Interesting.
An offseason tradition — CBS Sports has released their annual college football head coach rankings ahead of the 2024 season. The list saw pretty major shake ups this year, with Jim Harbaugh bolting to the Chargers and Nick Saban retiring at Alabama.
Thanks to that, there was a new No. 1 at the top of the list. Kirby Smart landed at No. 1, followed by Ryan Day and questionably, Dabo Swinney. Brian Kelly and Steve Sarkisian rounded out the top five.
You have to scroll down outside of the top 20 to find Tennessee’s Josh Heupel. In year three, Heupel led Tennessee to a 9-4 record, fresh off of an 11-2 season and an Orange Bowl victory over Clemson. His 9-4 effort this year moved him down seven spots (?).
No. 23: Josh Heupel: Seeing how recency bias works in these rankings is always fun. Heupel leaped to No. 16 last year after the Volunteers went 11-2 and won the Orange Bowl, and I’d have argued he was ranked a little too high. Then the Volunteers follow it up with a 9-4 season, which was more than respectable, and he nearly drops out of the top 25 altogether. What changed aside from the record? This is the area where Heupel should’ve been ranked last year, but my bet would be that another nine-win season will have him drop a few spots. 2023 rank: 16 (-7)
23 seems low. It’s so easy to forget where this program was following the 2020 season, which saw Jeremy Pruitt get fired and 30+ players hit the transfer portal. Heupel inherited a complete disaster, then turned around and went 7-6 in year one. He had Tennessee ranked No. 1 in year two — that’s nothing short of a miracle turnaround.
Interestingly enough, the CBS Sports crew had no problem shooting Missouri coach Eli Drinkwitz up 30 spots to No. 21 — even after three straight losing seasons to start his time in Columbia. Make that make sense.
Kentucky’s Mark Stoops also landed ahead of Heupel at No. 20. Look, I know Kentucky is a tough job and all, but top 20 seems like a bit much.
New Alabama head coach Kalen Deboer lands at No. 7 after making a run to the national title with Washington last season. Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin checked in at No. 14.
These are obviously meaningless, but they do generate a lot of conversation. What do you think of Heupel’s No. 23 ranking?