Brian Kelly opted to clean house on defense after LSU allowed 28.0 points per game to finish No. 82 (of 133 teams) in the nation in scoring defense. Hiring defensive coordinator Blake Baker from Missouri and defensive line coach Bo Davis from Texas was widely celebrated, but Pate says the Tigers hired another defensive coach who’s better than both.
Pate’s list of college football’s most underrated coaches features three head coaches, three coordinators, three position coaches and one guy currently waiting for his next opportunity. Several included names are featured on the 247Sports Football Recruiter Rankings for the 2024 season.
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Here are the 10 most underrated college football coaches in the nation:
“The most underrated head coach in college football right now has no job. His name is Bill Clark. He was the head coach at UAB. He led the most impressive rebuild in the modern era of college football. UAB ceased to exist and then came back, and it was the same guy who did it. Bill Clark is out of coaching right now, but I don’t know if he’s done coaching for good. Unbelievable guy.”
“Jon Sumrall just got hired at Tulane. Tulane made one of the best hires of this cycle. I challenge you guys to find anyone who speaks ill of him, on the field or off the field. Jon Sumrall is a stud. Excellent defensive mind. One of the most highly thought-of defensive minds in the game. He knows how to staff. He will kill it at Tulane. He parked himself at a really good spot. He’s going to be in demand. He is going to have offers every single year as major jobs come open.”
“Scott Symons is good with high snap count teams. If you run a ton of plays per game, that puts a strain on your defense. You have to find a guy with a really unique skill set. He fits into SMU’s system as a DC because he understands how to be flexible. He understands how to be pretty progressive with his approach. It’s tailored to their overall team philosophy. It’s no coincidence that Rhett Lashlee needed a guy like that. They’re hopping into the ACC this year, and that’s really exciting to be able to watch.”
“Discher is a phenomenal special teams coach. He is making about $300,000 a year. By Big Ten standards, where they allocate about 3.7% of an overall coaching salary pool to special teams, he should be at the $400,000 mark per year. Not only does Illinois have one of the best special teams coordinators in the country on their hands, but they’ve got one of the most ridiculous discount deals for a special teams coordinator in America. I don’t know how they pulled that off. Congratulations to them.”
“Chris Klieman is one of the most underrated head coaches in college football. That’s the head coach at Kansas State. He is a top 10 head coach in America at any level right now. If Sherrone Moore was not being elevated at Michigan, that’s the guy I would have circled. I know there were rumors about other names, but Klieman to Michigan would have been a home run, a grand slam if Moore was not elevated.”
“Pound for pound, one of the most underrated head coaches is Jeff Brohm at Louisville. He would fit in several major power five jobs. He’s got one at Louisville right now. He is a Louisville guy. I’m not suggesting that some imminent movement is coming from Jeff Brahm. But there are a lot of open jobs every year, and the guys that get it are ranked well below Brohm. He took Louisville to the ACC Championship game.”
“Will Stein is on a lot of people’s radars, but he’s still underrated. Big season two years ago down at UTSA. He got Dan Lanning’s attention, and Lanning had an opening there. He had big numbers last year. He hasn’t stacked a ton of years, and he’s worked with really talented quarterbacks. You’re always cautious unless you see him do it for a few more years. He is a big name now. He will be a big name moving forward. They hit on their hire up there.
“Tony White, the defensive coordinator at Nebraska, is very underrated. He and defensive line coach Terrance Knighton are some of the most underrated names in the country at their respective positions. If White gives me one more year of a top-20 defense, he will have head coaching offers on his plate. If Nebraska is legit on defense again, his name will be mentioned during the hiring cycle in November and December.”
“LSU and Brian Kelly have made splash hires recently. We got Kevin Peoples graded above Bo Davis and Blake Baker as defensive coaches. Kevin Peoples comes in as the defensive ends coach, and he is a stud. He came from that Missouri staff. LSU has upgraded their defensive staff as well as any team at any level of college football. That’s a testament to how bad it was last year, but also a testament to how intentional Brian Kelly was about making sure they didn’t lose because they couldn’t hold teams under 40. That’s not a problem LSU football should ever have.”
“When Kalen DeBoer hired Colin Hitschler, there was a collective “ugh” out of Wisconsin because they knew they had one of the best safeties coaches in college football up there. We still think he’s criminally underrated, although he just got hired by Alabama. He won’t be underrated much longer. He is an immediate on-field upgrade for them. He’ll be a very good recruiter in time. He is one of a few very, very shrewd hires that DeBoer has made. That coaching staff, as a whole, is upgraded from what Bama had the last few years.”
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