Cal Football: Justin Wilcox Rated Pac-12's Sixth-Best Coach by The Sporting News

Oregon's Mario Cristobal is league's first national entry, checking in at No. 15

The Sporting News is the latest publication to downgrade football coaching in the Pac-12 Conference.

After CBS Sports recently included no Pac-12 coach among is list of the nation’s 10 best, The Sporting News waited until No. 15 before making Oregon’s Mario Cristobal the conference’s highest-ranked coach.

Cal’s Justin Wilcox is the No. 6 Pac-12 coach and is No. 48 overall — 16 spots higher than he was a year when TSN positioned him at No. 64. Wilcox was rated fifth among Pac-12 coaches by CBS Sports.

Wilcox has led the Bears to back-to-back winning seasons, including an 8-5 record and a win over Illinois in the Redbox Bowl last year.

Cal is projected to battle Washington for second place in the Pac-12 North, where Oregon is generally regarded as the favorite.

The Southeastern Conference dominates TSN’s list, topped by Alabama coach Nick Saban at No. 1. Four other SEC coaches are included in the top 10: LSU’s Ed Orgeron at No. 3, Georgia’s Kirby Smart at No. 5, Florida’s Dan Mullen at No. 8, and Texas A&M’s Jimbo Fisher at No. 10.

The biggest difference between two sets of rankings, as it pertains to Cal, is that CBS Sports rated USC’s Clay Helton seventh in the Pac-12 (two spots behind Wilcox) and TSN placed him fourth (two rungs above Wilcox)..

The conference will feature three new coaches this season — Washington’s Jimmy Lake, Washington State’s Nick Rolovich and Colorado’s Karl Dorrell.

Here is the complete list of The Sporting News’ Pac-12 coaching ranks, with their ratings among the nation's 130 FBS coaches in parenthesis:

1. Mario Cristobal, Oregon (15)

2. Kyle Whittingham, Utah (18)

3. David Shaw, Stanford (21)

4. Clay Helton, USC (26)

5. Herman Edwards, Arizona State (30)

6. Justin Wilcox, Cal (48)

7. Chip Kelly, UCLA (53)

8. Jimmy Lake, Washington (64)

9. Nick Rolovich, Washington State (65)

10. Kevin Sumlin, Arizona (77)

11. Jonathan Smith, Oregon State (78)

12. Karl Dorrell, Colorado (96)

The CBS Sports rankings were somewhat different because they included only the 65 coaches from Power 5 conferences.

Here they are:

1. Kyle Whittingham, Utah (11)

2. David Shaw, Stanford (19)

3. Mario Cristobal, Oregon (24)

4. Herman Edwards, Arizona State (30)

5. Justin Wilcox, Cal (33)

6. Chip Kelly, UCLA (36)

7. Clay Helton, USC (41)

8. Nick Rolovich, Washington State (50)

9. Jonathan Smith, Oregon State (52)

10. Kevin Sumlin, Arizona (53)

11. Jimmy Lake, Washington (56)

12. Karl Dorrell, Colorado (64)

Follow Jeff Faraudo of Cal Sports Report on Twitter: @jefffaraudo

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