Is Friedgen the Best Coach in the ACC?

Rankings are great offseason fillers. The Sporting News has spent a considerable amount of time the past few weeks making lists of the best coaches in college football. Their highly subjective efforts generated plenty of deserved criticism, but did raise an interesting question when related to their ACC rankings, what is more impressive: winning at Wake Forest or at a traditional ACC power? If you just went by wins Bobby Bowden is at the top of every chart. But his record is also a product of longevity and finding the right situation. Would Jim Grobe win at Florida State? We'll ~~probably~~ never know. But everyone agrees that winning at FSU is different than winning at a place like Duke. Without the forced parity designs of the NFL, much of the foundation for success of a college football program (tradition, local talent, facilities) is based on things outside of a coach's control.

If a school's legacy is the primary factor for future success than perhaps the best way to rank a coach is by how he performed in relation to his school's history.

Before the claws come out, let me acknowledge the flaws in this argument.

Using historical percentages penalizes guys like Beamer and Bowden who've raised their school's profiles and have been the leading factor in the school's success. It also doesn't allow for the new coaches to be ranked. I don't have the perfect method, but I think this exercise is a better barometer than Dienhart's spit balling. If we went by coach's performance in their current job, here is how the ACC's head men would rank.

Coach	Winning Percentage	School's Win pct.	Difference
Ralph Friedgen	0.676	0.533	0.143
Jim Grobe	0.514	0.406	0.108
Bobby Bowden	0.78	0.673	0.107
Frank Beamer	0.654	0.599	0.055
Al Groh	0.56	0.532	0.028
Tommy Bowden	0.612	0.59	0.022
Chan Gailey	0.578	0.594	-0.016
Ted Roof	0.102	0.51	-0.408

I didn't include Butch Davis, Tom O'Brien, Jeff Jagodzinski or Randy Shannon since all are untested at their new posts. In their previous tenures at ACC schools, Davis and O'Brien outperformed their school's historic winning percentage by 0.079 and 0.042, respectively.

Is Ralph Friedgen the ACC's best coach? I don't know, but unlike Dienhart, I am willing to add some statistical perspective to the argument.