If your job is to write about or comment on college football, this is a slow point on your professional calendar; spring practice is long over; transfer portal is closed; the only coaches who might be fired are ones who are caught in flagrante delicto with a household pet. There’s not a lot of material to work with; so, I sympathize with folks at ESPN.com who threw together an offering to name the ten best college football coaches for 2026.
Before I get to the ESPN List, let me say something about two cognitive effects:
- Primacy Bias: When presented with a series of ideas or items, extra weight is assigned to the first one mentioned; the first one sets the tone for the others that follow. This effect is well known and well-studied.
- Recency Bias: When presented with a series of ideas or items, extra weight is assigned to the ones most recently mentioned; they are freshest in mind. This effect is well known and well-studied also.
I mention these two phenomena because I wonder if Recency Bias may have played a part in the ESPN Listing.
- The #1 head football coach for 2026 is Curt Cignetti.
Let me be clear; Curt Cignetti has had a marvelous career starting at small schools and then taking over at Indiana, which had not been a major football school in next to forever; and he won the National Championship in his second season at Indiana in 2025. That is an amazing career arc – – but the list of accomplishments is a short one. He may indeed be the best college football coach in 2026 – – and may be the best college football coach for each of the next ten years for all I know – – but it seems a bit early to put that label on him today.
The next three entrants on the ESPN List are not controversial in my mind:
- #2 is Kirby Smart
- #3 is Ryan Day
- #4 is Marcus Freeman
All three of these men are successful coaches over a significant period of time; if you want to debate the order in which they should appear here, have at it; I am happy to accept the three of them in about any order.
I find the fifth coach on the list interesting:
- #5 is Dan Lanning
Dan Lanning has won 10 or more games in the last three seasons and has had his team in the CFP picture for all that time. However, in that same period his teams played 6 games against the teams that appeared in the CFP Championship Game and their record is 1-5. So, it seems that Dan Lanning gets this perch on the ESPN List for winning loads of games until he draws a top contender for the year. As I said, that is an interesting placement.
There is one coach on the list that I think may be undervalued:
- Lane Kiffin is on the list at #7
Early in his career, Lane Kiffin wore out his welcome very quickly at more than one school and with the Oakland Raiders in the NFL. However, since spending a couple of years under the tutelage of Nick Saban at Alabama, he has had a career arc that resembles that of Curt Cignetti. Kiffin took non-football schools and made them into winners. FAU had gone 9-27 in the three years before Kiffin took the job; when he was there, FAU went 27-13. In his 6 seasons at Ole Miss – – and playing a full SEC schedule every year – – he won 10 games in four of those six seasons. Lane Kiffin may have his personality quirks, but he is a good football coach. You could easily convince me that he should be higher on the list.
I have no quarrel with the other coaches on the list except for Kyle Whitingham who has taken a giant step up in competition level going to Michigan from Utah. It might have been prudent to give him a chance to show what he can do at that level with a better squad of players before placing him on such a list; it seems premature to me.
Finally, here is a perspective from a coach not on the ESPN List this year – – Dabo Swinney:
“For me, and I’ve been on record saying it, let’s create two leagues: one for players who want the college football experience, and another for those that want to get paid, have the NFL help fund it, whatever. Guys who don’t want to go to school to get an education, let them go to work.”
But don’t get me wrong, I love sports………