PFF Names the Top Ten Coaches in College Football: Dan Lanning Climbs to #3

College Football analysts and podcast hosts Max Chadwick and Dalton Wasserman of Pro Football Focus released their list of the top ten coaches in college football, and third-year head coach Dan Lanning of the Oregon Ducks has already climbed to number three.

Lanning is 22-5 over two seasons, Already he's tenth on the Oregon career list in wins. His .815 winning percentage is 5th among active FBS coaches, second on the all-time Oregon list to Chip Kelly, who compiled a 46-7 record from 2009-2012.

PFF ranks Lanning third behind Georgia's Kirby Smart and new Alabama coach Kalen DeBoer, just ahead of Clemson's Dabo Swinney and Kyle Whittingham, the longtime mentor of the Utah Utes.

Lanning is 2-0 head-to-head against Whittingham, a nagging 0-3 against DeBoer.

A new Big Ten rival, Ryan Day of Ohio State, rounds out the list at number 10.

One of those coaches may endure a serious reevaluation after October 12.

It brings to mind a story ESPN's Reece Davis told a group of media members on the eve of Oregon's game with the Utes last October. Game Day was in town, and the media asked him about Lanning and his loss to Washington two weeks before. Davis said something like, "It's like Bill Raftery used to tell me when we're doing a college basketball game together. The three pointer is on its way to the basket and as the ball is rotating in slow motion toward the net the fates are saying 'good coach, bad coach, good coach, bad coach.' The ball bounces off the rim and the crowd concludes, bad coach."

It's a cruel profession in a way. Reputations are won in a season and lost with a field goal wide right. But that's why they get paid all that money, for their ability to bend fate and the relentless pursuit of even the smallest edge.