From Nick Saban vs. Jimbo Fisher to Jim Harbaugh vs. Ryan Day: The best coach rivalries of the last 25 years
It is often said that rivalries are the lifeblood of college football. Few victories are more cherished by fans than those against a school's mortal enemy.
Though conference realignment and schedule complications compounded by an expanded College Football Playoff have brought some of the sport's most storied feuds to an end -- or, at the very least, put their futures in question -- there are plenty of historic grudges that grind on in the modern era. But rivalries sometimes transcend the football field.
Coaches can often harbor their own personal grievances with one another. Sometimes, those rivalries between schools inform how opposing coaches interact.
There's also added pressure among college football's leaders competing at the top of the sport. Whatever the case may be, there have been plenty of coaching feuds throughout history.
Here's a look at some of the top coaching rivalries of the 21st century.
Bob Stoops (Oklahoma) vs. Mack Brown (Texas)Time period: 1999-2013
Stoops and Brown always treated each other cordially off the field, but when Red River rolled around, all bets were off. Stoops held a 9-6 record against Brown. Four of those victories were blowouts, with an average scoring margin of 45.3 points.
Both teams were ranked in 12 of the 15 games shared between Brown and Stoops. That includes four top-five matchups. Stoops won a national title in 2000 after trouncing Texas 63-14 in the regular season, and Brown followed that up in 2005 with a 45-12 win against Oklahoma on the march to a Longhorns national championship.
Between 1999-2013, Texas and Oklahoma combined to win 10 Big 12 titles. So there were always major stakes when Brown and Stoops stood opposite one another on the sideline.
Bronco Mendenhall (BYU) vs. Kyle Whittingham (Utah)Time period: 2005-15
A graduate of BYU, Whittingham nearly filled the Cougars' coaching vacancy in 2005 before opting to remain at Utah -- where he had been an assistant since 1994 -- to replace a departing Urban Meyer as head coach. So BYU promoted Mendenhall from defensive coordinator to fill its own vacancy.
Whittingham's ties to his now in-state rival fanned the flames of an already intense feud. So did the fact that both coaches enjoyed sustained success in the Beehive State. Mendenhall led the Cougars to four straight 10-win seasons from 2006-09, including three victories against the Utes.
Whittingham, meanwhile, started his tenure with seven straight winning seasons and owned a 7-3 record against Mendenhall by the time he left for Virginia ahead of the 2016 season. Whittingham and Mendenhall last faced off in the 2015 Las Vegas Bowl, which resulted in a fifth consecutive victory for Whittingham and his Utes.
Jim Harbaugh (Stanford) vs. Pete Carroll (USC)Time period: 2007-09
This beef dates all the way back to the NFL in the 1990s, when Harbaugh was a starting quarterback and Carroll was a rising star assistant coach. The two often crossed paths on the field in entirely different roles, with Carroll's teams getting the better of Harbaugh-led offenses in three out of four contests.
Maybe that undercurrent was still there in 2007 when Harbaugh became Stanford's coach. He joined a Pac-10 already occupied, and dominated, by Carroll's USC Trojans. USC won five straight conference titles from 2002-06 and back-to-back national championships in 2003-04.
So it likely burned Carroll in 2007 when Harbaugh's upstart 1-3 Stanford squad beat No. 2 USC with a late touchdown in what was then the biggest upset in college football history by point spread. Carroll got back at Harbaugh in 2008 with a 45-23 win, which set the stage for their now infamous 2009 tilt.
Stanford took a 48-21 lead with less than seven minutes to play. Rather than kick the extra point, Harbaugh attempted an (unsuccessful) 2-point conversion. The Cardinal still broke the 50-point mark a few minutes later in the eventual 55-21 victory.
Postgame broadcast cameras caught Carroll confronting Harbaugh as the two approached midfield for a handshake.
"What's your deal?" Carroll asks.
To which Harbaugh quips back, "What's your deal?"
Carroll left for the Seattle Seahawks in 2010. The story doesn't end there.
One year later, the San Francisco 49ers, Seattle's NFC West divisional rival, hired Harbaugh. One reason Harbaugh gave for choosing the 49ers over interest from other NFL teams was that he wanted to beat Carroll again, according to Tim Kawakami.
Now Harbaugh (after a successful stint at Michigan) and Carroll (who remained with the Seahawks through 2024) share the same division against with the Los Angeles Chargers and the Las Vegas Raiders, respectively.
Time period: 2009
Though Kiffin is still renowned for his social media presence, he has certainly mellowed out with age. A younger Kiffin didn't make many coaching friends. It certainly didn't take him very long -- less than four months into his first tenure as a college football head coach, in fact -- to fire a broadside at Meyer, who was fresh off of his second national championship with the Gators.
In 2009, Kiffin won a significant off-field battle when wide receiver Nu'keese Richardson flipped his commitment from Florida to Tennessee and signed with the Vols. One day after national signing day, Kiffin accused Meyer of calling Richardson while he was on an official visit to Tennessee.
"Just so you know, when a recruit's on another campus, you can't call a recruit on another campus," Kiffin said. "I love the fact that Urban had to cheat and still didn't get him."
Both the NCAA and the SEC were quick to clarify that it was not against the rules to contact a recruit while they were on an official visit to another school. Kiffin later apologized, and Meyer, besides emphasizing his respect for Lane's father, Monte, didn't have much to say about the incident.
Florida beat Tennessee 23-13 in 2009, Kiffin left the Vols after one season and Meyer eventually went to Ohio State in 2012. Though the two didn't share the field much, fans of both teams remember Kiffin's outburst well.
