Ranking College Football Coaches with Most National Championships Ever
Over more than 150 years, the sport of college football has produced its fair share of geniuses, the brilliant strategists who have built or upheld storied traditions and powerhouses of the game.
From the start, a few select individuals have stood out from the crowd. Names like Pop Warner, Knute Rockne, and John Heisman ring out from the distant past.
Bear Bryant and Woody Hayes helped define the sport mid-century, while Dabo Swinney, Kirby Smart, and Nick Saban highlight the modern generation of elite head coaches putting their teams in championship contention.
Here's your look at which coaches have won it all the most up to now.
Ranking college football coaches with most national championships
Coaches with three national titles
USA Today Images
Barry Switzer
School: Oklahoma
Years: 1974, 1975, 1985
Switzer was successful immediately at OU, winning 10 games in his first season and back-to-back national championships in his second and third years. He went 157-29-4 in 16 years and only one of his teams didn't finish in the AP Top 25 college football rankings.
-
Walter Camp
School: Yale
Years: 1888, 1891, 1892
The father of football — his achievements include inventing the line of scrimmage and downs — Camp went 67-2 in five years as Bulldogs coach.
-
Knute Rockne
School: Notre Dame
Years: 1924, 1925, 1930
Rockne remains the winningest coach in college football history in terms of win percentage. A trail-blazer who helped popularize the forward pass, Rockne introduced the idea of throwing to receivers who were already in motion. Universally respected, his death in a 1931 plane crash stunned the nation.
-
Pop Warner
Schools: Pittsburgh, Stanford
Years: 1916, 1918, 1926
You could nitpick and add Warner's 1915 Pitt team in here, but only one major selector included it. The inventor of the single wing — grandfather of the shotgun formation — in addition to the three-point stance, Warner was a member of the first College Football Hall of Fame class in 1951.
-
Tom Osborne
School: Nebraska
Years: 1994, 1995, 1997
Osborne won two titles as the Cornhuskers' offensive coordinator for the great 1970 and '71 teams. But it took him more than 20 years as head coach to produce another dynasty of his own. He could have won two more, if not for heartbreaking losses in two Orange Bowl games, in 1984 and 1994.
-
Darrell Royal
School: Texas
Years: 1963, 1969, 1970
Royal led the Longhorns to two undefeated seasons, including the ferocious '69 team. That group beat Arkansas on the road in one of many "Games of the Century" with President Nixon in attendance. Nixon personally awarded Texas the national championship after the game.
-
Bud Wilkinson
School: Oklahoma
Years: 1950, 1955, 1956
Between 1953 and 1957, Wilkinson's teams won 47 straight games, still the major college football record. He finished over .500 in all but two years — 3-6-1 in 1960 and 5-5 in 1961 — before finishing 16-5 in his final two outings with a pair of Top 10 teams and walking away from the sport.
-
Urban Meyer
Schools: Florida, Ohio State
Years: 2006, 2008, 2014
One of the modern game's most accomplished recruiters, Meyer won two national championships at Florida, kicking off the SEC's iron-clad grip on the sport's greatest prize. After moving back to his home state in Ohio, he led the Buckeyes to the first-ever College Football Playoff title.
-
T-5. Howard Jones
National championships: 4
Schools: Yale, USC
Years: 1909, 1928, 1931, 1932
Need to know: Counting all the different selectors, you could argue Jones actually won six national championships — one at Yale ('09), another at Iowa ('21), and four at USC. But if we're going by the consensus, Jones walks away with four. In 15 seasons, he went 121-36-13 overall, building Southern Cal into a college football power. One of Jones' more famous alumni? Legendary Hollywood actor John Wayne.
T-5. John McKay
USA Today Images
National championships: 4
School: USC
Years: 1962, 1967, 1972, 1974
Need to know: Over a decade and a half, McKay brought the Trojans nine conference titles and played in the Rose Bowl eight times. His 1972 team is regarded as one of the five or so best in college football history, outscoring opponents, 467-134. Keith Jackson called that team the best he ever saw, and he saw some of the best.
T-5. Frank Leahy
National championships: 4
School: Notre Dame
Years: 1943, 1946, 1947, 1949
Need to know: Leahy is still No. 2 in Division I college football history with a .864 winning percentage (behind Knute Rockne, who he played for, winning two titles).
The mind behind Notre Dame's great dynasty of the 1940s, Leahy could have won a fifth national championship if not for a 14-14 tie with Iowa in '53. ND went unbeaten in 39 straight games under Leahy, going 37-0-2 in that time, and he finished 107-13-9 overall.
T-3. Bennie Bierman
Minnesota Football
National championships: 5
School: Minnesota
Years: 1934, 1935, 1936, 1940, 1941
Need to know: The Minnesota native served as Gophers head coach in two stints, from 1932-41 and again from 1945-50. But it was that first stop where he made college football history.
Bierman — who went 95-35-6 at his alma mater — won three straight national championships in the mid 30's and two straight to start the 40's. He led Minnesota to four perfect seasons and seven Big Ten conference titles.
T-3. Woody Hayes
USA Today Images
National championships: 5
School: Ohio State
Years: 1954, 1957, 1961, 1968, 1970
Need to know: The man who remains the face of Ohio State football, leading the Buckeyes from 1951 to 1978 with a passion for the school and the state that remains unrivaled. Hayes went 205-61-10 at OSU, winning 13 Big Ten crowns, including in six of his final seven seasons.
2. Bear Bryant
National championships: 6
School: Alabama
Years: 1961, 1964, 1965, 1973, 1978, 1979
Need to know: Until that Nick Saban came to town, the Bear was the No. 1 man in the sport, par excellence. Now, there are still those who still say he is, even with Saban's accomplishments. But no man better personifies the Crimson Tide heritage and standard for greatness better than Bryant.
1. Nick Saban
USA Today Images
National championships: 7
Schools: LSU, Alabama
Years: 2003, 2009, 2011, 2012, 2015, 2017, 2020
Need to know: The best to ever do it, so far. Saban won his first national championship with LSU during the 2003 NCAA season. But the Tigers split that title with USC, which earned AP honors. Saban has won six more rings with Alabama, further building on what already was arguably the greatest winning legacy in college football history. And that's a lot of history.
More college football from SI: Top 25 Rankings | Schedule | All Teams