Football | 12/11/2019 10:50:00 AM

The lifespan of a game is measured in hours. A team comes and goes in a season. A player lasts no more than four years; these days, if he's good and stays healthy, three.

But a coach? A coach is different. Coaches define eras. In a sport in which we root for laundry, a coach humanizes those colors, becomes as much a symbol as the mascot.

The first four men selected among the 150 Greatest Coaches, as selected by our blue-ribbon panel of 150 media members, administrators and former players and coaches, span more than a century of the sport. No. 3 Knute Rockne debuted in 1918. No. 2 Nick Saban just concluded the 2019 regular season. Between those two, No. 1 Paul "Bear" Bryant and No. 4 Tom Osborne together coached from the end of World War II to nearly the end of the 20th century. The only decade not covered by these four coaches is the 1930s.

If coaches define eras, then the greatest benefit of this list is how it creates a historical mosaic of the sport. For instance, Rockne coached Frank Thomas (No. 67), who at Alabama coached Bryant (No. 1). Bernie Bierman (No. 65), whose name has returned to the lips of Minnesota fans now that P.J. Fleck has revivified the Gophers, coached Bud Wilkinson (No. 6), whose first great star may have been Darrell Royal (No. 38). 

Not only that, all four NCAA divisions and the NAIA are represented. John Gagliardi, the all-time leader in wins (489) at any level, is No. 16. Nine HBCU coaches made the top 150, from No. 5 Eddie Robinson of Grambling to No. 145 W.C. Gorden of Jackson State. -- Ivan Maisel
 

1. Paul (Bear) Bryant, 323-85-17 career record
Maryland (1945; 6-2-1 record), Kentucky (1946-53; 60-23-5), Texas A&M (1954-57; 25-14-2) and Alabama (1958-1982; 232-46-9)

Bryant won two national championships at Alabama in the 1960s playing one-platoon football. He won three more in the 1970s playing several platoons, waves of players on each side of the ball. He won throwing the ball. He won running the ball. As the Texas philosopher/football coach Bum Phillips, a one-time Bryant assistant at Texas A&M, said, "He could take his'n and beat your'n, and he could take your'n and beat his'n." He made players out of boys and head coaches out of assistants. As one of his favorite players, Crimson Tide lineman Jerry Duncan, said recently, "God, what a man."

2. Nick Saban, 242-65-1
Toledo (1990; 9-2), Michigan State (1995-99; 34-24-1), LSU (2000-2004; 48-16) and Alabama (2007-present; 151-23)

Saban didn't start out as the greatest coach in the past 50 years. He won at Toledo and Michigan State but not enough to win a conference title. He came to LSU with a reputation of not staying anywhere too long. In five seasons, he won the Tigers' first national title in 45 years. And then he left for the NFL. That lasted only two years, and when he returned to the college game, at LSU's SEC West rival Alabama, the clock began ticking until he would leave again. After 13 seasons, five national championships and the most successful run in the modern game, it's still ticking.

3. Knute Rockne, 105-12-5
Notre Dame (1918-30)

Rockne created modern coaching. He was a brilliant tactician, to be sure, but he also created the coach as CEO. He marketed his small, Midwestern Catholic institution in America's biggest cities, taking his team to where the immigrant Catholics could root for them. He applied his motivational skills to business as a top executive for Studebaker cars -- while he coached. And Notre Dame kept winning. He had five unbeaten seasons and won four national titles (1919, 1924, 1929 and 1930). Rockne's winning percentage of .881 remains first among FBS coaches nearly a century after he died in a plane crash in 1931 at age 43.

4. Tom Osborne, 255-49-3
Nebraska (1973-97)

Behind that dry, spare demeanor lived a sharp football mind with a sly wit and a fierce competitive streak. Osborne spent most of his career with the Huskers saddled with the honor of having gone for two and failing against Miami when an extra point surely would have given Nebraska the 1983 national title. Late in his career, he pivoted from his team's devotion to brute strength and put more speed on defense. In his last five seasons, Nebraska won three national championships, lost a fourth on the last play of the game and had a won-loss record of 60-3.

