All-Time Great Coaching Dynasties

Well, that sure was an eventful 48 hours, huh?  In the span of two days, three longtime football coaches left their positions.  First, it was the Seahawks moving on from Pete Carroll after 14 years.  Then, Nick Saban announced his retirement after 17 years at Alabama.  And finally, Bill Belichick's 24-year tenure with the Patriots came to an end when he and owner Robert Kraft mutually agreed to move on. 

Saban's time at Alabama and Belichick's with the Patriots will certainly go down as two of the most dominant stretches ever by a coach.  Saban led Alabama to six National Championships, three other appearances in the National Championship Game, nine SEC titles, and eight College Football Playoff berths in the first 10 years of the CFP's existence.  His official record was 201-29, and they were ranked in the Top 10 every year except for his first season.

What Belichick did in New England, meanwhile, is unmatched.  In 24 seasons, the Patriots went to nine Super Bowls, won six of them, and had a string of 17 division titles in 19 years (they finished second the other two years), including 11 straight from 2009-19.  His 296 regular season wins are the second-most by one coach with one team, trailing only George Halas.  The fact that Belichick did this in the modern NFL, with the salary cap and constant roster turnover that isn't designed for teams to sustain success for more than a few years.  Let alone two decades of dominance!

Yes, a lot of that success was achieved with Tom Brady as his quarterback.  History will probably end up giving Brady more of the credit.  He won a Super Bowl in his first season with Tampa Bay, while the Patriots missed the playoffs in three of Belichick's final four seasons (after Brady left) and haven't won a playoff game since Super Bowl LIII.  That would be entirely unfair to Belichick, though.  The man is a first-ballot Hall of Famer.  They didn't win six Super Bowls just because of their quarterback.

We don't know what's next for either Belichick or Saban.  I'd imagine Saban will stay retired, at least from coaching, and probably transition either into broadcasting or into some sort of advisory or administrative role somewhere.  It wouldn't surprise me if Belichick continues coaching, especially with the number of attractive available jobs (the Falcons, Chargers and Raiders are three that immediately come to mind).  What we do know is that we're unlikely to see dominant runs like this again.  Not this long, at least.  Not in the modern NFL and college football.

But how do these runs compare historically?  Based on their longevity, they're right up there.  Although, keep in mind, in the pre-free agency era, it was much easier for teams to sustain success.  (It's also worth noting that there are far more than 10 coaches who could be on this list.)

10. Phil Jackson: Jackson could be on here for what he did with the Bulls OR what he did with the Lakers.  Since they were consecutive, I'm counting both.  In Chicago, he won six NBA Championships in nine seasons.  Yes, he had Jordan and Pippen.  So what?  After a year off, he went to LA, where he had Shaq and Kobe and won three more titles in his first three seasons.  That's six consecutive championships in seasons when he coached.  Phil added two more titles after Shaq left, giving him 11 in 20 full seasons as an NBA head coach.

9. Pat Summitt: You can't talk about women's college basketball without talking about Pat Summitt and the Tennessee Lady Vols.  She coached Tennessee for 38 years from 1974-2012 and never had a losing season.  The NCAA Tournament began in 1982 and Tennessee not only qualified every year, they never lost before the Sweet 16 during Summitt's tenure.  Tennessee won eight National Championships (including three straight with Chamique Holdsclaw and Tamika Catchings from 1996-98 and back-to-back titles with Candace Parker in 2007-08).  Her teams won nearly 1,100 games and reached 18 Final Fours.

8. Red Auerbach: Auerbach was hired by the Celtics in 1950-51, and Boston lost in the playoffs in each of his first six seasons before winning the NBA Championship in 1956-57.  After losing in the 1958 NBA Finals, the Celtics went on to win eight straight titles before Auerbach retired and moved into the front office following the 1965-66 season.  That's nine titles in 10 years, a run we'll almost certainly never see again.  The eight straight championships looks like it's a pretty safe record, too.

7. Nick Saban: While this might be a little high, I didn't want recency bias come into play the other way (where I ranked Saban lower than he deserved because I didn't want to rank him too high).  I took the era into consideration, too.  College football is vastly different now than even when Saban started at Alabama.  Yet, in the first 10 seasons of a four-team playoff, his team was selected eight times.  That's consistent excellence.

6. Casey Stengel: Much like Red Auerbach, Casey Stengel benefitted from his era.  Which takes absolutely nothing away from what his Yankees teams of the 1950s were able to achieve.  They won a record five straight World Series in his first five seasons with the team (1949-53), and won 10 American League pennants during his 12 years in the Bronx (and in 1954, one of the two times they missed, they finished second despite winning 103 games, which was actually his winningest season!).  The three World Series Stengel's Yankees lost all went seven games, so that easily could've been 10 World Series titles in 12 years instead of seven.

5. Vince Lombardi: His name is on the freakin' Super Bowl trophy!  Those victories in the first two Super Bowls capped a run of five championships in seven years.  Lombardi was hired in 1959 and led the Packers to the 1960 NFL Championship Game, where they lost to the Eagles.  It was the only playoff loss of Lombardi's career.  NFL Championships followed in 1961 and 1962, followed by three straight from 1965-67.  And, of course, the wins over the Chiefs and Raiders in Super Bowls I & II.  Lombardi's regular season winning percentage was .754, and Green Bay was 9-1 in the postseason.

4. John Wooden: Another legendary figure in the history of his sport.  UCLA won 10 National Championships in 12 years from 1964-75, including an unprecedented seven straight from 1967-73.  Kentucky is the only other men's college basketball program with seven National Championships total!  That's not even the most impressive stat about Wooden's UCLA teams.  They won 88 straight games from 1971-74.  That run included two of his four undefeated seasons.  The man was called the "Wizard of Westwood" for a reason!

3. Bill Belichick: It may seem like sacrilege to some to rank Belichick ahead of Lombardi, but I did for two reasons.  First, it's harder to win in the modern NFL.  Second, and more importantly, Belichick did it for 24 years!  The Patriots won three Super Bowls in four years, then three in five seasons a decade later.  They had 21-game winning streak in 2003-04 and an undefeated regular season in 2007.  None of that is supposed to be possible in the NFL.  Let alone expected year after year for two decades.

2. Mike Krzyzewski: Longevity is what gets Coach K the No. 2 spot.  Krzyzewski has fewer championships and more losing seasons than Wooden, but he also led Duke to 35 NCAA Tournament appearances in 36 seasons from 1983-84 to 2018-19 (and it would've been 36 in 37 had the 2020 Tournament not been cancelled).  His 13 Final Fours are more than any other coach, and his five National Championships are second behind Wooden.  Coaching all of those great Duke teams, he compiled more than 1,100 wins.

1. Geno Auriemma: There's only one person who could top this list, and he's still going strong in his 39th season at UConn.  Prior to his arrival in 1985, the program had only one winning season in its history.  They've only had one losing season since, and that was in his first year!  He's set a standard for excellence, winning 11 National titles, including four straight from 2012-13 to 2015-16, and going to a ridiculous 14 consecutive Final Fours, a streak that was snapped last season.  And let's not forget the winning streaks: 70 straight from 2001-03, 90 straight from 2008-10, and an absurd 111 straight from 2014-17.  Three completely different eras, three completely different sets of players, three ridiculously long winning streaks.  That's what sets it apart for me.  Of all the great coaching dynasties, Geno Auriemma's at UConn stands out the most.