Auburn coach Gus Malzahn said last week that his defensive coordinator — Will Muschamp — is the best defensive mind in football. Not just college football, mind you. Overall football.
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ESPN's Chris Low took umbrage with that and he concocted his own list of the best defensive minds in college football. He had 20 coaches total, ten head coaches and ten coordinators. Shockingly, none of them were the former Gators head coach. Here's what Low had:
Top five head coaches: Mark Dantonio (Michigan State), Gary Patterson (TCU), Nick Saban (Alabama), Bob Stoops (Oklahoma), and Charlie Strong (Texas)
"Next five" head coaches: Gary Anderson (Oregon State), Jim Mora (UCLA), Pat Narduzzi (Pittsburgh), Dave Steckel (Missouri State), and Kyle Whittingham (Utah)
Top five coordinators: Tom Bradley (UCLA), John Chavis (Texas A&M), Bud Foster (Virginia Tech), Bob Shoop (Penn State), and Kirby Smart (Alabama)
"Next five" coordinators: Dave Aranda (Wisconsin), D.J. Durkin (Michigan), Robb Smith (Arkansas), Kevin Steele (LSU), and Brent Venables (Clemson)
Low puts out a good list of coaches; most of the teams these players coached finished in the top 20 in total defense last season. But Low did make a possible error by excluding Muschamp from this list. As bad as Florida was last season, the Gators still ranked in the top ten in total defense. If Muschamp had to take someone's spot, it probably should be Durkin's, who was actually under Muschamp at Florida.
One of the more perplexing names on this list is Jim Mora and his UCLA squad, who has not finished in the top 50 of total defense in any of the three seasons that he has been in Los Angeles. Part of that is attributable to his team's style and competition in the Pac-12, but Mora's defenses have been mediocre even by Pac-12 standards in his tenure.
Granted, Mora has been around a long time and he has had some success in the pros. Plus, something like "best defensive mind" is something that is difficult to define and can be completely subjective. That said, at some point Mora has to prove his defensive prowess at the college level. While the way Low's list is devised means that Muschamp cannot replace Mora, it is definitely odd to see Mora on here over Muschamp when the latter has had more success at the collegiate level with coaching defenses.
