Top 10 Winningest Head Coaches In College Football Today
ANNAPOLIS, MD – DECEMBER 27: Head coach Mack Brown of the North Carolina Tar Heels reacts on the sideline in the second half against the Temple Owls in the Military Bowl Presented by Northrop Grumman at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium on December 27, 2019 in Annapolis, Maryland. (Photo by Patrick McDermott/Getty Images) Photo by Patrick McDermott/Getty Images
With Nick Saban and other tenured legends of the game ending their careers over the last few years, the list of college football’s winningest active coaches may surprise you.
There are certainly heavy hitters on the list, coaches who won national titles and led their teams to postseason success in multiple years,
Illinois head coach Bret Bielema comes in at No. 10 with 115 career wins at the FBS level, with the majority of those victories coming at Wisconsin.
At No. 9 is Jeff Tedford with 127 wins over his time at Cal and now at Fresno State.
No. 8 is former West Virginia, Michigan and Arizona head coach Rich Rodriguez, who also has 127 FBS victories. Rodriguez is currently coaching at Jacksonville State, his first head coaching job since Arizona.
No. 7 is one of the longest tenured head coaches in the country, Air Force’s Troy Calhoun. Calhoun has 130 wins, all at Air Force, where he’s been since 2007.
Utah’s Kyle Whittingham is at No. 6 with 162 wins, and they’ve all come with the Utes as Whittingham has coached them since 2005.
No. 5 is Oklahoma State’s Mike Gundy. Gundy, who has coached in Stillwater since 2005, has 166 wins.
Next is Clemson’s Dabo Swinney at No. 4 with 170 wins, and Swinney is the first coach on the list to have won a national championship.
No. 3 is LSU’s Brian Kelly, who has 186 wins across his time at Central Michigan, Notre Dame, Cincinnati and now with the Tigers.
Iowa’s Kirk Ferentz, who has been with the program since 1999, is No. 2 with 196 wins.
Finally, North Carolina’s Mack Brown comes in as the winningest active head coach in all of college football. Brown won a national title at Texas, where he coached between stints with the Tar Heels.
Brown has a staggering 296 FBS wins in his career, which began nearly four decades ago with stints at both Tulane and Appalachian State.
The 72-year-old’s career is legendary one, but it doesn’t appear that Brown is ready to hang up the headset.
He’s returning for another season in 2024, and he’ll only need a handful of wins to cross the 300-win milestone.
We’ll see if any of the other coaches on the list can match or even come close to Brown’s winning ways over the next few years.