Where does Bobby Petrino rank among top coaches?
When he recently signed coach Bobby Petrino to a new, extended deal, Louisville athletic director Tom Jurich said he believes Petrino is among the best college football coaches in America.
Jurich said he wanted Petrino to be compensated as such. Given Louisville's remarkable finish with 8 wins in the final 10 games, Jurich's enthusiasm is likely warranted.
In an interesting poll of six CBS sports writers, Petrino was ranked among the 25 best coaches in the college game for the second-straight season.
That's all well and good, but his ranking actually FELL six spots from the previous year's poll. And that's where the trouble comes in.
LINK: Click here for the full article - CBS: Ranking the top 25 coaches
So why the drop in ranking for Petrino? Likely it was due to the Cardinals losing their first three games en route to the 8-5 record. It is worth wondering if the pollsters forgot that Louisville lost 10 players to the NFL Draft and another five to NFL free agency?
I don't want to cause too much of a fuss. Being in the Top 25 is an honor, after all, but looking at some of the coaches ranked ahead of Petrino it is worth wondering if CBS isn't seeling the Cardinals' coach short.
Petrino's .717 winning percentage as a college coach is 14th-best in the Power-5 (21st overall), ahead of Rich Rodriguez (63rd with .597) and Kyle Whittingham (37th with .671). Mark Dantonio, 5th in the CBS ranking, has a .680 career winning percentage (33rd overall).
Bret Bielema of Arkansas was ranked 22nd on the CBS poll, but has yet to net more than eight wins at Arkansas. Petrino not only won at Arkansas, he took both Arkansas and Louisville to BCS games. Bielema has five more career losses than Petrino and 14 fewer wins. Bielema's winning percentage after 10 years is .659.
Petrino and TCU coach Gary Patterson had very similar career trajectories prior to Petrino's move to the Falcons years ago. Patterson's .751 winning percentage over 15 seasons is impressive, no doubt. But is there THAT much disparity between Patterson and Petrino that Patterson is No. 3 in CBS' poll and Petrino is 25th?
What do you think? Where would you rank Petrino among the best in the college game?