Collegefootballnews.com: Ranking the coaches - Pac 10

Analyzing the coaching situations in each conference

By Richard Cirminiello

 

Best Coach – Pete Carroll, USC – Only a fool or a contrarian would argue with Carroll’s 54-10 record that includes four straight Pac-10 titles, three BCS bowl wins and shares of two national championships.  Yes, no one has better talent or depth, but managing and mollifying so many different mega-stars is far tougher than some would make it out to be.  Carroll has created a unique environment that fosters individuality and somehow keeps an eclectic group of players and coaches from becoming discontented.  Faced with getting back up the mountain for the first time in a while, he appears more motivated than ever for the upcoming season.  

 

Most Underrated – Jeff Tedford, Cal – Tedford has gotten near-maximum coverage the past couple of years, and yet it still doesn’t do justice to what’s he’s accomplished in four seasons in Berkeley.  He’s completely revamped a program that was on life support and is on the verge of making Cal a perennial national power out of the Pac-10.  Tedford has even gotten the University to invest money into facility upgrades, a pipe dream for past administrations.  

 

Most Overrated – Tyrone Willingham, Washington – Not many coaches in recent college history have straddled the .500 mark and won a single bowl in 11 years, yet commanded so many headlines.  Willingham continues to be all that’s good in amateur coaching, but the attention he gets is hardly commensurate with his production in the fall or in February.  He was a good hire for a Washington program that desperately needed stability, but he’s not the type of head coach that can consistently deliver big wins or titles.    

 

Coach on the Hot Seat – Bill Doba, Washington State – With a team constructed by Mike Price, Doba went 10-3 with a Holiday Bowl win over Texas in 2003, but ever since, he’s won just nine times.  The Cougars have been terrible in close games, and the defense, Doba’s forte, has reached its lowest point in five years.  A third consecutive bowl-less December would be catastrophic for a coach some felt was best suited as a career assistant when he got the job.  Would Wazzu and Price ever reunite?  It’s not as if he left the Palouse on bad terms.  

 

Bucking for a Promotion – Jeff Tedford, Cal – With each passing season, the price to pry Tedford out of Berkeley gets a little steeper.  It’ll be worth every dollar for whichever college program or NFL organization secures his signature.  In four short years, Tedford has turned dust into gold, taking a dreadful 1-10 squad and transforming them into a perennial bowl team and one of the most explosive offenses in the country.  Signing the coach through 2009 was the easy part for the Bears.  Keeping him until the contract expires might be tougher than winning the Pac-10.        

 

Best Offensive Coordinator – Dirk Koetter, Arizona State – In a league brimming with quality offensive strategists, Koetter remains on the top rung, but not by a landslide.  Cal’s Mike Dunbar arrives from Northwestern with a history of confounding Big Ten defenses.  Gary Crowton helped give the Oregon offense the instant lift it was seeking in 2005.  At just 30, USC’s Lane Kiffin is on the expressway to really big things, and Washington State’s Mike Levenseller doesn’t get nearly enough credit for building a powerhouse offense in Pullman.  Koetter, however, is still the man.  Now in his fifth year at Arizona State, he really has the Sun Devils humming.  He’ll use multiple sets and personnel combinations to gain the edge, and is rapidly turning Tempe into an NFL quarterback factory.       

 

Best Defensive Coordinator – Bob Gregory, Cal – Pete Carroll ceding control of the USC defense to Idaho import Nick Holt opens the door for Gregory, one of the country’s most underrated coordinators.  Lost in the growing shadow of the Cal offense has been its counterpart on the opposite side of the ball, a unit which held opponents to just 16 points a game in 2004 and led the Pac-10 in scoring defense a year ago.  Gregory deftly blends junior college talent into an attacking 4-3 defense that has shown a penchant for keeping even some of the better league offenses off stride.