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The original was posted on /r/cfb by /u/alchemy_process on 2025-09-30 00:57:09+00:00.
I went down a rabbit hole trying to figure out how long it took some of the major college coaches to achieve 3 Top Ten wins as the head coach of their current (or most recent) school. Results:
Ryan Day (tOSU)- 16
Mike Elko (TAMU) - 16
Kirby Smart (Georgia) - 27
Nick Saban (Bama) - 28
Brian Kelly (LSU) - 33
Steve Sarkisian (Texas) - 40
Lane Kiffin (Ole Miss) - 49
Dabo Swinney (Clemson) - 54
James Franklin (Penn State) - 114
Because I’m a sicko:
Jimbo Fisher (TAMU) - 42
A few caveats, obviously:
-You can only play the schedule you’re given. Some coaches played a lot more top ten teams in the regular season then others. Still, the better you are in the regular season the more chances you get to play Top Ten teams in the post season.
-These rankings are in season rankings. So yea, Brian Kelly beating Clemson week 1 might not look too hot now, but we’re counting it. Yay preseason polling. I am curious how these numbers would look if I only looked at post season rankings.
-I counted the three games Ryan Day coached as interim in 2018. If you took those away, he reached 3 top ten wins in 13 games. Absolutely absurd.
-I used sports-records.com to pull record and ranking information.
Is there any head coach to reach 3 Top Ten wins faster than Ryan Day?
EDIT:
Adding a few more from others
Matt Cambell - 31
Marcus Freeman - 38
Also I definitely agree, looking at how many games it took to reach 3 Top Ten wins AGAINST Top Ten teams makes a lot of sense. Maybe I’ll take a look later.