COLUMBUS, Ohio -- When Urban Meyer retired after last season, I frequently referenced him as one of the 10 greatest college football coaches ever. I hadn’t really sat down and arranged the list in my head, but I knew that among major college coaches with at least 100 wins, Meyer ranked third in winning percentage.
There were Notre Dame legends Knute Rockne and Frank Leahy, and then there was Meyer, having won 85.3 percent of his games over 17 seasons at Bowling Green, Utah, Florida and Ohio State.
I knew Meyer was no Bobby Bowden, Joe Paterno or Bear Bryant when it came to staying power. He was no Nick Saban, Bryant or Woody Hayes when it came to national championships.
But I at least thought Meyer was better than John Robinson, Frank Kush and Johnny Vaught. Perhaps I was wrong.
Actually, no, I was right. This ESPN coaching list is wack.
ESPN came out with a list of the top 150 college football coaches of all-time on Tuesday, and while this statement will make me sound like an Ohio State homer when I have spent 15 seasons attempting to cover Ohio State in an unbiased and down-the-middle fashion, I feel like I have to say this -- putting Meyer 46th on this list basically renders the whole thing irrelevant.
It’s nuts. ESPN convened what it called a blue ribbon panel of 150 experts to come up with this list and other rankings and stories to celebrate the 150th anniversary of college football. I don’t know how they tabulated the votes.
But when, among former Florida coaches, Steve Spurrier is 27th on the list (.718 winning percentage, 228-89-2 record in 26 years, one national title) and Meyer is 46th (.853 winning percentage, 186-32 record in 17 years, three national titles), you counted wrong.
Longevity matters, but of the 45 coaches ranked ahead of Meyer, 22 have fewer wins. Other short-term, highly successful coaches to whom I’ve compared Meyer are far ahead of him: No. 12 John McKay (16 years); No. 13 Barry Switzer (16 years); No. 15 Ara Parseghian (24 years); No. 26 Bob Devaney (16 years); No. 29 Bob Stoops (18 years); No. 31 Dabo Swinney (12 years); No. 33 John Robinson (18 years); and No. 37 Pete Carroll (9 years).
Woody Hayes is No. 9. Jim Tressel is No. 35. Mount Union’s Larry Kehres is No. 28. Ohio State and the state of Ohio are fairly represented.
But the more I look at this ... egads. For instance, Stoops and Meyer are basically the same guy. They both had nine teams finish in the top-10. They coached for the same amount of time in the same era. But Stoops win a single national title while Meyer won three -- and Stoops is 17 spots ahead.
Carroll won two national titles and got out of college football in nine years with a winning percentage lower than Meyer’s. But he’s nine spots ahead. And if you’re pointing out Meyer’s off-field issues ... run through the list and check out all the guys who ran afoul of the rules at times.
Meyer was an innovator in the spread offense era that changed football; a leader in the recruiting revolution; and a game-changing coach at four stops. With three major college national titles, only six coaches have won more.
Lower-level coaches are on the list and deservedly so. If this was based only on the accomplishments at the highest level of college football, Meyer would move all the way up to ... No. 39.
The ESPN list clearly included some accomplishments that were defined by more than records, including coaching styles and offensive and defensive schemes that changed the game, and coaches that helped push the sport forward in society, for instance, by integrating their teams.
So I might have been wrong. Maybe Meyer, when you take it all consideration and include every level of the sport, isn’t in the top 10.
But he’s certainly top 20.
Placing him 46th is inexplicable.
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