Some coaches have a demeanor only their own fan base could possibly love. Who are the most hated coaches that will patrol the college sidelines in 2017?
There are several ways that coaches become hated in college football. When a coach turns a team into a consistent contender, that inevitably generates hatred among opposing fans. A gruff demeanor, mistreatment of players, general disinterest in a school’s traditions, or any number of things can also create ill will between coaches and their own fans.
Not every coach is hated. Some, such as Kansas State’s Bill Snyder, remain beloved around college football. Leading a program out of the quagmire and turning it into a plucky, scrappy underdog that sometimes contends for conference titles will generate a lot of goodwill. Of course, win too much and opposing fans won’t see an underdog but a threat.
A few years ago this list would have looked a bit different, but too much hatred against a coach eventually leads to termination. Who, then, are the most hated coaches in college football right now? Heading into the 2017 season, there are plenty of candidates for such a distinction. Click through to see the 10 who are most hated in the sport at this moment.
Will Muschamp was once among the wunderkind assistant coaches of college football. He first made his name as Nick Saban’s defensive coordinator at LSU. Then Muschamp signed on as the heir apparent to Mack Brown at Texas. Muschamp seemed destined for greatness as a head coach. Then he was actually given his own program, and Muschamp fell quickly back to earth.
In 2011, Muschamp left Austin and the promise of the Texas head coaching gig to take over for Urban Meyer at Florida. In his first season in Gainesville, the Gators finished 3-5 for their first losing record in conference in over three decades. Muschamp turned things around with an 11-2 season in 2012, but Florida tapered off to 4-8 the following year. After going 6-5 in the regular season in 2014, there was too much hatred among Gators fans toward Muschamp. He was let go prior to the bowl game.
After rebuilding his chops at Auburn, Muschamp was hired to take over South Carolina. Last season, the Gamecocks went 6-7 in Muschamp’s first year. If he doesn’t start winning soon, Muschamp will rise up among coaches on the hot seat. Even then, as we saw at Florida, a second season is no indicator of future goodwill.
Just above Muschamp on this list of hated coaches is Urban Meyer. Meyer has won at every stop along the way in his career, quickly leading to hatred among opposing fans. But he has also abruptly left every stop along the way. That can lead to a fading of good memories as fans of jilted teams along the way consider what might have been.
After a successful decade as a wide receivers coach at Colorado State and Notre Dame, Meyer got his first head coaching gig at Bowling Green. In two seasons in 2001 and 2002, the Falcons went 17-6. Meyer used that success to move up into the Utah job in 2003. In two seasons in Salt Lake City, Meyer’s Utes teams went 22-2. Utah won the 2003 and 2004 Mountain West titles, and became the first BCS Buster in 2004. He stayed with Utah long enough to coach them to victory over Pittsburgh in the Fiesta Bowl.
Then he was off to Florida for six epic seasons between 2005 and 2010. In Gainesville, Meyer vaulted into the upper echelon of head coaches. His Gators teams won BCS national championships to cap 13-1 seasons in 2006 and 2008. But health problems led Meyer to step down from the Florida job and focus on living a family life.
Of course, that didn’t last long and now Florida fans can hate him as well after what he has accomplished at Ohio State. After all, his resignation left Gators fans with Will Muschamp to burn down the edifice Meyer built.
Let’s stay in Florida, where Jimbo Fisher has made a name for himself as one of the most hated coaches in the game. It isn’t just the fact that he led Florida State to the final BCS national championship. That season was marked by the Jameis Winston saga, as the quarterback continued to play during an investigation into alleged sexual assault. The team has faced multiple off-field issues during his tenure.
Sure, that isn’t unique to Fisher or Florida State. But the high-profile nature of the allegations surrounding the program hasn’t helped Fisher in the hatred department. Teams like the Seminoles will always find themselves under the microscope. And thus any coach in charge of the program is likely going to draw plenty of heat.
Having been named head-coach-in-waiting at FSU while serving as Bobby Bowden’s offensive coordinator, Fisher burned brightly at the outset but has seen his star shine less brightly in recent years.
