List of college football coaches with 200 wins


This is a list of college football coaches with 200 career wins. "College level" is defined as a four-year college or university program in either the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics or the National Collegiate Athletic Association. If a team competed at a time before the official organization of either of the two groups but is generally accepted as a "college football program", it is included.

Historical overview

As of the end of the 2019 season, a total of 94 head football coaches have reached the milestone of 200 career coaching wins.
In the 100 years after the first college football game in 1869, only eight coaches reached the 200-win milestone. The only two who reached the mark before 1950 were Pop Warner, with 319 wins from 1895 to 1938, and Amos Alonzo Stagg, with 314 wins from 1890 to 1946.
By 1970, another six coaches had reached the milestone: Ace Mumford, with 233 wins from 1924 to 1961 ; Fred T. Long, with 227 wins from 1921 to 1965 ; Jess Neely, with 207 wins from 1924 to 1966 ; Cleveland Abbott, with 203 wins at Tuskegee University between 1923 and 1954; Jake Gaither, with 204 wins at Florida A&M University from 1945 to 1969; and Eddie Anderson, with 201 wins from 1922 to 1964.
Though only eight coaches reached the milestone from 1869 to 1970, 86 coaches have reached the mark in the 49 seasons since then.

Leaders by category

In overall career wins, the all-time leader is John Gagliardi with 489 wins, mostly at the Division III level. Gagliardi began his head coaching career at Carroll College in Helena, Montana in 1949, and moved from there in 1953 to Saint John's University in Collegeville, Minnesota, where he served until retiring after the 2012 season. Joe Paterno, the head coach at Pennsylvania State University from 1966 until his 2011 firing in the wake of the Jerry Sandusky child molestation scandal, is second with 409 wins. NCAA sanctions following the scandal had stripped him of all 111 Penn State wins between 1998 and 2011, but the NCAA restored those wins on January 16, 2015 as part of a settlement of a lawsuit by the state of Pennsylvania against the NCAA. Eddie Robinson, head coach at Grambling State University from 1941 to 1997 with a two-season hiatus during World War II in which Grambling did not field a team, is third with 408. Bobby Bowden is in fourth place and Larry Kehres is in fifth.
Among coaches with at least 10 seasons in NCAA Division I and its predecessors, the all-time leaders in wins are Paterno, Robinson, Bowden, Bear Bryant, and Warner.
Considering wins in Division I FBS only—including wins with "major" programs before the 1978 split of Division I football, and wins in Division I-A/FBS after the split—the all-time leaders are Paterno, Bowden, Bryant, Warner, and Stagg.
The only coaches with 200 Division I FCS wins after the Division I split are Jimmye Laycock, Roy Kidd, Andy Talley, and Jerry Moore.
Among NCAA Division I coaches to be active in 2019, the leader in Division I wins is Mack Brown and in second is Nick Saban.
The all-time win leaders in NCAA Division II are Danny Hale, Gaither and Chuck Broyles, and the all-time win leaders in NCAA Division III are Gagliardi and Kehres.
Among coaches active in 2019, the career win leaders are Kevin Donley, Larry Wilcox, and Al Bagnoli.
Among the coaches with 200 career wins, the individual with the highest winning percentage is Kehres with a winning percentage in 27 seasons as the head football coach at the University of Mount Union in Alliance, Ohio. Four others finished their careers with 200 wins and a winning percentage of.800 or greater: Gaither, Tom Osborne, Mike Kelly, and Ron Schipper.
The coaches with the most wins at one college are Gagliardi, Paterno, Robinson, Kehres, Ken Sparks, Kidd, Bowden and Tubby Raymond.

