BetOnline Asks Who is the Best College Coach

This recent BetOnline Twitter study was created in a search for who would replace Nick Saban, Jim Harbaugh, and (to a lesser extent) Urban Meyer as the best college football coach in the country.

The graphic below is based on X data in the last month (30 days) tracking positive sentiment tweets to find out who college football fans think is the best coach in the game right now. For example, tracking tweets, hashtags, and phrases like "Kirby Smart is the best coach in college football," "Kirby Smart is the GOAT," "Kirby Smart is a great coach," "Kirby Smart is a genius," "Kirby Smart is a winner," etc. Over 80,000 tweets were tracked.

As you can see from the graphic, college football fans are indeed going with the head coach of the Georgia Bulldogs, followed by the man to replace Nick Saban, Kalen DeBoer. They are followed by Dabo Swinney.

Interestingly, only 3 active head coaches have won a national championship - Kirby Smart, Dabo Swinney, and Mack Brown.

Here's the breakdown (based on positive sentiment tweets):

Kirby Smart, Georgia:

8476

Kalen DeBoer, Alabama: 

6205

Dabo Swinney, Clemson: 

5376

Lane Kiffin, Ole Miss:

4460

Lincoln Riley, USC:  

4603

Dan Lanning, Oregon:

4196

Steve Sarkisian, Texas: 

3776

Mike Gundy, Oklahoma State: 

3590

Josh Heupel, Tennessee: 

2927

Brian Kelly, LSU: 

2879

Luke Fickell, Wisconsin:

2802

Mark Stoops, Kentucky:

2718

Brent Venables, Oklahoma:

2409

Ryan Day, Ohio State:

2131

Mike Norvell, Florida State:

2055

Eli Drinkwitz, Missouri:

1938

Sonny Dykes, TCU:  

1557

P.J. Fleck, Minnesota:

1554

Kyle Whittingham, Utah:

1297

Jeff Brohm, Louisville:

1227

Pat Narduzzi, Pitt:

1211

Mike Locksley, Maryland:

1147

Mack Brown, North Carolina:

1128

Marcus Freeman, Notre Dame: 

1026

Kirk Ferentz, Iowa:

966

Dave Doeren, NC State:

961

James Franklin, Penn State:

824

Jonathan Smith, Michigan State:

805

Hugh Freeze, Auburn:

781

Chris Klieman, Kansas State:

635