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Rank the PAC-12 coaches

Duff Man

Club Member
Club Member
Junta Member
Mine:

1. Mike Riley
2. David Shaw
3. Rich Rodriguez
4. Jim Mora, Jr.
5. Mike MacIntyre
6. Todd Graham
7. Sonny Dykes (tie)
7. Steve Sarkisian (tie)
9. Mark Helfrich
10. Mike Leach
11. Kyle Whittingham
12. Lane Kiffin
 
At first glance that list of guys is not exactly impressive. I thought we were in a coaching arms race in the PAC?
 
1. Shaw
2. Riley

Good god, they start to get average in a hurry...

3.Mora
4 Graham
5.Rodriguez
6.MacIntyre
7.Sark
8.Dykes
9.Helfrich (no idea what to expect here. They could go 10-2, but that may not mean he is a great coach)
10.Whittingham (3 years ago, he would have been at 2 or 3)
11.Kiffikins
12. Leach

The last two have always been overrated in my opinion. Leach has been dominated by some of the worst CU teams in history.
 
I don't think it's appropriate to rank guys who have never coached in the conference. Dykes and MacIntyre are unknowns at this point, IMO, and shouldn't be on the list.
 
what are we ranking on? pure coaching ability? or likelihood of succeeding at their current gig? or what?

on pure coaching ability based upon proven performance to date:

1. the pirate
2. rich rod
3. riley
4. sark
5. mora
6. shaw
7. dykes
8. helfrich
9. mm
10. whittingham
11. graham
12. kiffin
 
1. Riley
2. Shaw
3. Rich Rod
4. Mora
5. MacIntyre
6. Sarkisian
7. Dykes
8. Graham
9. Helfrich
10. Wittingham
11. Leach
12. Kiffin
 
Shaw
Riley





Mora
Rich Rod
Sarkisian
Leach
Graham
Wittingham
Kiffin

Can't rank Mac, Dykes or Helfrich yet.
 
what are we ranking on? pure coaching ability? or likelihood of succeeding at their current gig? or what?

on pure coaching ability based upon proven performance to date:

1. the pirate
2. rich rod
3. riley
4. sark
5. mora
6. shaw
7. dykes
8. helfrich
9. mm
10. whittingham
11. graham
12. kiffin

There is no way I can put Leach above Shaw or Riley in terms of proven results. He produced great offense at TT, sabotaged by horrific defense. Last year at Wazzu didn't exactly do anything to get me excited. I would also say that in terms of proven HC ability, MM and Graham, at least have to rank ahead of Helfrich. Possibly also Whittingham.

My ranking right now would be:

1. Riley
2. Shaw (if he can keep going once Harbaugh's players are gone, he moves to #1)
3. Mora (UCLA got better on the field and killed in recruiting. Prospects much brighter than his U Dub stint at this point)
4. Rich Rod
5. Sark
6. Leach
7. Dykes
8. MM
9. Graham (points deducted for probability of hightailing it out of Tempe in the dead of night, and soon)
10. Whittingham
11. Helfrich
12. John McKay's rotting corpse
13. Jim Harbaugh's drying spittle on the Stanfurd sidelines
14. Kiffy
 
There is no way I can put Leach above Shaw or Riley in terms of proven results. He produced great offense at TT, sabotaged by horrific defense. Last year at Wazzu didn't exactly do anything to get me excited. I would also say that in terms of proven HC ability, MM and Graham, at least have to rank ahead of Helfrich. Possibly also Whittingham.

My ranking right now would be:

1. Riley
2. Shaw (if he can keep going once Harbaugh's players are gone, he moves to #1)
3. Mora (UCLA got better on the field and killed in recruiting. Prospects much brighter than his U Dub stint at this point)
4. Rich Rod
5. Sark
6. Leach
7. Dykes
8. MM
9. Graham (points deducted for probability of hightailing it out of Tempe in the dead of night, and soon)
10. Whittingham
11. Helfrich
12. John McKay's rotting corpse
13. Jim Harbaugh's drying spittle on the Stanfurd sidelines
14. Kiffy
Kiffy at 14 seems a bit high, you may want to re-evaluate your rankings and move him down a couple.
 
Kiffy at 14 seems a bit high, you may want to re-evaluate your rankings and move him down a couple.

