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Best Coaches of the Pac-12 Era
WoolleyDoog
Member, Swaye's Wigwam Posts: 3,847 
Ranking coaches of the Pac-12 era 2011-2023 is super interesting because it could go so many ways and the obvious top 3 guys all bottomed out on their way out.
- David Shaw Stanford - Three conference championships, four NY6 bowls 96-54 record. Incredible run taking over for Harbaugh 2011-2017. There's no ignoring how poorly his career finished, but that doesn't mean he wasn't the conference's best when Stanford was at their best.
- Chip Kelly Oregon/UCLA - Almost feels like you have to separate Oregon Chip and UCLA Chip and he's easy number one if you just take Oregon in 2011 and 2012, which were two of the best teams in recent Pac-12 history.
- Chris Petersen Washington - Three straight NY6 bowls and two Pac-12 championships. He started slow and had an unimpressive final season. Argument could be made he didn't bottom out as bad as Shaw or Kelly and could be ahead of them.
- Kyle Whittingham Utah - You could also make an argument he is number one because of consistency and two Pac-12 championships. He's never gotten that huge win though and was super average and below average for their first years in the conference.
- Kalen DeBoer Washington - 25-3 one of only two coaches to get a CFP win.
- Mike Leach Washington State - He never won the conference or even the division but the level he won at WSU is impressive, especially considering how bad they were for almost a decade when he took over.
- Mario Cristobal Oregon - Won the conference and a Rose Bowl. I'm not counting the covid year. Consistent winner. Would have been interesting to see how things would have gone had he stayed.
- Jim Mora UCLA - Had momentum and brought two 10 win seasons to UCLA, which is a rarity for that program post 80s. Seems like he ran out of gas though and never really broke through.
- Jonathan Smith Oregon State - I never thought he was the genius he was made out to be the past few years. I forgot just how bad Oregon State was when he took over though. Definitely a good coach.
- Dan Lanning Oregon - Can't argue with his overall record in two seasons and his ability to avoid losing to average teams in his first two years as a head coach. Lacks signature wins though. Sucks for him Washington didn't hire Matt Campbell or Justin Wilcox.
Honorable Mention
Mike Riley Oregon State, Jedd Fisch Arizona, Rich Rodriguez Arizona
Don't really know what to do with Mark Helfrich and Clay Helton. Both put together some great seasons yet you can't consider them good coaches.
Comments
Shaw owned Petersen and held his own against Chip. 1,2,and 3 look right
DeBoer is better than Witlessham.
No way Whittingham is above DeBoer
WilnerFS
Witlessham to me really just benefitted from the disintegration of the conference and the better programs for a couple of years. Got lucky to get into the championship game in 2022 because of dumb tie breakers and to get soft USC.
maybe it’s recency bias but I think Fats is higher, possibly even number 1 and Chip is lower because of UCLA.
Shaw bottomed out like nobody else on this list. Pete made the CFP, 1 of 3 Pac12 coaches to do so.
I think Whittingham is massively overrated. DeBoer and Leach are for sure better than him, I would also put Cristobol over him due to the fact that he couldn't beat Cristobol in a meaningful game until he had one foot out the door.
Jonathan Smith even beat his ass in Corvallis every time.
He lived off of a shitty division and even then had problems with Clay Helton. Fuck that guy and fuck Utah.
Could definitely make a case for Fats being #1 or at least higher. It's a bit unfair since 2024 was going to be the year we found out a lot about him, but even if he went like 8-4 he'd still be very impressive.
I'm not a big Whittingham guy. I shouldn't have put him over DeBoer especially when I think Washington should have been the Pac-12 champ in 2022.
You make a decent case as usual, but I think your determination has clouded your judgement on this a bit. Leach was nothing but a curiosity and sidenote during his era, just like Mike Riley or Babushka. He made a lot of early season noise seemingly every year, but never won anything that mattered and couldn't beat his instate rival. Wittingham at least came through when he was gifted a path to the CCG.
Witless deserves credit. Gotta remember Utah was a Mountain West progrum. On more thought too deserves to be ahead of Crisco because he benefitted so much from having Herbert who he didn't recruit.
Utah unlike a lot of Pac 12 states has enough home grown talent and then California was gifted to him by the idiot Pac 10 presidents and Larry Scott.
I can give him a pass for 2011-13 but even with power 5 Cali and Utah recruits, he was offensively inept for years until he lucked into captain concussion.
He had to play a walk-on QB because he was so bad at evaluating quarterbacks.
If it's about best coaches alone, what Leach did at WSU from 2015-19 is better than Whittingham did after all the good coaches dipped.
Mora should not be there.
This was a timely twat
I’d have Fats number one. Yeah he cucked us and fuck him forever for that, but the freeky deeky Dutch perv-boy can coach ball
DeBoer was 12-6 at Fresno when we hired him. I'm curious how he'll do without Penix
I would probably say Beau Baldwin-Cal Offensive Coordinator
4. Deboer
5-6. Jonathan Smiff / Wittingham
7. Leach.