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That said, the Seminoles coach remains among the most hated head coaches for reasons beyond those general rationales. His excuse making is legendary, and one cannot dismiss the impact that winning has had on the hatred of other fan bases. The final BCS national champion went on a 29-game winning streak between 2012 and 2014, and that streak served to build the hatred for Fisher and his team.
There remains a rift among Texas Tech fans about the legacy of Mike Leach, years after his contentious departure from Lubbock. The details of the Adam James incident are hardly flattering. But it is also worth noting that the Texas Tech administration was actively seeking to terminate Leach’s contract before the details of that case emerged publicly. Leach cuts against the traditional image of a head coach, and it often grates on both opposing fan bases as well as his own.
Breaking the mold, Leach went to BYU and then got his law degree at Pepperdine but did not play sports. A published scholar, Leach is one of a half-dozen FBS head coaches who never played football in college. That esoteric background leads him to speak his mind freely. This desire to break the mold of a coach has served to help bolster his position as one of football’s hated coaches. It also doesn’t help in some ways that his general philosophy is all-out aerial assault with little concern for defense.
That hasn’t changed since Leach took over at Washington State in 2012. His teams have regularly topped NCAA charts for passing production, while ranking toward the bottom of the FBS in defense. In recent years that trend has changed, and the Cougars have become a thorn in the side of other Pac-12 teams. With Wazzu evolving from laughingstock to dark horse in the conference, more fans will probably begin to hate Leach.
No list of hated head coaches would be complete without Nick Saban. He is the ultimate manifestation of the adage that winning breeds hatred. Saban certainly hasn’t made many friends among his fellow coaches, mostly because he beats them on the field. But while his teams at Toledo, Michigan State, LSU, and Alabama have succeeded over time, there are other reasons why Saban has developed a reputation as a hated individual.
His proclamations against everything from satellite camps to hurry-up offenses have come off as little more than an angry man yelling at clouds. Saban’s insistence on choking others’ advantages while seeking every advantage for himself has come off as disingenuous. That is reason for other coaching staffs to loathe Saban, for sure, as is the Crimson Tide’s propensity for leading recruiting rankings year after year.
But let’s face it. The reason Saban falls so far down this list of hated coaches is because that hatred is mainly borne of envy. Miami Dolphins fans might have a reason for harboring enmity toward Saban, sure, but in terms of college football it all mainly comes down to the fact that Saban’s Alabama teams have become a hegemonic force. Being the only team to play in every College Football Playoff so far was prone to breed a bit of loathing, but it isn’t enough to vault into the top five.
There wasn’t nearly as much hatred for Brian Kelly at his earlier coaching stops with Division II Grand Valley State, the MAC’s Central Michigan, and Cincinnati when it was in the Big East. And it is hard for fans of those teams to hate Kelly too much for moving up the coaching ladder. His Chippewas and Bearcats teams ended up winning conference championships, but Kelly wasn’t around at either spot long enough to draw too much ire from opposing MAC or Big East fan bases.
But coaches at Notre Dame are inevitably going to be hated. That alone would be enough to push Kelly into the top 10 of this list. Kelly, though, has done plenty since arriving in South Bend to bolster his credentials as one of the most hated coaches in college football. One could mention the way he handled the Lizzy Seeborg situation, or the way he put Declan Sullivan in a position to die on the practice field. He has also drawn the ire of Notre Dame traditionalists for his changes to the program.
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And operating as an independent with deep history means there are plenty of rival fan bases to hate Kelly as well. What has put Kelly on the hot seat, in recent years, is mainly his inconsistent results. Kelly led Notre Dame to the 2013 BCS national championship game, where the Fighting Irish were blown out by Alabama. Only one other time in Kelly’s seven seasons in South Bend has Notre Dame won 10 or more games.
Jim Harbaugh grated on Pac-12 coaches for four years between 2007 and 2010. His Cardinal teams were a thorn in the sides of both USC and Oregon during this period, and the feud between Harbaugh and the Trojans’ Pete Carroll was legendary:
Then Harbaugh went to the NFL to coach the San Francisco 49ers, and it seemed like his brash style was gone from the college ranks.
