Ranking the Coaches Notre Dame Football Will Face in 2019

From savvy veterans to up and coming stars, the Notre Dame football team will face off with some of the highest profile and most talented coaches in the game this season.

We all know how tough the Notre Dame football schedule is each year. The Irish face some of the strongest and most prestigious programs in the country annually.

At the heart of those programs are the head coaches. In 2019, Notre Dame will encounter a diverse group of talented coaches. Here is how they stack up with each other.

12. Scott Loeffler, Bowling Green

Loeffler has a slew of experience working as an assistant for some elite programs and coaches. He step into his first head coaching role in 2019, which is why we must slot him at No. 12 for now.

11. Bob Davie, New Mexico

After being out of the game for ten seasons, the former Notre Dame coach returned to the sport in 2012 and has coached New Mexico to just two winning seasons in seven years.

10. Todd Helton, Southern Cal

Things are a mess at USC and Helton has done the best job he’s capable of — but that’s the problem. The Trojan football program deserves better than a coach who can only win at a .653 clip — which is what Helton has done.

9. Steve Addazio, Boston College

Addazio’s ability to keep the Boston College program at .500 and be a tough out every week is an underrated achievement in the current era and structure of college football.

8. Bronco Mendenhall, Virginia

After going .500 or better in all ten seasons at BYU, Mendehall has turned Virginia back into a winning football program in just three seasons. 2018 was the first winning campaign in Charlottesville since 2011.

7. Justin Fuente, Virginia Tech

Fuente has been a head coach for seven seasons and taken all but one of his teams to a bowl game. He’s had to deal with some injuries and personnel issues, but so far he has filled Frank Beamer’s shoe admirably in Blacksburg.

6. David Cutcliffe, Duke

It took him a while to do it, but Cutcliffe has turned Duke — of all programs — into a team that expects to go bowling every year. The Blue Devils have played in the postseason in six of the last seven years.

5. Jim Harbaugh, Michigan

People like to knock on Harbaugh as a disappointment, but he’s really competing against his own hype. He’s coached at the Power 5 level for eight seasons. He took two years to turn Stanford around and has led his teams to six straight bowl appearances. He has won 70 percent of his games as a college head coach. Comparatively, Brian Kelly has won 71 percent.

4. Scott Satterfield, Louisville

Satterfield is one of the hottest up and coming coaches in the game. He was able to establish Appalachian State as a Group of Five powerhouse and should have Louisville scrapping at the top of the ACC once again within a couple of seasons.

3. Ken Niumatalolo, Navy

Despite a 3-10 season in 2018, Niumatalolo has an amazing track record at Navy. He has turned the Navy football into a respected program — to the point where few people would bat an eye them joining a Power 5 conference during the next wave of realignment. That’s saying something.

2. David Shaw, Stanford

There isn’t a fan in the country who likes to see Stanford on their team’s schedule. Shaw has established the Cardinal as one of the most respected programs in college football. He has done so with an impressive .759 winning percentage.

1. Kirby Smart, Georgia

In just three seasons, Smart has transformed the Bulldog program from perennial under-achievers into one of the best three or four college football programs in the country. On the back of Nick Saban’s dominance at Alabama, Smart has made the prospect of a College Football Playoff with two SEC teams a real possibility every season.