Ranking the 25 best head coaches in college football history
By Zach Bigalke
19. John McKay
Things honestly didn’t start all that great for John McKay with the Trojans. Taking over after Don Clark had resigned on the heels of an 8-2 season that ended with successive losses, McKay posted losing records in his first two years at the helm. Then everything came together in year three, as USC went 11-0 and defeated No. 2 Wisconsin 43-37 in the Rose Bowl to win the national championship.
Five years later, McKay’s Trojans won another national championship after knocking off Indiana in the 1968 Rose Bowl. Two more national titles followed, the first after USC finished 1972 with a perfect 12-0 record and the latter in in 1974 after a 10-1-1 season. During his tenure, Mike Garrett and O.J. Simpson won the Heisman Trophy, and USC only twice finished outside the top three in the Pac-8 standings.
Ultimately, McKay decided to make the jump to the NFL when he took over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 1976. There were flashes of success in the pros, but nothing close to what McKay was able to achieve at USC.