College football's 7 most overrated coaches, ranked ft. Sam Pittman

College football coaches are some of the biggest personalities in sports. Even with the retirement of Nick Saban, modern-day legends like Dabo Sweeney and Kirby Smart are well-known and loved. But maybe some college football coaches are a little too loved.

We're ranking the most overrated FBS head coaches. These aren't the worst coaches, just the coaches who get a little more credit than they earned.

College football's 7 most overrated coaches

Could Alabama coach Kalen DeBoer be one of the most overrated college football coaches? DeBoer was great at Washington but faces a tall task in following an Alabama legend.

7. Kalen DeBoer, Alabama

Kalen DeBoer is a very, very good college football coach. but he has two elements that spell failure: He's coaching at Alabama and he's trying to follow Nick Saban. When DeBoer was at Washington, he was a great coach. But at Alabama?

Since World War II, four coaches have taken the Alabama job following national-title-winning head coaches. DeBoer is the fourth, but of the other three, none won national titles and they combined for a total of one conference championship. Mike Dubose, Ray Perkins and Harold Drew aren't exactly legends. That's DeBoer's Alabama running mates now. Good luck, Coach!

6. Mario Cristobal, Miami

Cristobal just keeps getting hired into good jobs. He inherited a great situation at Oregon and is now tasked with completing the Miami rebuild. The question is, frankly, why? Cristobal has a career 74-73 record. His one undeniably great year was 2019 at Oregon, when the Ducks won the Rose Bowl. He has only one other team that finished in the top 25 in his dozen years of college football coaching.

The best thing Cristobal has done is recruit, most notably at Alabama. Recruiting football players to come to Alabama is like recruiting gamblers to come to Las Vegas. His in-game decisions have already bewildered Hurricane fans and media members.

5. James Franklin, Penn State

First things first-- James Franklin is a very good football coach. But equally important, James Franklin is not a great college football coach. Yes, Franklin has had four top-10 finishes at Penn State. No, none of those teams have sniffed the College Football Playoff. Yes, he has nationally competitive teams. No, they never beat Ohio State and Michigan. He's 4-16 against the Big Ten's two power teams.

That's the book on Penn State. Franklin wins a lot of games-- a lot of easy, relatively meaningless games. He's spent a decade at PSU and, a brief flash of potential in 2016 aside, is still waiting for his first meaningful win.

4. Shane Beamer, South Carolina

It's fair to question why anyone thinks Shane Beamer is even a very good head coach. Yes, South Carolina isn't Georgia or Alabama. But Lou Holtz and Steve Spurrier won plenty of games there. Beamer... well, he's 20-18 so far.

Some fans enjoy Beamer's sunglasses antics or watching him get a tub of mayonnaise dumped on him after a bowl win. But plenty of others recognize that this is a head coach who is vastly overrated.

3. Ryan Day, Ohio State

How can a 56-8 coach be overrated? Well, Ryan Day has had more talent in probably about 63 of the 64 games he's coached at OSU. He takes stacked OSU rosters, beats up on the weaker siblings of the Big Ten, and then folds like a new Taco Bell menu item in a big game.

Ohio State has lost its last three games with Michigan. Their only CFP success under Day was a win over an overrated Clemson team in the shortened 2020 season. OSU under Day rolls over its competition like a steamroller... until it matters.

2. Billy Napier, Florida

Napier got the Florida job because he had lifted the Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns to respectability. That said, in two seasons, he's pretty clearly learned that it's a lot harder to rise through the SEC than through the Sun Belt.

Specifically, in two seasons at UF, Napier has lost consecutive games to Kentucky, lost to Vanderbilt and failed to post a winning season. Before anyone blames talent, he had Anthony Richardson at quarterback in year one. Napier has just looked thoroughly overmatched. But don't take our word for it...

1. Sam Pittman, Arkansas

In the case of Pittman, one can almost trace the arc of his brief rise and subsequent fall at Arkansas. Pittman was hired despite being something less than overwhelming as a presence. There was a genuineness in the big former offensive line coach that won over many people. And Arkansas started doing good things, although Pittman's 23-25 mark attests to that trend ending.

Pittman's first team was 3-7 in the COVID-shortened season, but in 2021, he won nine games with the Razorbacks. Arkansas was picked to finish sixth in the seven-team SEC West before the season and after a 4-0 start with wins over Texas and Texas A&M, Arkansas was seen as a CFP dark horse. Not so fast. They lost 37-0 to Georgia and then lost to Ole Miss and Auburn. Still, 9-4 was solid.

A humdrum 7-6 season in 2022 was followed by the regression of QB KJ Jefferson and a brutal 4-8 2023 season. If not for a loss at Florida (see above), it would have been a winless SEC season for Pittman. Want proof of an overrated coach? Check out this exchange at 2:20 in the postgame press conference to end the season.

Which college football coach do you think is overrated? Let us hear your thoughts below in our comments section!