Ranking the SEC’s best football, men’s basketball coach pairings (Part 2) ...Middle East

I started this exercise last week by ranking the SEC’s football and men’s basketball coach combos, 16-9. Now, it’s time to break down the best of the best in the SEC.

On the football side, there’s very little separation between coaches No. 2 and No. 8. All but 1 of my top 8 coaches have a College Football Playoff appearance on their résumé. The order of that group could look drastically different a year from now depending on what happens in 2026.

For men’s basketball, the tiers are a little bit more defined. There’s a clear top 4 followed by another tier that mostly features coaches who are still searching for their crowning achievement.

Ranking the best SEC football and men’s basketball coaches

Before digging into the rankings, a couple of notes about my process that carry over from last week’s rankings. To start, I ranked all 16 head coaches in both sports individually based on a variety of criteria. I considered accolades at their current schools as well as what they accomplished at prior stops. 

When melding the rankings together to make this list, I weighed football and basketball rankings equally. In instances where there was a tie in average ranking, I gave the nod to the school with the higher-ranked football coach (football Just Means More, after all). 

Here are my top 8 SEC football and men’s basketball coach pairings:

8. Missouri

Football coach: Eli Drinkwitz

Men’s basketball coach: Dennis Gates

If there’s one coach I’m probably higher on than the public consensus, it’s Eli Drinkwitz. Do you know how hard it is to win 10+ games at a program like Missouri in a league like the SEC in back-to-back years? If you’re not a blue-blood, it’s extremely difficult. If you exclude the SEC programs that have won national championships this century (Alabama, Auburn, Florida, LSU, Texas and Georgia), it’s only been accomplished by a handful of coaches: Lane Kiffin (Ole Miss), Gary Pinkel (Missouri), Steve Spurrier (South Carolina), Bobby Petrino (Arkansas) and Phillip Fulmer (Tennessee). That’s not a bad list to add your name to. The 2025 campaign was a small step back for Mizzou, but the Tigers weren’t far off from top-10 wins over Vanderbilt (loss by 7) and Alabama (loss by 3). I think Mizzou is here to stay as a top-25 program as long as Drinkwitz is in charge and it shouldn’t be too much longer before the Tigers make their CFP debut. 

Dennis Gates is somewhat puzzling. He’s been at Mizzou for 4 seasons, 3 of which have been solid-to-good. The outlier was a true catastrophe — an 0-18 finish in SEC play in 2023. That season, combined with Mizzou not making it to the second weekend under Gates yet, means he checks in at No. 9 in the basketball-only rankings. That may be unfair given that Mizzou has matched Kentucky’s conference-play record over the past 2 years (20-16) with a fraction of the resources. But I still think the range of possible outcomes over the next few years is very wide — everything from “leaves for a blueblood job” to “fired” is on the table over the next 2-3 seasons. 

7. Texas A&M

Football coach: Mike Elko

Men’s basketball coach: Bucky McMillan

If I were to redo this exercise a year from now, I think there’s a chance I’d have Texas A&M in the top 3. I’m exceptionally high on both Mike Elko and Bucky McMillan. Let’s start with Elko, who pulled off the miracle of going 9-7 in ACC play at Duke prior to his move to College Station. That record may not seem spectacular, but remember he was taking over a Duke program that had won 1 of its previous 18 conference games prior to Elko’s arrival. Duke also was forced to play with a backup quarterback for much of the 2023 season due to an injury to Riley Leonard. Since getting to Texas A&M, the Aggies have exceeded expectations with a 12-4 record in SEC play, which is their best stretch of conference results (by winning percentage) since leaving the Big 12. 

McMillan has only been in high-major college basketball for 1 year, but the early returns are promising. The Aggies went 11-7 during SEC play this season, but just as important, their process was excellent. McMillan puts a big emphasis on analytically-optimized offense, which translated to Texas A&M being No. 2 in 3-point attempt rate and No. 1 in average 2-point attempt distance during conference play. It wasn’t perfect, but it was just Year 1. McMillan’s teams had similar offensive profiles at Samford, where his tenure peaked with an NCAA Tournament berth in 2024 (the program’s first since 2000). 

6. Georgia

Football coach: Kirby Smart

Men’s basketball coach: Mike White

This is an admittedly harsh ranking for Georgia. For the record, I have Kirby Smart at No. 1 in my football-only rankings, so the Bulldogs land at No. 6 purely because of where men’s basketball coach Mike White is ranked. There’s not much I need to add about Smart beyond what his résumé says: 2 national championships, 4 SEC Championships and 3 SEC Coach of the Year awards. He’s done all of that in just 10 seasons on the job. He’s by far the most accomplished coach in the SEC and it would be borderline impossible to argue that any other coach in this league is better than Smart. 

I’ve got Mike White ranked 12th out of the SEC’s 16 men’s basketball coaches. That’s partially because the league has a lot of great coaches right now in that sport. It’s also because White has generally fallen short despite a couple of good seasons at UGA in recent years. He missed the NCAA Tournament in his first 2 years in Athens, which is nothing to be ashamed of. The bigger problem is his 1 second weekend appearance in 7 years at Florida. The Gators were a juggernaut before he got there and have been at the top of the sport ever since he left. 

5. Florida

Football coach: Jon Sumrall

Men’s basketball coach: Todd Golden

Jon Sumrall is a difficult coach to rank. He’s won big at Troy and Tulane, but we’ve seen coaches excel at that level before and it doesn’t always translate to the highest levels of college football. But the record speaks for itself — 28-4 in conference play across 4 total seasons as a head coach. I thought hiring Georgia Tech offensive coordinator Buster Faulkner was one of the sharpest moves of the offseason that went a little under-the-radar if you weren’t paying attention. I think there’s reason for optimism that Sumrall will be regarded as a top-half SEC coach in the near future. 

