Nick Saban’s heir, he owns two wins against Smart, and he’s 5-1 against rivals Tennessee, LSU and Auburn. That’s the upside of his tenure. On the other hand, he’s served up a few mind-boggling losses. Alabama fans will expect more than 10-win seasons now that he’s settled. DeBoer didn’t run from the challenge, staying after Michigan’s job opened. Alabama’s administration retains belief in DeBoer, as evidenced by his contract extension.

One of the most historically successful active head coaches in college football, Swinney has two national titles and nine conference championships at Clemson. However, the Tigers have fallen off in the era of the transfer portal and had a disappointing 7-6 finish after starting in the top five of the US LBM Coaches Poll. Whether he can find a solution will determine whether he rises or falls in these rankings.

Even without a playoff appearance, Sitake has built himself into the standard of coaching. He’s had winning seasons in eight of his 10 campaigns at his alma matter, the most of any other coach in the league, and he’s 57-20 since 2020. That comes with back-to-back 11-win seasons, with the Cougars finding their footing in the Big 12 and on the fringe of making the playoff, with a great chance to be back in the conversation one more time. There’s a reason Penn State wanted this man.

This will be one of the most interesting experiments of the 2026 season: Whittingham leaving Utah after decades with the program to take on the challenge of leading Michigan back to the top of the Big Ten. The Utes became a Pac-12 power under Whittingham, winning the league in 2021 and 2022, and earning at least nine wins in the last 12 full seasons. The adjustment to the Big Ten will be significant, but Whittingham relies on strength on both lines of scrimmage and that should play well with the Wolverines.

Elko needed just two seasons to take Texas A&M to the playoff after the Aggies had been perennial underachievers. The season ended with a disappointing him loss to Miami. Still, the Aggies’ momentum is palpable. Elko must continue elevating and prove last year was no fluke. His recruiting success suggests he’s building Texas A&M for staying power, and he’s proven more reliable than predecessor Jimbo Fisher at developing talent.

Franklin’s tenure at Penn State should be remembered for his rebuilding of the program as much as the frustration of not getting over hump to win a national title. He got close in 2024 after taking the Nittany Lions to the semifinals and had five top-10 finishes, four New Year’s Six bowl wins and averaged more than nine wins in his 11 full seasons.. He is now tasked with a similar project at Virginia Tech and there are few in recent times that have been better at that job.

After a decade of remarkable success at Iowa State, Campbell takes on a much tougher level of competition and distinctly higher expectations as James Franklin’s successor with Penn State. His track record of overachievement is very strong: ISU went 72-55 under Campbell and had some of the best seasons in program history, including a school-record 11 wins in 2024.

The dean of Big Ten coaches, Ferentz has won 213 games, two Big Ten championships and reached another three conference title games. His success might be boring but it’s built on the fundamentals of defense and special teams play. The offense fairly drew concerns, but has improved in recent seasons. The Hawkeyes haven’t posted a losing season since 2012 and have been ranked in the final US LBM Coaches Poll in five of the past seven seasons.

Brohm simply produces consistently successful that might lack flashy but punches above its weight. The fourth-year coach has a 28-12 record at Louisville. Before that, he had nine and eight victories in back-to-back seasons at Purdue, which last previously won eight games in 2007. Brohm’s next task with the Cardinals is pushing for the playoff and an ACC title.

It took just two seasons for Dillingham to thrust his alma mater into the national spotlight with the playoff berth and Big 12 title in 2024. There was a chance to repeat before injuries derailed the Sun Devils last season. Even with the stars of the playoff team gone, he’s a great offensive mind who can instantly find success with newcomers. The best part is he has plenty of years ahead of him to keep Arizona State a contender. He is still only 36 and bleeds Sun Devil maroon with a passion.

Riley might’ve been near the top of the list among all coaches nationally as recently as 2020, when he wrapped up his fourth playoff appearance in as many years at Oklahoma. Things have been much rockier at USC, which hit a high with an 11-win 2022 season in Riley’s debut but has since gone 24-15 with just one ranked finish. But things are starting to look up after USC went 7-2 in the Big Ten last year and then inked one of the nation’s top recruiting classes.

Another program-builder, Fritz wins wherever he goes. It started with two successful seasons at Georgia Southern before transforming Tulane into an American power that included a defeat of Southern California in the Cotton Bowl. Now at Houston, he went 4-8 in his first season before surprising people with a 10-3 record in 2025. Fritz gets the most out of his teams and will have a chance to win big with the resources afforded him in the Big 12.

The Mustangs hit a home run with the hiring of Lashlee, who won 11 games in back-to-back seasons in 2023 and 2024 before victories last season. The fifth-year coach also led the school to its first College Football Playoff in its inaugural season in the ACC. Lashlee is building SMU into one of the top programs of conference and has resisted temptations to leave for a bigger program.

This might be the last chance to buy low on Sumrall stock. He won more than 78% of his games in four seasons as a Group of Six coach. He took Tulane to the CFP. Sure, he must still prove himself in the SEC, but there’s no reason to think he can’t reinvigorate Florida. He played in this conference. He’s worked in it, too, as an assistant. Sumrall became a hot commodity on the coaching carousel. He’s a good consolation prize for Florida after it missed on Kiffin.

When a coach takes over at a place like Vanderbilt and talks big about competing with the best in college football, it’s easy to roll your eyes. But Lea has done exactly what he has said was his goal with the Commodores, winning 10 games last season with Heisman finalist Diego Pavia at quarterback. Now comes the challenging part: Maintaining the success.

Heupel dops seven spots from his position in last year’s list after the Volunteers lost starting quarterback Nico Iamaleava in the transfer portal and were plagued by inconsistency on offense. It’s easy to forget, however, where Tennessee was before Heupel arrived. He’s been a steady influence and brough the program back to relevance.

The 2022 season seems like forever ago, so it might be easy to forget Dykes led the Horned Frogs to the College Football Playoff championship game in his first season in Fort Worth. TCU has won nine games in each of the last two seasons after a slip in 2023. He’s quietly done one of the better jobs in the sport in keeping his program among the best in the Big 12.