Editor’s note: As the World Cup continues in the United States for the first time since 1994, The Athletic is looking back at college sports in the 1990s and how much has changed since then. Join us for a couple of weeks of offseason football and basketball nostalgia.College football said goodbye to legendary coaches such as Bo Schembechler, Vince Dooley, Barry Switzer and Jimmy Johnson as the 1980s wound down, and it would be the 21st century before greats such as Urban Meyer, Bob Stoops and Jim Tressel would emerge.In between, one of the sport’s most improbable turnarounds and some of the most dominant teams it has ever seen — both in the heartland — marked a decade that started with poll-determined champs and ended with BCS computers. It featured the best work of some of the greatest coaches of all time as well.Though Nebraska may have had the best teams, the sport was centered in Florida. Florida State, Miami and Florida accounted for four of the decade’s 13 championships (yes, 13, thanks to polls and split titles).This ranking of the 25 best head coaches of the 1990s takes into account only the work done in that particular decade. Championships count big, but so do turnarounds and successful programs built from scratch. Four of the top five coaches on the list inherited difficult situations and engineered lasting excellence.25. Don James (Washington)
Ranking college football’s top coaches of the 1990s, from Bobby Bowden to Terry Bowden
Bobby Bowden's Seminoles finished in the top five every season of the decade and won eight ACC titles in eight years in the league.
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