The 16 College Football Coaches With The Best Winning Percentage Of All Time

Coaches need to have posted a .595 winning percentage over the course of their career to be eligible for the College Football Hall of Fame. That number was reduced from .600 to ensure Mike Leach gets the recognition he deserves, but there are plenty of other legendary figures who didn’t have to sweat thanks to their ability to blow that number out of the water.

These are the college football coaches responsible for the best winning percentage in the history of the sport

As things currently stand, fewer than 20 college football coaches have managed to post a winning percentage north of .800 during their time at that level. One of them has the chance to move up or down that list thanks to their active status, but here’s a look at how they all stand prior to the start of the 2025 season.

Before we dive in, I should note this list only includes coaches with at least 100 games under their belt and only considers the wins, losses, and ties that are recognized by the NCAA.

16. Nick Saban: .806

Overall Record: 297-71-1*

Nick Saban spent a single year as the head coach at Toledo to kick off a career that brought him to Michigan State and LSU before he ended up at Alabama in 2007. As you can probably guess, he posted the best record during his time with the Crimson Tide while going 201-29 (.874).

Saban is technically sitting at .803 in the NCAA record books due to the five vacated victories Alabama was docked in the wake of an investigation concerning players who “improperly” received textbooks from other students without paying for them. However, I’ll let you decide which number you want to accept.

15. Bob Devaney: .806

Overall Record: 136-30-7

Bob Devaney got his start at Wyoming but is best known for what he achieved after heading to Nebraska in 1962. He spent 11 seasons in Lincoln while leading the Cornhuskers to a 101-20-2 record (.892) and back-to-back national championships in 1970 and 1971.

14. Frank Thomas: .812

Overall Record: 115-24-7

I’m mostly only taking wins and losses (and ties) recorded with teams that are currently at the FBS level into consideration, but it’s worth noting Frank Thomas began his coaching career at Chattanooga and went 26-9-2 over the course of four seasons.

He took over at Alabama in 1933 and led the Crimson Tide to two national championships in 13 seasons.

13. Jock Sutherland: .812

Overall Record: 144-28-14

Jock Sutherland is a throwback to the point where I couldn’t find a picture I could include, as he began his coaching career at Lafayette in 1919. He headed to the University of Pittsburgh in 1924 and spent 15 years at the helm of the Panthers while racking up five titles.

12. Percy Haughton: .817

Overall Record: 97-19-7

Percy Haughton is also a throwback to the point where every single picture that was taken during his lifetime is in the public domain. His coaching career involved time with three different Ivy League teams, and his two-year runs with Cornell and Columbia sandwich a nine-season stint with Harvard where the Crimson won four national championships between 1908 and 1913.

11. Bud Wilkinson: .826

Overall Record: 145-29-4

Bud Wilkinson spent the entirety of his 17-year career as a college football coach at Oklahoma. He was at the helm when the Sooners set an NCAA record by winning 47 games in a row between 1953 and 1957, and two of the three national championships he won during his tenure came during that span.

10. Jim Tressel: .828

Overall Record: 106-22*

There wasn’t anyone capable of striking fear into the heart of an opponent while rocking a sweatervest quite like Jim Tressel, who appears on this list thanks to what he achieved at Ohio State (he did go 135-57-2 in 15 seasons at Youngstown State during his FCS Era).

As was the case with Saban, Tressel had to vacate some wins (12, to be exact ) over a scandal involving improper benefits (primarily the tattoos some Buckeyes players got for free), and he’d end up behind Wilkinson at .821 if you took that into consideration.

9. Robert Neyland: .829

Overall Record: 173-31-12

There’s a reason Tennessee named its stadium after Bob Neyland, as the man who only coached for the Volunteers during a 21-year career as a skipper at the college level was a force to be reckoned with and won four titles.

8. Fielding Yost: .833

Overall Record: 165-29-10*

We’ve got another example of fairly ancient history courtesy of Fielding Yost, who kicked off his tenure at Michigan in 1901 by winning four titles in a row and ended up with six of them during the 25 seasons he spent with the Wolverines.

I’m flipping the script a bit with the asterisk here, as the NCAA doesn’t officially recognize his time with Kansas, Nebraska, and what is now San Jose State. However, he’d have a record of 191-34-11 and, interestingly enough, the same winning percentage if you took those into account.

7. Tom Osborne: .836

Overall Record: 255-49-3

We’ve got another entry that comes courtesy of Nebraska, which is the program where Tom Osborne coached for 25 seasons starting in 1973 before capping off his legendary career by winning three titles in the span of four years starting in 1994.

6. Barry Switzer: .837

Overall Record: 157-29-4

Bud Wilkinson wasn’t the only head coach who had an impressive run at Oklahoma, as Barry Switzer was able to match the three titles he won while outdoing him on the winning percentage front during his 16 seasons with the Sooners.

5. George Washington Woodruff: .846

Overall Record: 142-25-2

We’ve got one final blast from the past in the form of George Washington Woodruff. Most college football fans probably aren’t familiar with him, but he and his glorious mustache led Penn to three national championships during a decade-long tenure that began in 1891 before one-and-done stints with Illinois and Carlisle

4. Kirby Smart:

Overall Record: 105-19

As I mentioned at the start, there’s only one active coach who’s earned a spot on this list: Kirby Smart, who’s done pretty well for himself since taking over at Georgia in 2016 while bringing a couple of titles back to Athens.

3. Urban Meyer: .854

Overall Record: 187-32

There’s always a chance this number ends up changing, as it doesn’t seem that far-fetched to suggest Urban Meyer could end up reviving his career as a coach at the college level after he flamed out with the Jaguars in spectacular fashion.

His record speaks for itself, and it’s easy to understand why plenty of programs would be interested in the man who had two-year stints at Bowling Green and Utah before cementing himself as one of the best coaches to ever do it while winning three titles between Florida and Ohio State.

2. Frank Leahy: .864

Overall Record: 107-13-9

Notre Dame is responsible for the top two names on this list, as Frank Leahy (who started his coaching career at Boston College) had an 87-11-9 record with the Fighting Irish and won four titles during the 11 seasons he was at the helm in South Bend.

1. Knute Rockne: .881

Overall Record: 105-12-5

Knute Rockne played football at Notre Dame before taking over as the team’s head coach in 1913. The Fighting Irish won three national titles when he was overseeing the program before his life was cut tragically short after he died in a plane crash at the age of 43 ahead of what would have been his 14th season in charge.