2011 NCAA Football Preview - Coaches

Coaching plays a pivotal role in any championship ingredients. The college ranks can be swayed dramatically if one team has a coaching edge. In cases where the talent is comparable on both sides of the ball, one call from the coaches box can decide the outcome.

Here is a conference by conference look at the best coaching staffs (Head Coach in parenthesis):

ACC
1. Virginia Tech (Frank Beamer)
2. Maryland (Randy Edsall)
3. Wake Forest (Jim Grobe)
4. Georgia Tech (Paul Johnson)
5. Florida St. (Jimbo Fisher)
6. NC State (Tom O'Brien)
7. Miami (Al Golden)
8. Duke (David Cutcliffe)
9. Boson College (Frank Spaziani)
10. Clemson (Dabo Swinney)
11. Virginia (Mike London)
12. North Carolina (Everett Withers)

Big East
1. Rutgers (Greg Schiano)
2. South Florida (Skip Holtz)
3. Pittsburgh (Todd Graham)
4. UConn (Paul Pasqualoni)
5. Louisville (Charlie Strong)
6. Syracuse (Doug Marrone)
7. Cincinnati (Butch Jones)
8. West Virginia (Dana Holgerson)

Big 12
1. Oklahoma (Bob Stoops)
2. Texas (Mack Brown)
3. Missouri (Gary Pinkle)
4. Kansas St. (Bill Snyder)
5. Texas Tech (Tommy Tuberville)
6. Oklahoma St. (Mike Gundy)
7. Texas A&M (Mike Sherman)
8. Baylor (Art Briles)
9. Kansas (Turner Gill)
10. Iowa St. (Paul Rhoads)

Big 10
1. Penn St. (Joe Paterno)
2. Iowa (Kirk Ferentz)
3. Wisconsin (Brett Bielema)
4. Michigan St. (Mark Dantonio)
5. Nebraska (Bo Pellini)
6. Illinois (Ron Zook)
7. Northwestern (Pat Fitzgerald)
8. Michigan (Brady Hoke)
9. Minnesota (Jerry Kill)
10. Ohio St. (Luke Fickell)
11. Purdue (Danny Hope)
12. Indiana (Kevin Wilson)

Pac-12
1. Oregon (Chip Kelly)
2. Utah (Kyle Whittingham)
3. Oregon St. (Mike Riley)
4. Cal (Jeff Tedford)
5. Arizona St. (Dennis Erickson)
6. UCLA (Rick Neuheisel)
7. Arizona (Mike Stoops)
8. USC (Lane Kiffin)
9. Washington (Steve Sarkisian)
10. Stanford (David Shaw)
11. Washington St. (Paul Wulff)
12. Colorado (Jon Embree)

SEC
1. Alabama (Nick Saban)
2. LSU (Les Miles)
3. South Carolina (Steve Spurrier)
4. Auburn (Gene Chizik)
5. Arkansas (Bobby Petrino)
6. Georgia (Mark Richt)
7. Ole Miss (Houston Nutt)
8. Mississippi St. (Dan Mullen)
9. Tennessee (Derek Dooley)
10. Kentucky (Joker Phillips)
11. Florida (Will Muschamp)
12. Vanderbilt (James Franklin)

C-USA
1. SMU (June Jones)
2. Central Florida (George O'Leary)
3. Houston (Kevin Sumlin)
4. Southern Miss (Larry Fedora)
5. UTEP (Mike Price)
6. Tulane (Bob Toledo)
7. Rice (David Bailiff)
8. East Carolina (Ruffin McNeill)
9. Marshall (Doc Holliday)
10. UAB (Neil Callaway)
11. Memphis (Larry Porter)
12. Tulsa (Bill Blankenship)

MAC
1. Ohio (Frank Solich)
2. Toledo (Tim Beckman)
3. Western Michigan (Bill Cubit)
4. Eastern Michigan (Ron English)
5. Bowling Green (Dave Clawson)
6. Central Michigan (Dan Enos)
7. Akron (Rob Ianello)
8. Buffalo (Jeff Quinn)
9. Temple (Steve Addazio)
10. Kent St. (Darrell Hazzell)
11. Northern Illinois (Dave Doeren)
12. Miami (OH) (Don Treadwell)
13. Ball St. (Pete Lembo)

MWC
1. Boise St. (Chris Peterson)
2. TCU (Gary Patterson)
3. Air Force (Troy Calhoun)
4. San Diego St. (Rocky Long)
5. Wyoming (Dave Christensen)
6. Colorado St. (Steve Fairchild)
7. UNLV (Bobby Hauck)
8. New Mexico (Mike Locksley)

Sun Belt
1. Florida Atlantic (Howard Schnellenberger)
2. Troy (Larry Blakeney)
3. Florida International (Mario Cristobal)
4. North Texas (Dan McCarney)
5. Middle Tennessee (Rick Stockstill)
6. Western Kentucky (Willie Taggart)
7. UL-Monroe (Todd Berry)
8. Arkansas St. (Hugh Freeze)
9. UL-Lafayette (Mark Hudspeth)

WAC
1. Nevada (Chris Ault)
2. Fresno St. (Pat Hill)
3. Hawaii (Greg McMacklin)
4. Idaho (Robb Akey)
5. Louisiana Tech (Sonny Dykes)
6. Utah St. (Gary Andersen)
7. New Mexico St. (DeWayne Walker)
8. San Jose St. (Mike MacIntyre)

Independents
1. Notre Dame (Brian Kelly)
2. BYU (Bronco Mendenhall)
3. Navy (Ken Niumatalolo)
4. Army (Jerry Ellerson)