5. Eddie Robinson, 408-165-15
Grambling (1941-42, 1945-1997)

Robinson did it all at Grambling. That's not an overworked cliché about an outstanding coach. That's the truth. He lined the field. He directed the band. He taped the ankles. And he sent hundreds of players to professional football, four of whom -- Paul "Tank" Younger, Junious "Buck" Buchanan, Gary Johnson and Doug Williams -- reached the College Football Hall of Fame. Robinson took over in 1941 at age 22. In his second season, the Tigers went 9-0 -- unbeaten, untied and unscored upon. Under Robinson, Grambling won nine black college national championships and 17 SWAC titles.

6. Charles (Bud) Wilkinson, 145-29-4
Oklahoma (1947-63)

As a player on Minnesota's powerful teams in the mid-1930s, Wilkinson started at guard for two seasons, and then moved to quarterback. He excelled everywhere he played, a trait he passed on to the Sooners for more than a decade. After taking over Oklahoma at age 31, Wilkinson led the Sooners to a 31-game unbeaten streak from 1948-50. That paled before the modern FBS record streak by Oklahoma of 47 unbeaten games from 1953-57. Wilkinson retired at 47, spent and looking for a new challenge. He ran for the U.S. Senate and lost, and became a fixture in college football broadcasting for ABC Sports.

7. Joe Paterno, 409-136-3
Penn State (1966-2011)

After 16 seasons as a Nittany Lions assistant, Paterno ascended to the head coaching job. Penn State soon ascended, too -- to national prominence, to two national championships in the 1980s, and to the Big Ten, the first team to shift from independence to a conference in what would become the realignment era. Paterno called his plan the Grand Experiment, believing that Penn State could be a national power without sacrificing academics. He pulled it off, too, including five unbeaten seasons. Paterno was fired in November 2011 for his involvement in the Jerry Sandusky scandal. He died two months later.

8. Bobby Bowden, 377-129-4
Howard College (1959-62; 31-6), West Virginia (1970-75; 42-26) and Florida State (1976-2009; 304-97-4)

When Bowden arrived at Florida State, it was a midsize independent, not above taking a paycheck game to keep the athletics department's doors open. When he left 43 years later, the Seminoles had established themselves as a national power. From 1987-2000, Bowden's Seminoles finished in the top five every season, including two national titles (1993, 1999). After joining the ACC in 1992, Florida State won 12 of the next 14 ACC titles. Bowden loved fireworks on offense and fast, physical play on defense. He developed two Heisman winners (Charlie Ward, Chris Weinke) and a generation of goodwill for Florida State.

9. Woody Hayes, 238-72-10
Denison (1946-48; 19-6), Miami (Ohio) (1949-50; 14-5) and Ohio State (1951-78; 205-61-10)

He is remembered for his excesses, such as his overreliance on a physical running game. Everyone knew Hayes' game plan. But the Buckeyes executed it so well (five national titles, 13 Big Ten titles) that it didn't matter; such as his overreaction on the sideline to anyone or anything that didn't go the Buckeyes' way; such as going overboard when he slugged Charlie Baumann after the Clemson linebacker made a game-clinching interception for the Tigers to defeat the Buckeyes in the 1978 Gator Bowl. He was fired the next day, and beloved anyway.

10. Frank Leahy, 107-13-9
Boston College (1939-40; 20-2) and Notre Dame (1941-43, 1946-53; 87-11-9)

He spoke in courtly language, referring to his players as "lads," but no one mistook that gentlemanly demeanor as anything other than good manners. Leahy would do anything to win and rarely did anything but win. His postwar teams at Notre Dame were so good -- the freshmen who enrolled in 1946 never lost a game -- that backups enjoyed long NFL careers. The Irish won four national titles in seven years. Leahy drove his players no harder than he drove himself. The stress became so great that he nearly died during the 1953 season. He retired at age 45 and never coached again.

Click here for a full list of coaches in the top 150 list.

Follow Grambling State Athletics
For complete coverage of Grambling State athletics, please follow the Tigers on social media at @GSU_Tigers (Twitter), /gramblingstateathletics (Facebook), @gramblingathletics01 (Instagram) or visit the official home of Grambling State Athletics at gsutigers.com.