College Football: 10 toughest coaching careers to follow

2. Bear Bryant (Alabama)

Bear Bryant was a strong coach at several schools early in his career, but he never stayed long enough at his previous stops in Maryland, Kentucky, and Texas A&M to install himself as a tough coaching act to to follow. It was at Alabama, after “mama called” Bryant back to his alma mater, that he established himself as one of the toughest coaching acts to follow in college football history.

Bryant came back to Tuscaloosa in 1958, taking over a Crimson Tide team that won just eight games in four years prior to his arrival. Steadily rebuilding the football team, Bryant brought the national championship home by his fourth season as the head coach at Alabama. Two more followed in 1964 and 1965, though a perfect season in 1966 was not rewarded with a three-peat.

A brief downswing in the late 1960s was tolerated by the administration and fans, and that patience was rewarded with three more titles in the 1970s. Between 1971 and 1980, Bryant’s teams won at least 10 games in all but one season during the decade. Bedecked in his classic houndstooth hat, a pattern that remains en vogue with Tide fans to this day.

As his health and focus declined, Bryant retired after the 1982 season. Within two months of that decision, Bryant was dead at age 69. Between the legacy he built in Tuscaloosa and the struggles of his successor Ray Perkins, Bryant remains to this day one of the toughest coaching acts anyone has ever had to follow in college football history.