The Miami Hurricanes have been lucky to have some great coaches come through the program, but who's the best?
All the coaches on this list won championships except for one, so it was tough to make some decisions, but here we go:
Ranking the top championship coaches in Miami football history
When you think of Miami Hurricanes football, you think of Jimmy Johnson and for good reason. He built the machine and most fans give him credit for the 1989 championship even though he left for the NFL after the 1988 season. Obviously, the 1987 championship team is often considered the greatest of the Miami title teams and maybe the best team of that decade.Â
Despite being born in Texas and spending most of his early coaching career in the Mid-South region, Johnson was Miami to the core. The hair and the attitude was a perfect fit for Miami. He was also the first coach to win a national title and a Super Bowl.Â
READ MORE: Mario Cristobal shares how Miami legend Jimmy Johnson helped change his life
Johnson may have perfected Miami football, but it was Schellenberger who built it. He recognized the talent base he had down in south Florida and worked hard to keep the best guys home. The 1984 Orange Bowl win over Nebraska is one of the greatest college football games.Â
Schellenberger left after the championship season for the promise of a USFL team in Miami that never came to fruition. He always said he should've stayed in Miami, but Schellenberger was a bit of a vagabond, so likely he would've left sooner rather than later.
For as much work as Davis had to do with the sanctions, reduced scholarships and the negative perception surrounding the program after the Dennis Erickson years, he only had one real bad season. Davis won 8 or more games in the other four years and kept the Hurricanes ranked in the top 25.
He is the only coach on this list that didn't win a championship, although most will give him credit for the 2001 team because he recruited nearly all the players. If Davis doesn't go to the NFL immediately, do the Hurricanes win in 2002? 2003? There could have been a second dynasty.
How does Erickson finish fourth on this list? The man went 63-9! Yes, he did. He also won two championships and doesn't get the credit he deserves for being a visionary on offense. Changing the Miami offense to an 11 personnel formation made the Hurricanes one of the toughest teams to defend in the country.Â
But he stopped recruiting around 1992, and he ran away when the NCAA started snooping around the program. And there are some embarrassing losses, like the 4-13 drubbing to Alabama in the 1993 Sugar Bowl and the 29-0 loss to Arizona in the 1994 Fiesta Bowl.Â
Erickson might be the best coach on this list in terms of Xs and Os, but unlike the first three, he didn't leave the program better than he found it
Coker is the only coach on this list that was actually fired. He was a nice guy who was handed a Ferrari by Davis and told not to crash it. He didn't crash it because the Hurricanes won a national title in 2001. But he also didn't get the most out of the talented group of players.Â
Coker lost 12 games in his final three seasons at Miami and by the time the 2006 season rolled around, the Hurricanes were a shell of themselves.Â
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