The reason why Florida cracks the top 5 on this list is Todd Golden, my No. 1 ranked coach for men’s basketball. He’s won a national championship and has led the Gators to a No. 1 seed in each of the past 2 seasons. I gave him the edge over Rick Barnes for the No. 1 spot, although I do think Barnes has a pretty solid case given his longevity and recent success (3 straight Elite Eight appearances). Golden is also only 39 years old so he has a chance to be at the top of the SEC coaching pyramid for quite some time. 

4. Texas

Football coach: Steve Sarkisian

Men’s basketball coach: Sean Miller

The 2026 campaign is arguably the most important of Steve Sarkisian’s career. It will almost certainly be his last season coaching Arch Manning and expectations are sky-high in Austin and nationally for the Longhorns this fall. That’s especially true after Texas began last year as the preseason No. 1 team before missing the CFP entirely. Still, Sarkisian is clearly a top-5 SEC head coach as he’s regarded as an excellent offensive play-caller and has led Texas to a couple of CFP semifinal appearances. Another big point in Sarkisian’s favor: a 5-1 head-to-head record against his rivalry counterparts Brent Venables and Mike Elko.

Sean Miller is still trying to generate momentum in Austin, but the former Arizona and Xavier coach still has a résumé that favorably compares to most of the coaches in this league. Although a trip to the Final Four has proven to be elusive, Miller has been to the Sweet 16 an impressive 9 times (including a vacated 2017 season at Arizona). That ranks 9th among all active head coaches. 

3. Tennessee

Football coach: Josh Heupel 

Men’s basketball coach: Rick Barnes

Josh Heupel deserves a lot of credit for getting Tennessee out of the wilderness. From 2008 through 2021, the Volunteers didn’t win 6 SEC games a single time. Heupel brought competency to Knoxville pretty much overnight, accomplishing that feat twice in his first 4 years on the job. I’m not sure how high Tennessee’s ceiling is with Heupel — Vols fans are still chasing 2022 as their best post-Fulmer team. But he has restored Tennessee as a high-level program. He’s beaten Alabama twice and made the College Football Playoff once. I think there are probably more trips to the CFP in his future, too. 

Rick Barnes’ basketball teams at Tennessee haven’t always been the most aesthetically-pleasing to watch. But Barnes wins. He’s ripped off 3-straight Elite Eight appearances at a Tennessee program that’s only reached that stage 4 times in its history. The Final Four is proving to be elusive, but if Barnes can’t get the Volunteers over the hump, it may be a while longer before they find someone who can. This is one of the best college basketball coaches of his generation and he’s continued to have success in the NIL era when many of his counterparts have either retired or lost effectiveness.  

2. LSU

Football coach: Lane Kiffin

Men’s basketball coach: Will Wade

I have Lane Kiffin at No. 3 in my football-only rankings as he embarks on this LSU journey. He just put together the best 5-year stretch in the history of Ole Miss football. Prior to Kiffin’s arrival, Ole Miss had won 10+ games in a season just 7 times. Kiffin rattled off 4 such seasons in 5 years, including an 11-win campaign in 2023 and 11 more wins in 2025 before he bolted to Baton Rouge (Ole Miss then won 2 more games for a school-record 13 victories). I settled on Kiffin here because he’s won way above what you’d expect at Ole Miss given its history. But now that he’s at LSU, a place known for winning national titles, holding on to a top-3 spot will be much tougher. 

When I first sat down to do this exercise, I expected to have Will Wade outside the top 10. His shine has worn off significantly since his first stint in Baton Rouge given the NCAA scandal and his chaotic exit from NC State. But his résumé is pretty undeniable. Two NCAA Tournament appearances at VCU (including 1 first-round win). Three trips to the Big Dance at LSU, including a Sweet 16 berth. Two more March Madness games at McNeese. And then in 2025-26, he led NC State to another NCAA Tournament appearance. The results in March haven’t been great — he’s only been to the Sweet 16 once. But Wade is clearly an impactful regular season coach and has won everywhere he’s been. 

1. Alabama

Football coach: Kalen DeBoer

Men’s basketball coach: Nate Oats

In my opinion, this is clearly the best combo of football and men’s basketball coaches in the SEC. Kalen DeBoer has maybe fallen a bit below expectations in 2 years at Alabama, but not drastically below. He won a CFP game this year as a road team and missed the postseason in Year 1 by the margin of Clemson upsetting SMU in the ACC Championship Game. DeBoer also previously made the National Championship Game at Washington and was excellent at his prior stops, too. We’ve yet to see what DeBoer can do with an elite quarterback in Tuscaloosa. Perhaps Keelon Russell or Austin Mack make that leap this year and we see what the ceiling of a DeBoer-led blueblood really is. 

What Nate Oats has done at Alabama is remarkable. He wins in the regular season and he wins in March, often without elite NBA prospects (Brandon Miller aside). Oats has produced 5 of Alabama’s 13 Sweet 16 appearances all-time in the last 6 years. He’s also made the Elite Eight twice and led the Crimson Tide to their only Final Four berth in 2024. Oats is an elite talent evaluator who understands how to leverage pace and 3-point shooting better than just about any coach in the country. He’s not perfect — Oats’ defenses are often mediocre and they don’t force turnovers at a high rate. He’s also struggled to find centers who can run the floor with his guards in transition while also being complementary half-court contributors on both ends. But his style wins in college basketball and I think, at some point, he’ll figure out how to mask those flaws and produce a national champion. 

Ranking the SEC’s best football, men’s basketball coach pairings (Part 2) Saturday Down South.

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