Kirby Smart Is No Longer College Football's No. 1 Head Coach
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Who's the No. 1 head coach in college football in 2026?
For the past several years, it's been Kirby Smart. The Georgia Bulldogs head coach has led his program to multiple national championships while bringing in elite recruiting class after elite recruiting class. It's been Smart and Ohio State coach Ryan Day ranked atop the head coaching lists since Nick Saban's retirement.
But there's now a new name at No. 1.
The Athletic has ranked Indiana head coach Curt Cignetti as the top coach in the sport, following his first two seasons with the Hoosiers. Cignetti is fresh off a national championship season in Bloomington.
The Athletic's Bruce Feldman feels comfortable ranking Cignetti in the No. 1 spot for the 2026 season.
Cignetti was ranked No. 19 in 2025.
"What he’s done in two years in Bloomington is, simply put, the most remarkable turnaround in the sport’s history. He transformed the losingest program in college football history into an 11-2 Playoff team in Year 1 and a 16-0 national champion in Year 2 — and his team beat a bunch of blue bloods along the way. It’s a stretch to think any other coach could’ve done what the 64-year-old Cignetti has done. Indiana won a total of three Big Ten games in the three years before Cignetti was hired. Before arriving in Bloomington, he was 52-9 at James Madison and did a terrific job at both Elon and Indiana University of Pennsylvania," Feldman wrote.
Kirby Smart drops to No. 2 in the rankings
Smart, No. 1 in 2025, falls to No. 2 for 2026.
"Smart has been remarkably consistent. After his 8-5 debut in 2016, he has not finished lower than No. 7 in the AP poll in the past nine years. Smart has won two national titles and is 37-3 in SEC play during the past five seasons. Smart won his second of back-to-back national titles in 2022, but that was in the “old” era of college football. Since then, his teams are an impressive 36-6, but they haven’t finished inside the top five the past two seasons. That’s relevant to Cignetti leapfrogging him," Feldman wrote.
You can view the full rankings here.
This story was originally published by The Spun on Mar 12, 2026, where it first appeared in the College Football section. Add The Spun as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
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