Key

Coaches with 200 career wins

RankNameYearsWinsLossesTiesPct.Teams
1†6448913811Carroll , Saint John's
2†464091363Penn State
3†5540816515Grambling
4†443771294Samford, West Virginia, Florida State
537338992Carson–Newman
6*413331351Anderson , Georgetown , California , Saint Francis
7†27332243Mount Union
8†383238517Maryland, Kentucky, Texas A&M, Alabama
9†4931910632Georgia, Iowa State, Cornell, Carlisle, Pittsburgh, Stanford, Temple
10†393141248Eastern Kentucky
10†††5731419935Springfield, Chicago, Pacific
12†40305967Parsons, Lea, Pacific Lutheran
13†363001193Delaware
14*412971510Benedictine
15†36287673Central
16†352801444Murray State, Virginia Tech
17372751172Lakeland, Shepherd
18452651911St. Lawrence, Albany
19452642043East Stroudsburg
20†31261757Wisconsin–La Crosse
21382581211Dickinson State
22†292571013BYU
22†36257975Lycoming
22372571552St. Lawrence, Villanova
25*382561270Union , Penn, Columbia
26†25255493Nebraska
264025512513Minnesota–Duluth
28*372531272Montclair State
29†*312511281Appalachian State, Tulane, North Carolina, Texas
30†332491327William & Mary, North Carolina State, Arkansas, Minnesota, Notre Dame, South Carolina
30392491942William & Mary
32362461375Juniata, Drake, Montana State
32†27246541Dayton
34†342451274Cheyney, Central State, Florida A&M, Miles
35*23243651Toledo, Michigan State, LSU, Alabama
36*29242932Grand Valley State, Central Michigan, Cincinnati, Notre Dame
36†312421352North Texas, Texas Tech, Appalachian State
36†27242824Austin, Northwest Missouri State
39†332387210Denison, Miami , Ohio State
40*22237400Mary Hardin–Baylor
41†322357012Jackson State, Tennessee State
42†282341081Nevada
42†27234658Miami , Michigan
44*26233951Rowan, Delaware, Sam Houston State
44†362338523Jarvis Christian, Bishop, Texas College, Southern
4430233964Howard, Virginia Union, Hampton, Florida A&M
47†3723217810SMU, North Texas, Iowa
48372301507Virginia Union, Norfolk State, Saint Paul's
4925229611Wesley
49†25229792Youngstown State, Ohio State
51†††26228892Duke, Florida, South Carolina
524522715131Paul Quinn, Wiley, Prairie View A&M, Texas College
53*312261011Bethel
5427225702Washington & Jefferson, California
55*342241212Carnegie Mellon
56342231392Wagner
5729221893Johns Hopkins
58†32220906Adams State, Millersville
58372201491Kenyon, Washington
60†312191124Concordia , Adams State, Texas A&M–Kingsville
60†28219571Bethany
62332181602East Tennessee State, Wofford
62362181676William Penn, Pittsburg State, Sam Houston State
64322171027Concordia
64*24217480Wittenberg
64†3521711912Ashland
67†272151171Kansas State
68*332141091Illinois Wesleyan
6925213691West Chester, Bloomsburg
69302131352Southwestern , Pittsburg State, Texas State, New Mexico, TCU, Alabama, Texas A&M, Texas State
71362121446TCNJ
71†322121111Widener, Delaware Valley, La Salle
73*332101261Maine, Cincinnati, Harvard
744120915711Waynesburg, Curry, Bridgewater State
7424209520Wheaton
76†4020717619Southwestern , Clemson, Rice
76*272071061Ripon, Wartburg, Wisconsin–Eau Claire, Minnesota–Duluth, Western Illinois, South Dakota
78†27206711Ithaca
78sortname|Carl|PoelkerWinning percentage|205|100|1sortname|Bill|Cronin|dab=American football coachWinning percentage|204|61|0sortname|Jake|Gaitherrefn|group=n|Although Gaither has 204 wins at Florida A&M, FAMU did not move up to Division I until the creation of I-AA football in 1978, nine years after Gaither retired. All games coached by Gaither were designated as College Division games, either implicitly or explicitly.Winning percentage|204|36|4sortname|Cleveland|AbbottWinning percentage|203|96|28sortname|Mike|Van DiestWinning percentage|203|54|0sortname|Warren B.|WoodsonWinning percentage|203|95|14sortname|Don|NehlenWinning percentage|202|128|8sortname|Eddie|Anderson|dab=American football coachWinning percentage|201|128|15sortname|Mike|DeLongWinning percentage|201|139|2sortname|Vince|DooleyWinning percentage|201|77|10sortname|Keith W.|PiperWinning percentage|201|141|18sortname|Joe|Glenn|dab=American footballWinning percentage|200|134|1sortname|Darrell|MudraWinning percentage|200|81|4sortname|Jim|Sweeney|dab=coachWinning percentage|200|154|4

Active coaches nearing 200 career wins

RankNameYearsWinsLossesTiesPct.Teams
*23198770Widener, West Chester
*24190850Winona State
*21185460Wartburg

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