Coaches Tour 2009

Mack Brown, University of Texas
As Mack Brown enters his 12th season as the head coach of the Texas Longhorns, the records just keep growing. With a mark at Texas of 115-26, he has the best winning percentage (.816) of any coach in UT history.

The winner of the 2008 Bobby Dodd National Coach of the Year award, the 2005 Paul W. "Bear" Bryant National Coach of the Year award, and the coach of the 2005 BCS National Champions, he is one of a handful of coaches in the history of college football to lead two separate programs to a Top Five national finish.

A member of the Longhorn Hall of Honor, Brown is the only the second coach in UT history to reach the 100-win plateau at Texas, joining Darrell Royal. He also became one of only nine active coaches at NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) schools who have won 100 games at their current school. Of the 79 coaches that have ever won 100 games at a FBS school, Brown is the 13th fastest to reach the century mark (124 games) and the second-fastest among active coaches. In 2008, he reached 200 career victories, making him just the 19th coach who has spent at least 10 years at an FBS school to do so.

Troy Calhoun, Air Force Academy
Sometimes people seem born for a particular job or situation. That has never been the case more than Troy Calhoun being the head football coach at the Air Force Academy.

The coach ushered in a new era of Falcon football in 2007 as Calhoun replaced the legendary Fisher DeBerry, who retired after 23 years as head coach. Calhoun, a 1989 Academy graduate, is the sixth head coach in school history and the first graduate to hold the position.

Calhoun lifted the Falcon football program to unprecedented heights within the Mountain West Conference in just one season and, in the process, earned a reputation as one of the top coaches in college football.

Jim Grobe, Wake Forest University
Wake Forest head football coach Jim Grobe is in the midst of piloting the Demon Deacons through the most successful period in school history.

After seven seasons at the helm, Grobe has built a football program that that has been to back-to-back bowl games and proven itself to be an annual contender for the Atlantic Coast Conference championship.

In 2007, Grobe led the Deacons to a 9-4 record including a 24-10 win over Connecticut in the Meineke Car Care Bowl. Combined with last year's 11-3 record, Wake Forest has won 20 games in the last two seasons. Only 18 members of the NCAA's Football Bowl Subdivision have won 20 or more games since the start of the 2006 season. Among the nine wins in 2007 were victories over North Carolina, North Carolina State and Duke. Never before had Wake Forest swept the Tobacco Road series in consecutive seasons. And never before had Wake won as many as 20 games in just two seasons.

Rick Neuheisel, University of California, Los Angeles
Rick Neuheisel, who quarterbacked UCLA to victory in the 1984 Rose Bowl and who compiled a record of 66-30 as a collegiate head coach, is his alma mater's new head football coach.

The energetic and personable Neuheisel returns to the collegiate ranks after spending the past three seasons in the NFL. In his eight years as a college head coach at the University of Colorado and the University of Washington, he fashioned a record of 66-30, winning at least 10 games on three occasions and finishing in the Top 10 on three occasions, and led his teams to seven bowl games. His winning percentage of .688 places him No. 17 among active coaches with at least five years in the Football Bowl Subdivision. He was also recognized as one of the nation's top recruiters during his college coaching days.

Houston Nutt, University of Mississippi
The Ole Miss football program sought a proven winner in a head coach and found that man and more in Houston Nutt, who was introduced as the Rebels' 36th head coach on Nov. 28, 2007.

After guiding Arkansas to three SEC Western Division titles and eight bowl berths in his decade in Fayetteville, Nutt immediately reversed the Rebels' fortunes and became just the fifth Ole Miss coach to guide the Rebels to a bowl in his first season.

With a 9-4 record and a 5-3 mark in the SEC, Nutt led one of the greatest turnarounds in school history, reviving a Rebel squad that was coming off four straight losing seasons and a 3-8 campaign with no conference wins in 2007. It marked the team's best improvement from one season to the next since legendary Ole Miss Coach John Vaught's debut in 1947.

Jim Tressel, The Ohio State University
The numbers on Jim Tressel are just as straightforward as the man himself.

208 career wins; nine national title game appearances; four Big Ten titles; seven bowl appearances; and national championships in 1991, 1993, 1994, 1997 and 2002. Or 19 first team All-Americans at Ohio State; Heisman, Lombardi, O'Brien, Butkus, Nagurski, Groza, Rimington, Walter Camp, Ray Guy, Wuerffel and Draddy award winners; 44 first team all-Big Ten selections. Add a .820 winning percentage with the Buckeyes; 112 players earning Ohio State degrees during his tenure; and the most academic all-Big Ten selections in the conference each of his years as coach.

Pretty simple to see why Ohio State football has been successful with Jim Tressel at the helm.

Tommy Tuberville, Coach Emeritus
Tommy Tuberville will be acting as Coach Emeritus on Coaches Tour 2009. He is the only returning coach that participated in Coaches Tour 2008.

During his ninth season at Auburn, head coach Tommy Tuberville established his program as one of the nation's elite. In his last three seasons at Auburn, Tuberville directed the Tigers to 33 wins and an .868 winning percentage (33-5) which is tied for third best in the country in both categories. Over the last six seasons, Auburn has been one of the most successful programs in the Southeastern Conference.

Tuberville guided the program back to the top of the league standings, leading Auburn to an SEC Championship, five Western Division titles including outright championships in 2000 and 2004 and co-championships in 2001, 2002 and 2005. Since 2000, the program has the best conference record among SEC teams with a mark of 42-14 (.750). Tuberville directed Auburn to seven consecutive bowl appearances, including five New Year's Day bowl berths and three consecutive January 1 bowl games.