Active college football coaches with national championships ft. Kirby Smart
Lest there be any question about the demanding nature of college football coaching, consider this. With the retirement of Nick Saban and the move of Jim Harbaugh to the NFL, there are exactly three active college football coaches who have won Division I national championships. Here's the rundown on the title coaches.
Active college football coaches with national championships
#1. Kirby Smart (2, 2021 and 2022)
Yes, the most recent champion, apart from the departed Harbaugh, opens our list. Kirby Smart had to bust a four-decade streak at Georgia since its last championship. UGA had been frustratingly close but unable to finish the deal until the school hired Smart.
Just 48, Smart was a defensive back at Georgia in the late 1990s. After a brief attempt at the NFL, he moved to coaching and had a couple of brief runs at Georgia. He came to prominence working as Nick Saban's defensive coordinator at Alabama from 2008 to 2015.
After an 8-5 first season in 2016, Smart has caught fire in Athens. For his career, he's now 95-16 and 56-9 in SEC play. Since the COVID-shortened 2020 season, Smart is 43-2.
#2. Dabo Swinney (2, 2016 and 2018)
It may not have seemed like it, as Smart's Georgia team thumped his squad in the Week 1 opener on Saturday, but Clemson coach Dabo Swinney was the toast of college football recently. A former Alabama player, Swinney is just 54. He took over at the Tigers in the middle of the 2008 season.
Swinney started with a couple of unremarkable seasons but then proceeded to win double-digit games every year from 2011 to 2023. That included a run of six straight seasons of finishing in the top four, encompassing 2015 to 2020. That included his pair of championships, with the 15-0 2018 season standing most notable.
Since the end of that magical run in 2020, Swinney is "just" 30-11. Many critics claim that his failure to embrace the transfer portal has caused his program to decline.
#3. Mack Brown (1, 2005)
Mack Brown is the lone BCS championship winner on this list. At 73, he was out of college coaching for most of the 2010s before moving to North Carolina in 2019. Brown won his title at Texas, where he coached from 1998 to 2013. Before that, he had coached at Carolina, so his return completed a career circle.
As a player, Brown was a running back at Vanderbilt and Florida State. His first head coaching job came at Appalachian State in 1983, before he moved to Tulane, North Carolina, Texas and now back to North Carolina. His 283-149-1 career mark is impressive. Brown built up Tulane and Carolina in the 1980s to make his reputation.
Since leading Vince Young and Texas to the 2005 title, Brown took off five years from coaching. Since his return, he has led North Carolina to bowl games in each of his five years back at the school. Brown could become only the sixth coach to win 300 Division I games.
Which names surprised you on this list? Share your thoughts and memories in our comments section!