By Will Ojanen @WillsWorldMN
We’re still a few months from football season starting, but there’s no down time when it comes to college football content. Here, I rank the ACC coaches heading into the 2025 season. One thing to note, and I remind you of this later, coaches with no college experience will be at the bottom. I don’t care if you coached in the NFL, that doesn’t matter here.
- Dabo Swinney, Clemson. He’s won 80% of his games at Clemson, and two national championships. He consistently has one of the most talented rosters in the ACC. You can argue against his lack of transfer portal usage over the last few years, but he has finally adapted to modern times, and this team is the favorite to win the league again this year.
- Jeff Brohm, Louisville. One thing is for sure-he knows how to coach offense. He took the Cardinals to the ACC football championship in year one, and he took an oft injured Tyler Shough, and turned him into a second round pick. He’s had four straight seasons with eight wins, dating back to his last two seasons at Purdue, who fell off the map after he left.
- Rhett Lashlee, SMU. It says something about you when you jump up from a G5 conference to a power four conference, and make that conference’s championship game. Lashlee is another offensive wizard. He benched the QB who took them to success in the AAC, and the backup came in, and the team didn’t lose until the conference championship game. He’s 29-12 in three years there.
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- Brent Key, Georgia Tech. This ranking is probably a bit surprising, but I don’t think there’s a team whose players play harder for their coach than the Yellow Jackets. The record doesn’t indicate it, because he doesn’t have the same level of talent as the coaches above
- Mike Norvell, FSU. This one was tough to rank. He had two great seasons, and then, after losing the vast majority of the team to graduation, the bottom fell out last season. Can he get this team to rebound from it, and get back to a bowl this season?
ACC Football Coaches Ranking
- Mario Cristobal, Miami. If recruiting was a part of this, he’d be much higher. But, he’s had one of the most talented teams in the ACC every season he’s been there, and he always loses a couple of games to inferior opponents.
- Dave Doeren, NC State. He’s the second most tenured coach in the ACC behind Dabo Swinney, and one thing about his tenure in Raleigh is consistency. They’ve been a 7-9 win team in just about every season. But, this season presents a lot of changes. Can he still deliver results?
- Pat Narduzzi, Pitt. He won the ACC in 2021, won nine games the next year, but, other than that, has been a slightly above .500 coach. He has had the Panthers ranked in seven out of 10 seasons.
- Bill O’Brien, Boston College. I thought BOB did a really good job of getting BC to a bowl in year one. This team was probably towards the bottom of the league in terms of pure talent, but he coached this team up, and benched Thomas Castellanos for Grayson James, who almost beat SMU in his first start. I would not be surprised to see BC get back to a bowl again this season.
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- Manny Diaz, Duke. Make no mistake-he got a raw deal at Miami, and absolutely deserved a second chance, and he had a great first campaign. But, I also think there was some luck involved, and there could be some regression this year.
- Jake Dickert, Wake Forest. Dickert is no stranger to tough football coaching jobs. He had Wazzu ranked in back to back seasons, and won eight games last year. If people in and around Wake can be patient with him, he will have the football program succeeding again very soon.
- Justin Wilcox, Cal. This is a hard job, and Wilcox has gotten them to back to back bowls. But it feels like this program is on a downward trajectory. So many players from last year’s team have left via the portal. I think this could be a challenging year.
- Fran Brown, Syracuse. Cool, you won 10 games with a weak schedule, and the best players from that team are gone. Do it again, and you’ll impress me, especially with this year’s schedule.
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- Brent Pry, Virginia Tech. Pry might have the hottest seat of any football coach in the ACC. His team last year was considered a dark horse to win the ACC, and they struggled to get to a bowl. He hasn’t taken the Hokies to another level, and, quite frankly, it feels stagnant. I don’t think this year’s team is as talented, and if they miss a bowl, he could be gone.
- Tony Elliott, Virginia. This is a make or break year for Elliott. He has yet to make a bowl at Virginia, and he hasn’t really exceeded expectations at all at Virginia. This might be his deepest team at Virginia, and he will have to make a bowl to realistically keep his job.
- Bill Belichick, UNC. People who haven’t coached in college football will always start at the bottom for me, because they are unknowns. Don’t think of this any other way. But, at the same time, he’s 73, and has never coached in college, and doesn’t have a great track record outside of Tom Brady.
- Frank Reich, Stanford. Reich is doing his pal Andrew Luck a solid and coaching this season until they can find a new one. There’s really no reason to rank him.
