The 2024 college football season is nearly upon us. This weekend, Week 0 begins in Dublin with a showdown of legendary Irish programs [cough, hack, wheeeeeze] Florida State and Georgia Tech. That means ball coaches all across this great football nation will soon be hanging up their sticks for their summer. It’s sure to be a bittersweet day for them, but which sideline czar will miss golf most as fall begins? Action Network’s Brett McMurphy may have the answer, polling dozens of college football head coaches to find out, once and for all, who is the nation’s best head coach golfer. The answer will absolutely surprise you.

Head Coach – Handicap Index

1. Trent Dilfer, UAB – 0.1
2. Hugh Freeze, Auburn – 4.6
3. Jason Candle, Toledo – 5.6
4. Rhett Lashlee, SMU – 8
5. Shane Beamer, S. Carolina – 8.2
6. Brian Kelly, LSU – 10
7. Lincoln Riley, USC – 10.1
8. Dave Doeren, NC State – 10.4
9. P.J. Fleck, Minnesota – 10.8
10. Joey McGuire, T. Tech – 11.7
11. Ryan Day, Ohio State – 12.1
12. Mack Brown, UNC – 12.3
13. Eric Morris, North Texas – 12.5
14. Thomas Hammock, NIU – 12.6
15. Mike Houston, E. Carolina – 12.6
16. Kirby Smart, Georgia – 12.6
17. Ryan Walters, Purdue – 13.2
18. Sonny Dykes, TCU – 13.9
19. Kyle Whittingham, Utah – 14.2
20. Gus Malzahn, UCF – 14.9
21. Chuck Martin, Miami (OH) – 15
22. Kevin Wilson, Tulsa – 15
23. Tim Beck, C. Carolina – 16.3
24. Dan Lanning, Oregon – 16.7
25. Mark Stoops, Kentucky – 17
26. Kalen DeBoer, Alabama – 17.9
27. Josh Heupel, Tennessee – 18.6
28. Jay Norvell, Colorado State – 20.5
29. Bill O’Brien, Boston College – 20.7
30. Trent Bray, Oregon State – 21
31. Matt Rhule, Nebraska – 21.1
32. Pat Narduzzi, Pitt – 24.6

G Fiume

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Ol’ chrome-dome Dilfer. We forgot he was even the head coach of the recently revived Blazers, let alone a scratch golfer. Including the former Bucs and Ravens QB, this list is a who’s-who of where-are-they-now guys like Hugh Freeze (4.6), Mack Brown (12.6), Bill O’Brien (20.7) and Matt Rhule (21.1). There are a few heavyweights sprinkled in there as well, though. Ryan Day (12.1), Kirby Smart (12.6) and Dan Lanning (16.7) rank 11th, 14th and 24th respectively, with their teams ranked second, first and third in the initial AP Top 25 of the season. Unsurprisingly, the SEC leads the way as a conference with seven coaches in the handicap top 25.

We’ll see how the season shakes out before predicting who will top the list in 2025, but if Ohio State fail to beat Michigan for the fourth year running, expect Day to be a fast riser this offseason. Nothing, and we mean NOTHING, is better for the handicap than being unemployed.

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This article was originally published on golfdigest.com