Dan Mullen (Mississippi State) vs. Hugh Freeze (Ole Miss)Time period: 2012-16
The Egg Bowl has its own special aura -- the kind that makes players mimic a urinating dog while celebrating a touchdown. Mix that with two of the most successful coaches in recent history at their respective institutions and you've got the recipe for fireworks.
The 2014 rendition of the Egg Bowl featured No. 4 Mississippi State -- angling for a spot in the SEC Championship Game -- against No. 19 Ole Miss. It was the first ranked matchup between the two teams since 1999. Airing on CBS, it marked the first Egg Bowl televised by a national broadcast network since 1964.
Both teams were in the top 25 in 2015, as well, making the first consecutive ranked showdowns in series history. The five Egg Bowls played between Mullen and Freeze were noted for their intensity, often beyond the whistle.
Freeze and Mullen have since admitted that they likely let things go too far.
"Unfortunately it became like an out of control blaze," Mullen said on The Matt Barrie Show in 2023. "And I think you've seen it over the last couple years. And hopefully it gets toned down... We use this to build the programs to this level. I think unfortunately, the fire was a little out of control at that point. So we couldn't control it."
Time period: 2016-23
Not all rivalries are based on disdain, and Saban certainly doesn't trade barbs with most of his former assistants. In fact, Saban and Smart were close friends while coaching against one another and maintain that relationship today in the wake of Saban's retirement. So call this a friendly feud between two of the sport's top coaches who often did battle near the college football mountaintop.
Smart was a an associate head coach on Saban's inaugural staff at Alabama and spent eight seasons as the Crimson Tide's defensive coordinator before he was hired at Georgia in 2016. Between 2016-23, Georgia and Alabama played just six times. Three of those were with the SEC Championship on the line, and two were in the College Football Playoff National Championship.
Saban left Tuscaloosa with a 5-1 record against his former DC, but Georgia's lone win gave the Bulldogs their second consecutive national title under Smart in 2022.
Nick Saban (Alabama) vs. Jimbo Fisher (Texas A&M)Time period: 2018-23
Fisher coached under Saban at LSU from 2000-04, and when he was hired to coach Texas A&M in 2018 he became a regular opponent on Alabama's schedule. The first few years of Fisher's tenure with the Aggies went about how one would expect when throwing down against the Crimson Tide but, in 2021, Fisher became the first Saban protégé to ever beat his former boss. That, in and of itself, was enough to heat a stagnant rivalry up.
Then Saban took it off the field. Saban accused Texas A&M of having "bought every player on their team" after the Aggies landed the nation's No. 1 recruiting class in the 2022 cycle.
Fisher took exception to that. In an epic minute-long rant at a press conference in May 2022, Fisher sarcastically equated Saban to God, called him a narcissist and said it was "despicable that a reputable head coach can come out and say this when he doesn't get his way or things don't go his way."
"We build him up to be the czar of football," Fisher said. "Go dig into his past, or anybody's that's ever coached with him. You can find out anything you want to find out, what he does and how he does it. It's despicable."
Fisher also insinuated that Saban should have been slapped more as a child.
Saban was quick to apologize and at 2022 SEC Media Days, both coaches noted that they had moved past it. Alabama beat Texas A&M in 2022 and 2023 and, following the 2023 season, Fisher was fired and Saban retired after a storied coaching career.
Jim Harbaugh (Michigan) vs. Ryan Day (Ohio State)Time period: 2019-23
Michigan and Ohio State face off annually in one of the most storied rivalries in all of sports. Plenty of legendary head coaches have graced the sidelines in "The Game," which has never lacked for dramatic flair. But none of those coaches have ever (apparently) disliked each other more than Harbaugh and Day.
After his four years in the NFL with the 49ers, Harbaugh returned to the college game in 2015 to coach Michigan, his alma mater. Day was introduced to the equation in 2017 when he was hired as Ohio State's co-offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach. Then, in 2019, he was hand-picked as Urban Meyer's successor.
Ohio State beat Michigan 56-27 in Day's first year as coach, which propelled it to a Big Ten title and an appearance in the College Football Playoff. In Aug. 2020, during a private Big Ten coaches teleconference, Harbaugh reportedly interrupted Day while he was speaking to accuse Day of violating NCAA rules against early on-field instruction and drills during the COVID-19 pandemic.
During a team meeting later that day, Day told Ohio State's players and coaches that the Big Ten better have a mercy rule because the Buckeyes were going to "hang 100" on Michigan in their next game. Ohio State and Michigan did not meet in 2020 due to COVID-19 complications, and in 2021 Michigan cruised to a 42-27 victory, its first win in the series since 2011.
After the game, Harbaugh was asked about Ohio State throwing shots at Michigan during its winning streak.
"Let's move on with humble hearts. Take the high road," Harbaugh said. "But there's definitely stuff that people said that spurred us on even more. Sometimes people that are standing on third base think they hit a triple, but they didn't."
Ahead of 2022's installment of "The Game," Harbaugh told the Stoney & Jansen with Heather Show that his "third base" comment was in response to Day saying Ohio State was going to "hang 100" on Michigan. The Wolverines won in 2022, and again in 2023, before capping that 2023 season with their first national championship since the BCS era began.
Those wins weren't without controversy, though. News broke in Oct. 2023 that the Big Ten was investigating Michigan for an alleged impermissible sign-stealing operation constructed by former staffer Connor Stalions. Initial rumors swirled that Ohio State tipped the NCAA off, and Day had private investigators looking into the issue.
Day refuted his involvement. The NCAA later confirmed that neither Ohio State nor anyone associated with the Buckeyes are involved in its investigation.
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