ESPN drops their top coaches ranking for 2026 and I already know where this is going. They will put Kirby Smart at number one and maybe squeeze our guy into the top five if we are lucky. You know what I remember? I remember when Bear Bryant was the coach and nobody even bothered ranking coaches because the record spoke for itself. The 1979 Sugar Bowl against Penn State when we shut them down 14-7 and Bear walked off that field with his sixth national title. That was coaching. That was building a program from the ground up with discipline and toughness and players who staayed four years and bled crimson.
These modern lists are all about who has the flashiest offense or the best NIL collective. They do not measure what matters. Can your coach win a game in the fourth quarter when the field is muddy and the crowd is screaming and your quarterback has to make a play? Can your coach develop a walk-on into an All-SEC performer like we used to do every single year? I remember watching Coach Stallings in 1992 when we shut down Miami in the Sugar Bowl and Derrick Lassic ran all over those Hurricanes. That team had no business winning a national title on paper but Coach Stallings had them believing. That is coaching.
I do not care where ESPN ranks our head coach. I care about what happens when we line up against LSU in Death Valley on a Saturday night in November. I care about the Iron Bowl. I care about whether this offensive line can open holes in the fourth quarter when we need to run the clock out. These rankings are just filler content for the offseason and I refuse to get worked up about them. Fall camp is here and we have work to do. Let the talking heads talk. We will settle it on the field like we always have.