Rivals.com National Recruiting Director Mike Farrell and National Recruiting Analyst Adam Gorney don’t always see eye to eye. In this edition of Rival Views, the two debate the five best head coaches on the recruiting trail..
MORE RIVAL VIEWS: Which prospect should be in five-star discussion?
FARRELL'S VIEW
1. Nick Saban — is there any doubt? With Urban Meyer gone this is a no-brainer, and even with Meyer it was a debate. Alabama is always in the mix for the top recruiting class in the country and he led LSU to the No 1 class as well. No one can compete with that.
2. Dabo Swinney — The job Swinney does is amazing because he still doesn’t allow commits to take visits and he never loses kids to decommitments. If the Tigers were able to take bigger classes he’d have a No. 1 class by now and 2020 should be his first.
3. Kirby Smart — Back-to-back No 1 classes is no joke and Smart has taken Georgia recruiting to the next level with national pull. It’s a toss-up between Swinney and Smart for me.
4. Tom Herman — Herman may be an odd choice since he’s only been at Texas for a couple of years, but the job he did at Houston was exceptional and now he’s dominating the state at Texas. And he’s just getting started.
5. Jimbo Fisher — Over Lincoln Riley and others? Yes, because you have to include the Florida State years as well and he did an amazing job there. Now Texas A&M is a recruiting power in one of the most competitive regions in the country.
GORNEY'S VIEW
1. Nick Saban - Alabama had an incredible run of team recruiting titles over the past decade and the Crimson Tide can basically pick and choose five-stars and highly-rated four-stars to put in their class. Saban is a great closer, his staff targets and aggressively goes after big-time winners, and every recruiting class is loaded. He and offensive coordinator Steve Sarkisian were responsible for getting four-star QB Bryce Young to flip over the weekend from USC and that’s just another big recruiting win for Saban.
2. Kirby Smart - Smart is right there, though. Maybe the best head coach recruiter in the last two cycles, Smart is putting together a team to not only compete for SEC titles but to win national championships. The 2018 class was arguably one of the best ever in the history of Rivals with eight five-stars and then three other players who were on the cusp of that ranking. Georgia has won back-to-back recruiting titles and the Bulldogs’ quarterback recruiting is so good that they lost two five-stars in Jacob Eason and Justin Fields to transfer and still have a potential first-rounder in Jake Fromm starting.
3. Dabo Swinney - He gets players to campus early, gets them to fall in love with the place for reasons on and off the field, gets their commitments and then there is very little drama with those prospects for the remainder of the recruiting cycle. There is a lot to love about Clemson but a lot of elite athletes are picking the Tigers over Georgia, Alabama, the Florida schools and other places. This recruiting class could be epic as well as there is a very real possibility Clemson could land the top four prospects in 2020.
4. Jimbo Fisher - The job Fisher did with the 2019 class of in-state prospects was incredibly impressive as he landed five-star defensive end DeMarvin Leal, who could be a future star, along with fellow five-stars Kenyon Green and Erick Young. Others had longer relationships with those players but it didn’t matter because Fisher is a terrific recruiter and people want to play for him. There is always talk that A&M is the sleeping giant nationally and despite the outcome of the game this past weekend by losing to Auburn, I believe it. If Fisher keeps recruiting so well, watch out in the coming years.
5. Lincoln Riley - I thought about putting LSU coach Ed Orgeron in the fifth spot but I decided to go with Riley because he’s not only a genius offensive mind but he’s in a tough place geographically to recruit and he still does an extraordinary job. Recently, Riley has done the best job in the transfer portal - which is a vital place to own recruiting now - by getting former Alabama quarterback Jalen Hurts to Norman among others. Players see huge results on the field so recruiting sometimes takes care of itself in many ways with Riley but he’s still excellent at what he does.