On further evaluation, I think I forgot Don James' old purple windbreaker and the shadow of Chip Kelly. So good call, mdp, move lil' Lane down to 16...
 
On further evaluation, I think I forgot Don James' old purple windbreaker and the shadow of Chip Kelly. So good call, mdp, move lil' Lane down to 16...
Sounds about right, I had him just before Embree's water bottle and below Dennis Erickson in general.
 
Hate to say it... but after the next year or two we will be saying Mora is the best coach in the conference.
 
is it true that kiffin snorted blow off the arses of craig james' dead hookers using the murder weapon as a spoon? allegedly.
 
In order of who I would hire if we had a vacancy:

1. Shaw
2. Sark
3. Mora
4. Riley
5. Helfrich
6. HCMM
7. RichRod
8. Willingham
9. Dykes
10. Graham
11. Leach
12. Kiffin

Kiffin is last only because he would leave us in such bad shape with the NCAA we would NEVER recover.
 
What is the ranking criteria?

I agree that it is hard to rank some of the coaches that have not coached before - it is also hard to evaluate guys like Rich Rod, Leach and Graham who still do not have their system in place. How much do you factor in recruiting?

It seems like people are dismissing Rich Rods resume...he has won 8 conference championships in his career, he is an expert at the spread option, and he is known as a good recruiter. Plus he won 8 games with an Arizona team that did not have that much talent. He is not one of my favorite people and did an epic crash and burn at Michigan but has also been very successful. Arizona may be a good fit for him. Sarkisian I would not rank that high. He has been recruiting well but his teams have not been playing to the level of their talent. This year he will have to do better than 7-6.
 
I think you're underestimating the level of talent that was at Arizona when RichRod came in. Stoops did not leave the cupboards bare. People rank RichRod low because he was a disaster at Michigan, burned a **** ton of files that likely evidenced either extremely unethical conduct or NCAA violations, and had all of his success in the very worst of BCS conferences.
 
It's funny that Riley's seat was the hottest 6 months ago.

The seat may have been hot, but he has a contract that goes for a LONG time. They weren't going to let him go because he got a nice extension when USC came calling.

The fact that USC wanted to steal him from a conference foe is telling. Can't say the same for their current coaching staff, haha.
 
1. Shaw
2. Riley
3. RichRod
4. Kiffin
5. Leach
6. Mora
7. Sark
8. Whit
9. Graham

Two are new coaches from small colleges and Helfich is new. Tough for me to judge them right now. I don't think its a very strong group. Lot of "system" guys who can be exposed against coaches that have a clue.
 
Last edited:
1. Shaw
2. Riley
3. RichRod
4. Kiffin
5. Leach
6. Mora
7. Sark
8. Whit
9. Graham

Two are new coaches from small colleges and Helfich is new. Tough for me to judge them right now. I don't think its a very strong group. Lot of "system" guys who can be exposed against coaches that have a clue.

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I think you're underestimating the level of talent that was at Arizona when RichRod came in. Stoops did not leave the cupboards bare. People rank RichRod low because he was a disaster at Michigan, burned a **** ton of files that likely evidenced either extremely unethical conduct or NCAA violations, and had all of his success in the very worst of BCS conferences.

Stoops was recruiting at the bottom of the PAC 10 and PAC 12. In his last 5 classes only his 2007 class was in the upper half of the conference. Rich Rod had one scholarship QB when he came on board. He was winning the Big East when Virginia Tech was there - it is still tough to win a conference. Only 3 CU coaches have done it in the last 50 years.
 
Stoops was recruiting at the bottom of the PAC 10 and PAC 12. In his last 5 classes only his 2007 class was in the upper half of the conference. Rich Rod had one scholarship QB when he came on board. He was winning the Big East when Virginia Tech was there - it is still tough to win a conference. Only 3 CU coaches have done it in the last 50 years.

My point was RichRod had a lot more to work with than Embree did (the cupboards really were/are bare here). UA was 4-5 in conference last year, so I guess RichRod didn't exactly coach up that talent, even if it was in lower half of the Pac-12. And he inherited Ka'Deem Carey from Stoops. Kid accounted for at least one of those four Pac-12 victories. RichRod was great at West Virginia, fell flat on his face in embarrassing fashion at Michigan and will be lucky to ever do better than he did last year at UofA.
 
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