By Chris Marler
I’m not always right. If you asked my fiancé, she would say I’m almost never right.
My takes aren’t always spot on either. Last year I thought LSU was a College Football Playoff team, and I thought they might have been the best team in the country after beating Clemson.
The takes I’ve seen flying around social media on who the best football and basketball head coaching duos are, though? Absurd. Absurd and wrong to be honest. I’m not sure if some people are prisoners of the moment or just have memory loss, but the rankings for head coaching duos have been laughably wrong.
Naturally, I’m here to give out the correct list.
1. Kalen DeBoer and Nate Oats (Alabama)
The amount of people who did not have DeBoer and Oats as their number one combination was absolutely wild to me. Kalen DeBoer just went to the College Football Playoff last season. Nate Oats is currently in the midst of his fifth Sweet 16 appearance in the last six seasons and is coming off back-to-back years where he made the Final Four and Elite Eight. That’s just what they’ve done at their current job. DeBoer took Washington to the National Championship game three years ago, and Oats took Buffalo to three NCAA tournaments and two tournament wins in his four years there.
2. Josh Heupel and Rick Barnes (Tennessee)
There’s an argument to be made here for Golden and Sumrall based on last season’s success for both coaches. Heupel and Barnes have the longevity and consistent success track record that any athletic director would opine for. Heupel made the College Football Playoff a season ago and has averaged nine wins per year on Rocky Top. As for Barnes, a lot has been made of his shortcomings in the month of March over his 12 year tenure at Tennessee. That’s fair, but the consistency of what he’s done at Tennessee is unparalleled. He’s made eight straight NCAA Tournaments in Knoxville and 30 tournaments overall dating back to 1988.
3. Todd Golden and Jon Sumrall (Florida)
Hard to argue against a duo that can boast a College Football Playoff appearance at Group of Six school in football and a national championship in basketball. I don’t know what Sumrall’s success levels will look like in Gainesville, but I do know that Golden backed up his national title year with a No. 1 seed in this year’s tournament. At the very least Sumrall isn’t Billy Napier, and that seems to be a really good thing.
4. Steve Sarkisian and Sean Miller (Texas)
This is where there starts to be some disagreements in most of the rankings. The No. 1 through No. 3 spots seemed to be universally agreed upon, but it’s hard for me to fathom why Sarkisian and Miller wouldn’t be No. 4 for everyone. Sarkisian has 35 wins in the last three seasons, and he has made two CFP appearances. Miller is in year one at Texas and took his inaugural team to the Sweet 16 where they await to play Purdue. Miller is basically a non-SEC version of Will Wade. He was ousted at Arizona for reasons that would now just be considered normal recruiting practices. In 20 years as a head coach (not including the COVID season), he’s made the tournament 14 times and the Sweet 16 nine times.
5. Mike Elko and Bucky McMillan (Texas A&M)
Spare me with any talk about Clark Lea and Mark Byington at Vanderbilt. Byington is in year one at Vandy, and it took Clark Lea five years in Nashville to win more than seven games. He has two winning seasons in those five years, and last I checked Diego Pavia isn’t walking through those doors with a 38th year of eligibility. The Aggie duo wins out here. Not only did Mike Elko make the CFP in year two, but he won a program record 11 regular season games in 2025. Bucky McMillan took a squad that was projected to finish 14th in the SEC, and they not only made it to the NCAA Tournament but advanced to the second round.
Honorable mention – Lane Kiffin and Will Wade (LSU)
I know, I know. It hasn’t happened yet, but in a week when that buyout drops from $5 million to $3 million, that will probably change. Kiffin and Wade will be the biggest coaching heels paired together since Jimbo Fisher hired Bobby Petrino and DJ Durkin as his coordinators. Kiffin and Wade will both win at LSU. Just wait.
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