{"id":777162,"date":"2026-05-06T11:36:15","date_gmt":"2026-05-06T11:36:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/777162\/"},"modified":"2026-05-06T11:36:15","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T11:36:15","slug":"ranking-college-footballs-top-five-offensive-playcallers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/777162\/","title":{"rendered":"Ranking college football’s top five offensive playcallers"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n

With the college football world in offseason mode following the conclusion of Spring practice last month, it\u2019s now \u201cRanking Season.\u201d And the guys over at the Crain & Cone On3 Show<\/a> delivered with their list of college football\u2019s top five offensive playcallers during Tuesday\u2019s show with Coach Dan Casey.<\/p>\n

Casey is an offensive aficionado who runs The Coaches Collective Podcast, as well as CoachDanCasey.com, which delivers \u201ccreative solutions for cutting-edge offensive playcallers.\u201d During Tuesday\u2019s show, co-hosts Jake Crain, Blain Crain and David Cone, the former Michigan quarterback, delved into the ins and outs of what makes a great offensive playcaller while Casey ranked the best in the business today.<\/p>\n

Check out Casey\u2019s full top five list of college football\u2019s best playcallers below<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Despite some less-than-inspired offensive play at Texas last season, especially early in the season as Arch Manning<\/a><\/strong> was developing as the Longhorns\u2019 QB1, Sarkisian remains college football\u2019s best play-caller in Casey\u2019s eyes. Sarkisian even has his own play called \u201cthe Sark screen,\u201d which Casey described as \u201cplay-action with a little reverse to it\u201d before throwing to the running back once the screen is established. With Manning back in 2026, Sarkisian will have plenty of opportunities to show 2025 was an outlier.<\/p>\n

Casey:<\/strong> \u201cI think Sark does more for the play-calling head coach than just about anybody in college football. And I know he\u2019s taken some criticism at Texas for not handing off play-calling duties, but \u2026 he\u2019s an elite play-caller, and he needs to keep that play sheet in his hands.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although Stein isn\u2019t expected to call plays at Kentucky in 2026, Stein makes Casey\u2019s top five list based on what he accomplished over the past three seasons as Oregon<\/a><\/strong>\u2018s offensive coordinator. Under Stein\u2019s direction, the Ducks have routinely been among the Top 10 highest-scoring offenses in FBS, ranking 10th nationally in 2025 and second in 2023 when Oregon averaged 44.2 points. Kentucky\u2019s offense should be much improved after ranking near the bottom of the SEC in multiple offensive metrics in 2025.<\/p>\n

Casey:<\/strong> \u201cI just think in terms of quarterback development, I don\u2019t know if many people are doing it better than Will Stein right now. The guys that he\u2019s had come through his system the past few years at Oregon, \u2026 it just seems like every year that system takes a step forward and the quarterbacks play extremely well.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Diego Pavia<\/a><\/strong> got much of the credit for Vanderbilt\u2019s turnaround the past two seasons, Casey acknowledged the work done by Beck, the 62-year-old second-year Commodores coordinator. Beck followed Pavia and veteran head coach Jerry Kill<\/a><\/strong> from New Mexico State in 2024 and completely transformed Vandy\u2019s offensive approach. The \u2018Dores were No. 8 nationally in scoring offense and No. 9 in total offense after averaging 38.5 points and 463.1 total yards per game in 2025.<\/p>\n

Casey:<\/strong> \u201cWhat they do offensively for the football junkies out there, they run a strong and a quick line, so they\u2019re literally flipping the offensive line every play with the strongside and the weakside, which is totally unique in college football. It\u2019s very old-school in a lot of ways. \u2026 Just the multiplicity of their run game is unbelievable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Weis followed Lane Kiffin<\/a><\/strong> from Ole Miss to Baton Rouge where he\u2019ll continue to direct the Tigers\u2019 offense in much the same way he did in Oxford the past four seasons. Although the offensive scheme has Kiffin\u2019s fingerprints all over it, the 33-year-old Weis gets major credit from Casey for how he designs the weekly game plan and calls plays on gameday, even if Kiffin occasionally influences plays from time to time. Ole Miss had the FBS\u2019 No. 2 total offense last season, averaging 489.7 total yards per game in 2025.<\/p>\n

Casey:<\/strong> \u201cIt\u2019s kind of a mixture between what Tennessee and Baylor with Art Briles were running with the deep choice stuff. But you\u2019ve also got this almost pro-style influence from Lane Kiffin (with) some of the crossing routes, just the way they create space for people to run free and always have great packages for the redzone.\u201d <\/p>\n

5. Drew Cronic, Navy Midshipmen<\/a><\/strong> offensive coordinator<\/p>\n

The 52-year-old Cronic makes Casey\u2019s list at No. 5, given his affinity for keeping opposing defensive coordinators off balance and utilizing creative shifts and motions that keep defenses guessing. Casey even called Cronic \u201cone of the most elite playcallers in football right now.\u201d That\u2019s high praise given Navy\u2019s old-school, run-based Wing-T offensive scheme, which led the FBS in rushing last season, averaging 285.6 yards per game on the ground in 2025.<\/p>\n

Casey:<\/strong> \u201cHe has this fascinating blend of the Wing-T, where they\u2019ll get under center and do some really cool stuff in the run game, and then they get in the gun, run the quarterback. Their passing game was unbelievably effective this past year off of play action.\u201d<\/p>\n

HONORABLE MENTION:<\/strong> Lincoln Riley<\/a><\/strong>, USC Trojans<\/a><\/strong> head coach<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With the college football world in offseason mode following the conclusion of Spring practice last month, it\u2019s now…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":777163,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[197441,1318,1317,1315,1316,62,164652,318364,67,132,68,195844],"class_list":{"0":"post-777162","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-football","8":"tag-charlie-weis-jr","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-ncaa","11":"tag-ncaa-football","12":"tag-ncaafootball","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-steve-sarkisian-92-west","15":"tag-tim-beck","16":"tag-united-states","17":"tag-unitedstates","18":"tag-us","19":"tag-will-stein"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116527431013594552","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777162","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=777162"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777162\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/777163"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=777162"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=777162"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=777162"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}