• Follow us on Twitter @buckeyeplanet and @bp_recruiting, like us on Facebook! Enjoy a post or article, recommend it to others! BP is only as strong as its community, and we only promote by word of mouth, so share away!
  • Consider registering! Fewer and higher quality ads, no emails you don't want, access to all the forums, download game torrents, private messages, polls, Sportsbook, etc. Even if you just want to lurk, there are a lot of good reasons to register!

Ranking of all time OSU Football coaches

Jump to latest Follow Reply
Sort by date Sort by votes

Greyshirt

All-American
Curious to the answers on this one. On another site it is interesting how people will get almost violent if they feel you are not respecting their favorite properly.

If this is somewhere else just shut this down and direct me as I am curious.

I would need to do some research. But pure success I kind of feel Urban is first and Woody second with the Sweater man 3rd. But I could be skipping some old timer that many loved...ect.

Now one could say that Woody created that which is the modern OSU football powerhouse. So he sits on top forever and everyone must bow to him. And honestly, on pure stories alone he is one of my favorite coaches. He was part genius and part insane person. As my wife says all the time the line between genius and crazy is a very very very thin one.
 
Greyshirt said:
Curious to the answers on this one. On another site it is interesting how people will get almost violent if they feel you are not respecting their favorite properly.

If this is somewhere else just shut this down and direct me as I am curious.

I would need to do some research. But pure success I kind of feel Urban is first and Woody second with the Sweater man 3rd. But I could be skipping some old timer that many loved...ect.

Now one could say that Woody created that which is the modern OSU football powerhouse. So he sits on top forever and everyone must bow to him. And honestly, on pure stories alone he is one of my favorite coaches. He was part genius and part insane person. As my wife says all the time the line between genius and crazy is a very very very thin one.
Click to expand...

I've had this conversation a bunch with my brother. I say the same order you do: 1. Meyer, 2. Woody, 3. Tressel. My brother puts Woody #1, and maybe Paul Brown #3 - I forget who his #3 is.

Woody took the "graveyard of coaches" and stayed for 28 years, winning 5 national championships. That is enough to put him at the top of any list. Tressel took John Cooper's team and then proceeded to win 8 conference championships in 10 years. But Urban Meyer won 90% of the games he coached. He never lost more than 1 Big Ten conference game, and only 4 conference losses in his 7 years at Ohio State. He never finished lower than tied for first in Ohio State's division.
So I put Meyer at #1, Woody at #2, and Tressel at #3.
 
Upvote 0
This thread had a poll from 2007, which only allowed a first-place vote.

BP.Greatest.Coach.Poll.2007

The votes were:

96 - Woody
40 - Tressel
01 - Paul Brown

Urban Meyer had just prevented tOSU from winning a Natty in Glendale, so he wasn’t eligible yet.
 
Upvote 0
Abenaki said:
It's kinda like the "best" vs. "most deserving" debate you can get for the playoff rankings. Woody accomplished the most here, but Urban is probably the best coach and if I had to pick a coach to win one game that matters...7-0 is 7-0.

1) Urbs
2) Woody
3) Tress
Click to expand...
That's the record that matters! Fuck ichigan!
 
Upvote 0
I think a solid argument can be made for Tressel or Meyer at #2. Tressel came in like a boss, even though both Stoops brothers and everyone except Glen Mason had been offered the job, and pulled us out of the Cooper crapper by beating scum and then turning around and doing it again and then won an NC in the best game I've ever seen when no one believed we could win and ended the Cryami dynasty salting their fields so that even in 2023 they still haven't come back. Similarly, Urban came in and lifted us out of the tit for tats nonsense, made us a national recruiting player, raised the level of talent to southern standards, proved that by eviscerating alabammy, and winning an NC, with a 3rd string qb.

If Day beats scum this year, and starts acting like a head coach rather than a coordinator/qb coach, I can see us getting on a roll ending with him in the #2 spot. All (I know, I know, but that's the goal every year) it takes is one NC to be in the running and two to be #2. Both Tress and Meyer plateaued. We may or may not have seen that yet with Day. It could still go either way. Recruiting is rolling and the defense may be coming along. We could win an NC and be in the running for several more or he could lose to scum this year and never have the chance.

There's no argument that Kirby Smart isn't the best coach in uga history. This very concept was unthinkable three years ago, but he somehow managed to do more with the same assets that every other coach in their history had, but had always managed to underachieve. Obviously, Smart is a defensive guy and Day is offense (I would've said offensive, but that would've been to easy for Jax), but I think there's a parallel. It took Kirby awhile to beat Alabama and we've obviously been Vulverine woodshedded two years in a row, but they were close in the SEC championship and their team didn't lose faith in the culture he'd built and they got better. We gave them all they wanted in the playoff and would've deserved it had the kick gone through; it wouldn't have been a fluke win. If this team can keep pulling together, Day could be on a Smart-level run.
 
Last edited:
Upvote 0
@RugbyBuck pretty much nailed my thoughts. Woody was well before my time, but the overall body of work is going to be almost impossible to pass. If anyone can come close, it's Day due to his age and the way he recruits but you're right, the jury is out in a big way even with all the reasons to be optimistic.

But I would say my list goes Woody, Urbs (due to 7-0 against TTUN), and Tress. But imo Tress was dealt with a tougher hand after the complete shitshow called, as @Jaxbuck noted, John Fucking Cooper. Not that Urban had it easy either though, but he was a known commodity as a coach and recruiter. Coming in as a national championship coach at Florida vs the coach at Youngstown State everyone had to do an internet search to even know who he is. So that could go either way.

But I will second that we know who the worst coach we ever had is...
 
Last edited:
Upvote 0
I've only been alive for 3 that i can / care to remember. I don't feel qualified to rank Woody.

I was too young to drink during the Herbstreit era, and somehow i still have a drunk haze about the whole debacle.

1a Tress. It was pure magic what he accomplished.
1b Urban. Took it to another level. 2014 is very fond for me.

Jury still out on Day.
 
Upvote 0
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top