Should Stoops be SEC Coach of the Year? Ranking the league’s coaches on job performance.
His team started 2-3, lost its top two quarterbacks to injury and played with an untested defense. By season’s end Kentucky was 7-5 and headed to its fourth straight bowl game.
Should Mark Stoops repeat as SEC Coach of the Year?
He won’t win the award, but he should be in the discussion. In fact, based on their 2019 job performance, here’s how I would rank the conference’s coaches.
1. Ed Orgeron, LSU: At least one LSU fan wasn’t happy with me when I put Coach O in the “better produce” category of my preseason SEC coaching tiers. My apology to the emailer. Hiring passing game coordinator Joe Brady from the NFL’s New Orleans Saints was a brilliant move.
2. Mark Stoops, Kentucky: The SEC Network’s Peter Burns tweeted that Stoops would be No. 2 on his list, and I concur. Moving Lynn Bowden to quarterback was a master stroke. And UK finished 20th nationally in total defense.
3. Jeremy Pruitt, Tennessee: If you put Pruitt above Stoops on your list, I won’t argue. Tennessee did defeat UK, after all. The Vols went from losing to Georgia State in an embarrassing season opener to finishing 7-5 overall and 5-3 in the SEC.
4. Dan Mullen, Florida: Despite losing his starting quarterback in the third game, Mullen led the Gators to a 10-2 season, with a 6-2 league mark. He’s the best quarterback whisperer in the SEC, and maybe the country.
5. Kirby Smart, Georgia: Wait a minute. Aren’t the Bulldogs 11-1 and playing LSU on Saturday for the SEC title? Yes. But that home loss to South Carolina might end up keeping the Bulldogs out of the College Football Playoff.
6. Gus Malzahn, Auburn: The Tigers went 9-3 against a ridiculous schedule. And Auburn did defeat Oregon to start the season and Alabama to end it. It was something of a comeback year for Malzahn, who had slipped to 3-5 in the league last year.
7. Nick Saban, Alabama: Saban’s best player, quarterback Tua Tagovailoa, was hurt most of the season, but I still cringe at how undisciplined the Crimson Tide played in the loss at Auburn. Saban remains the best in the business, but this was not his best effort.
8. Jimbo Fisher, Texas A&M: Jimbo has yet to pay dividends on that 10-year, $75 million investment the Aggies made by hiring the former Florida State coach. After two years, his SEC record is 9-7. The Aggies’ best win was against, well, they didn’t really have one.
9. Joe Moorhead, Mississippi State: Maybe Coach JoeMo isn’t the best fit for Starkville, after all. He slipped from an 8-5 debut to 6-6 in his second season. Moorhead needs to have a good third year or AD John Cohen might move in a different direction.
10. Derek Mason, Vanderbilt: Mason had a done solid work in leading the Commodores to a pair of bowl games until the wheels fell off this season. If he can find a quarterback for 2020, the guess here is the Commodores will return to being at least competitive.
11. Will Muschamp, South Carolina: After a 4-8 year, Muschamp is searching for his third offensive play-caller for his fifth year in Columbia. It’s the same path he followed to the unemployment line at Florida.
12. Barry Odom, Missouri: Odom didn’t do a terrible job at Mizzou. He didn’t do a good job either, going 25-25 over four seasons. He was 0-4 against Kentucky. Maybe that was enough for Missouri AD Jim Sterk to show Odom the door.
13. Matt Luke, Ole Miss: The now former Rebels coach faced a tough road and went 15-21 with the mess left by Hugh Freeze. The “urinating dog” stunt his player pulled against Mississippi State was enough to earn him a pink slip right there.
14. Chad Morris, Arkansas: Ordinarily, 22 games is not enough to judge a coaching tenure. With Morris, however, it’s plenty. He won just four games and lost to San Jose State and Western Kentucky at home before being fired.
