Top 10 College Sports Coaches Ever: Where does Mike Krzyzewski Stand?

Sep 13, 2014; Tuscaloosa, AL, USA; Alabama Crimson Tide fans crown around the Paul Bear Bryant statue prior the the game at Bryant-Denny Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Marvin Gentry-USA TODAY Sports

2. Paul “Bear” Bryant, Maryland Terrapins, Kentucky Wildcats, Texas A&M Aggies, & Alabama Crimson Tide, 1945-1982, College Football

Record: 323-85-17

6 National Championships

15 Conference Tournament Championships (1 SWC, 14 SEC)

There is simply no debate here. Paul “Bear” Bryant’s legacy is by far the greatest legacy of any coach in any sport.

If you drive through Alabama, you’ll realize that Bryant could have made even the most religious people in the Bible Belt worship him as a God if he proclaimed to be one. Everything about the guy is simply excellence.

The winning speaks for itself, but we have to bring it up. Bryant won his only year at Maryland. He then managed to turn Kentucky, that’s right, Kentucky, into a powerhouse football program. Then he went to Texas A&M and won the Southwest Conference.

This is all before he became head coach at Alabama.

Then, in 25 years with the Tide, he won six national championships, 13 conference championships, and had three undefeated seasons. Bryant’s 323-85-17 record at Alabama is impressive enough, even more so than Joe Paterno’s or Bobby Bowden’s.

But what is amazing about Bryant is that every criteria that has been mentioned in this post to rate coaches, he meets every one. In pure winning, Bryant is the best.

In changing the game, well, Bryant turned the SEC from a major conference in college football to THE conference in college football. The only great before him to do that for the conference was Robert Neyland, who just missed this list. Bryant also put Alabama there with Notre Dame and Michigan in the fight for the most storied program ever.

Oh, and Bryant also played a role in the changing culture of college football by fighting, and finally winning, in the battle to recruit black players to white schools. It finally happened in the 1970s.

What about developing players and coaches? Well, players speak for themselves when you have guys like Joe Namath and Kenny Stabler. And the Bryant coaching tree is still continuing today, 30 years after his death, with guys like David Cutcliffe at Duke.

Finally, Bryant’s longevity is amazing. The Bear went 6-2-1 in 1945, his first year as a head coach. In 1979, 34 years later, he won his sixth national championship. He always adapted to the changes in the game, going from defensive football and minimal offense to a pro-style offense to the fashionable wishbone formation and back to the pro-style, keeping up with the NCAA rulebook changes and still always managing to recruit and bend the rules when he could, and of course, as we mentioned, getting ahead of the curve in integrating football.

Bryant is the best to ever do it anywhere, and he is far and away the greatest college coach ever.

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