But while he brought success to the Bay Area both at the college level and in the pro ranks, he rankled the 49ers brass and was effectively run out of town. He landed in Ann Arbor at his alma mater, and has started to return the Wolverines toward the levels of their past glories. All the while, Harbaugh has continued to build his reputation as one of football’s most hated coaches even as he consistently draws love from his own fans.
His innovative efforts at recruiting in SEC and ACC territory with satellite camps have drawn heat from opposing coaches. His tantrums on the sideline have led some to compare him to a petulant child. But Harbaugh gets results, and that is a big reason why individuals such as Carroll took such issue with the current UM coach. Like so many others on this list of coaches, Harbaugh is hated in large part because he succeeds where others fail.
Rich Rodriguez never could pull off what Harbaugh has so far in Ann Arbor. Even before then, however, he had already developed a reputation among college football’s hated coaches. Rodriguez has bounced in and out of coaching gigs. He spent nearly a decade as a head coach at the lower ranks, first at Salem in 1988 and then seven more at Glenville State from 1990 to 1996.
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Rodriguez, though, really made his reputation as the offensive coordinator for Tommy Bowden at Tulane and Clemson. He finally got his chance to join the ranks of I-A coaches in 2001, when his alma mater West Virginia hired him.
The Mountaineers won all or part of the Big East title in four of Rodriguez’s seven seasons in Morgantown, and finished second in the conference twice more. He toyed with the chance to take over Alabama in 2006 before moving on to Michigan a year later. The acrimonious departure burned many bridges at the university from which he graduated.
The time with the Wolverines ended poorly, as Michigan went 15-22 in his three seasons. Fired to placate an embittered UM fan base in 2010, Rodriguez moved on to Arizona in 2012. He could be on his way out of another job as the fans in Tucson become increasingly disenchanted with Rodriguez’s results. If the Wildcats don’t return to winning ways in 2017, another fan base might turn completely against the coach.
Bobby Petrino has developed winners at every college stop in his coaching career. But he has also forged a reputation as a coach with a wandering eye in more than one way. From a propensity to jump between jobs to an embarrassing episode of philandering while in Fayetteville, Petrino has done everything possible to burn bridges along the way. Yet he is currently employed in a second-chance position at the school that gave him his first head coaching gig.
Back in 2003, Petrino got his first stab at leading a program when Louisville hired him to take over for John L. Smith. The new coach maintained a standard of excellence from Smith’s years. Louisville went 20-5 in Petrino’s first two seasons. He helped the team transition to the Big East and kept winning. By 2006, the Cardinals had won their new conference and played in the Orange Bowl. But Petrino wasn’t there, having already bolted Kentucky to take the Atlanta Falcons gig.
After just a year, he left the Falcons without even saying goodbye in person to his team. Then, in four years at Arkansas, he improved the Razorbacks from five to eight to 10 to 11 wins. But his time ended in a motorcycle wreck that yielded crocodile tears, revelations of a mistress paid by the program, and a run out of town. Petrino got his second life at Louisville after a year redeeming himself at Western Kentucky.
Any list of the most hated coaches in college football wouldn’t be complete without Lane Kiffin. His successful tenure as Alabama’s offensive coordinator did little to temper people’s opinions about Kiffin. Now that he has returned to the head coaching ranks with Florida Atlantic this season, Kiffin leaps right back up to the top of the list.
His first opportunity to lead a team came in the NFL when Al Davis tabbed Kiffin to lead the Oakland Raiders. Soon run out of town after little more than a season, Kiffin rebounded by landing a plum gig at Tennessee. There Kiffin really began to develop his status as one of college football’s most hated coaches. He accused other SEC coaches of breaking NCAA rules, then burned his bridges by leaving Rocky Top after one season.
That departure was to accept his dream job at USC, where Kiffin was offensive coordinator under Pete Carroll. Kiffin coached the Trojans for three and a half seasons as they negotiated NCAA sanctions from the Carroll era.
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Then he was infamously let go at the airport at Los Angeles International Airport after a 62-41 loss at Arizona State in September 2013. It is likely only a matter of time before Owls fans feel the same ire that developed among both Volunteers and Trojans fans along with the fan bases of opposing teams.