Little becomes big over time. Boring usually wins. Not to say that Kirby Smart is boring by any stretch of the imagination, but his alma mater is as steady as she goes. The Georgia Bulldogs are among the best teams in college football annually for many number of regions. Tradition, recruitment, regional advantages, etc. But chief among them is how committed the athletic department is to being great.
Georgia has other strong sports programs, but we all know that football drives the bus in The Classic City. This traditional power has won its third and fourth national championships under current head coach Kirby Smart, who replaced Mark Richt in 2016, who replaced Jim Donnan in 2001... The only coach between Donnan and Vince Dooley who retired in 1987 would be former quarterback Ray Goff.
Now look at how many head-coaching changes every team in the SEC has made in the last 20 years...
- Arkansas Razorbacks: 6
- Florida Gators: 5
- Mississippi State Bulldogs: 5
- Tennessee Volunteers: 5
- Auburn Tigers: 4
- Ole Miss Rebels: 4
- Texas A&M Aggies 4:
- Vanderbilt Commodores: 4
- LSU Tigers: 3
- Texas Longhorns: 3
- Alabama Crimson Tide: 2
- Kentucky Wildcats: 2
- Missouri Tigers: 2
- Oklahoma Sooners: 2
- South Carolina Gamecocks: 2
- Georgia Bulldogs: 1
The Next Round put forth this sweet graphic over on X to further prove how great Georgia really is.
Arkansas leads the SEC with the most head coaching changes (6) in the last 20 years, while Georgia has the fewest (1) pic.twitter.com/s0higMItio
— The Next Round (@NextRoundLive) October 30, 2025
The only coaching change Georgia has made since 2005 was Smart taking over for Richt in 2016.
Georgia has proven to be a bastion of stability in the head-coaching ranks
Looking at the rest of the SEC, the line of demarcation seems to between three and four head-coaching changes in a 20-year span. For the teams that have made twice as many coaching changes as Georgia has since 2005, it does not take much effort to remember who the men were leading these respective programs. Having two changes in that span means one of the hires did not work out.
At Alabama, you have Kalen DeBoer in his second year at Tuscaloosa, preceeded by Nick Saban's dynastic run from 2007 to 2023. The coach who did not work out was Saban's predecessor Mike Shula. Kentucky may be seeing the end of the Mark Stoops era right now, but he is the longest tenured head coach in the SEC since 2013. Rich Brooks was a hit for them. Joker Phillips was not...
Missouri saw its hall-of-fame head coach Gary Pinkel retire about a decade ago. Barry Odom is a good coach now, but it did not work out for him leading his alma mater. Eliah Drinkwitz has that thing humming. Oklahoma saw Bob Stoops' amazing tenure end about a decade ago. It got five great years out of Lincoln Riley before he bailed. It remains to be seen if Brent Venables will have staying power...
And for the last program with two head-coaching changes since 2005, South Carolina got a fantastic decade out of Steve Spurrier before Will Muschamp largely road the struggle bus. Shane Beamer has returned South Carolina on occasion to near-Spurrier highs, but there is and only will be one Head Ball Coach. Once you get past two head-coaching changes, that is where the chaos really takes over.
Since Nick Saban left for the NFL, LSU has had Les Miles, Ed Orgeron and Brian Kelly serve as their head coach. None are as beloved as Saban, but Miles and Orgeron won national titles. Kelly was a bad fit from the start. It is a bit of a mixed at LSU. For Texas, the Mack Brown era went south in the mid-2010s. Charlie Strong was a disaster. Tom Herman was not much better. Steve Sarkisian is excellent.
As for the other eight SEC teams who have made four or more head-coaching changes since 2005, turmoil is just part of the problem. Yes, Florida has won two national titles since 2005, but has yet to make the playoff. Auburn has won one national title and played for another, but it has not sniffed the playoff. Only Tennessee has made the playoff of the teams on the right-handed side of the graphic.
In the end, running through head coaches is only going to do irreparable damage to a college football program's cachet. Yes, Mississippi State and Vanderbilt are historic bottom-feeders, but both have had their moments. It is not Mississippi State's fault that Dan Mullen left for Florida and failed, as well as his replacement in Mike Leach passing away unexpected at the end of the 2022 college season...
As for Arkansas, Florida, Tennessee and Auburn, these traditional powers have done it to themselves.