Muschamp ahead of Smart in CBS ranking of Power 5 coaches

South Carolina’s Will Muschamp debuted ahead of other new SEC coaches in CBS’s annual ranking of the Power 5 football coaches.

Muschamp is No. 44 on the CBS ranking entering the 2016 season, ahead of Kirby Smart (46) at Georgia and Barry Odom (62) at Missouri. Muschamp is 10th overall among SEC coaches, also ahead of Kentucky’s Mark Stoops (56) and Vanderbilt’s Derek Mason (57).

CBS wrote of Muschamp: “BOOM is back. Muschamp went 28-21 at Florida and that was a much ‘easier’ job than the one he’s inheriting from Steve Spurrier.”

Alabama’s Nick Saban repeated No. 1 in the list.

“There were no set parameters for how we would rank the coaches,” CBS wrote. “We simply ranked which ones we felt were the best in the business based on what we think makes a coach good or great.”

Dabo Swinney moved up 14 spots from last year to No. 8 but still is behind Florida State’s Jimbo Fisher (No. 6).

“Dabo brought his own guts and brought out the best of his players last season, leading Clemson all the way to the national title game against Alabama,” CBS wrote. “He was probably undervalued in these rankings last year and now we’re correcting our mistake with the man who has now won 56 games in the last five seasons.”