College Football

Prepping for the NFL: How Pac-12 coaches compare at developing defensive stars

Updated Jun. 1, 2023 11:03 a.m. ET

Editor's note: This is part of an ongoing series on how college coaches fair at developing players for the NFL. Check out previous stories on Pac-12 offensive players, Big Ten offensive players and Big Ten defensive players.

Fresh off a football campaign in which half the Pac-12 finished in the top 25 — and ahead of an upcoming season that could be among the most interesting in recent memory — the conference finds itself in a state of transition.

One simply has to look at a list of the Pac-12 head coaches to understand that.

Big names like Lincoln Riley and Chip Kelly are transitioning out, embarking on one last, awkward West Coast swing before joining the Big Ten. The dean of the group, Kyle Whittingham, has shown the benefits that can come with conference realignment and sits with the two most recent conference football championships outside his office. Fellow veterans (relatively speaking) like Justin Wilcox and Jonathan Smith continue to go about their business significantly under the radar while the vast majority of those who remain are young, energetic, and without much of a track record to lean on.

Despite all that, all understand that college football remains mostly driven by the underlying principle of having better players than your opponent. Before you even get to the Xs and Os that are on display each Saturday, having the Jimmys and the Joes tends to be the best prognosticator of success on the field.

But just how good are coaches when it comes to finding all those good players and, well, coaching them up?

Following the 2023 NFL Draft, FOX Sports pulled decades of recruiting data and looked into just how productive (or not) each active Power 5 coach was at both recruiting and developing players — and at what positions — when it came to the ultimate eye in the sky of the NFL.

More stories on ‘Prepping for the NFL’

In the fourth part of a series about developing talent in college football, here's a look at how some of the coaches in the Pac-12 have fared over the years in terms of best producing defensive talent:

Defensive ends

The best: Lincoln Riley, USC
Others of note: Kyle Whittingham, Utah
Surprisingly disappointing: Chip Kelly, UCLA

It's a common refrain over the years that for as good as Riley has been when it comes to offense, he needs to step things up on the other side of the ball to get over the hump on the field. While that can be true in terms of raw defensive numbers at both Oklahoma and USC, he's still able to claim that the actual talent on the field is still getting noticed by NFL teams.

Consider that 41% of the total number of draftees under Riley played on defense, with six of them going inside the top 100. Notably, he's produced as many defensive ends as any active coach in the Pac-12 and his overall total of four pass rushers is the same number as Utah's Whittingham, only in 12 fewer seasons. Riley's players also have a higher median pick than the coach who beat him in the conference title game last December, and he's done so with only marginally better average star ratings of the players out of high school. The USC coach also has the edge in terms of defensive ends going in the top 100 picks, too.

No other Pac-12 coach besides Whittingham and Riley have had more than one defensive end drafted, which includes fellow veteran coach Kelly. The UCLA coach hasn't had one taken at the position since he's arrived in Westwood and the lone selection off the edge came in the form of former four-star Dion Jordan getting taken third overall a full decade ago.

Defensive tackles

The best: Kyle Whittingham, Utah
Others of note: Lincoln Riley, USC

Whittingham gets a slight edge on Riley at defensive tackle, but it's a bit closer than you would think when factoring in sample size — four players in 18 seasons at Utah compared to two in six for the USC coach.

Overall, Utes on the interior of the defensive line have gone with a median selection of No. 111 overall, and the dean of Pac-12 head coaches is also responsible for the only first-rounder at the position in the form of Star Lotulelei going 14th in 2013.

What stands out, however, is how well Whittingham has taken undervalued talent and sent it to the league. Not one of his defensive tackles was ranked higher than three stars out of high school, and two them came out of the JUCO ranks. Of the Utah quartet, only John Penisini in 2020 went lower than the fourth round.

It's also worth pointing out that eight of the active Pac-12 coaches have not produced a defensive tackle who has been drafted, and two of the four who have are leaving the league in 2024. Granted, some, like ASU's Kenny Dillingham, are first-timers or early in their careers, but it's a trend that is notable given the concerns about the West Coast producing enough quality interior lineman out of the prep or junior college ranks compared to places like the South.

Linebackers

The best: Kyle Whittingham, Utah
Others of note: Justin Wilcox, Cal; Dan Lanning, Oregon
Surprisingly disappointing: Chip Kelly, UCLA

Linebacker is one of the few positions where there are enough numbers to draw conclusions across a greater swath of active Pac-12 head coaches.

Still, it's hard to look past a former linebacker in Whittingham when it comes to production at the very important part of any defense. The Utah head man has managed to send eight of them to the league over the course of his time in charge in Salt Lake City — none of whom rated above three stars coming out of high school.

In fact, two of the eight NFL selections actually didn't have any stars as prep players, and three others were labeled as two-stars — including eventual first-rounder pick Devin Lloyd in 2022. Roughly a fifth of the overall number of linebackers recruited by Whittingham eventually made it to the league.

Another former college linebacker could end up surpassing the Utes coach when it comes to churning out players at the position given the impressive start Lanning has gotten off to in Eugene. On top of recruiting and coaching a ton of those Georgia players picked high atop the draft the past few years while an assistant coach, Lanning had two linebackers in his first draft class with the Ducks, including former four-star D.J. Johnson becoming a top-100 pick and five-star Noah Sewell drafted in the fifth round.

While both were blue-chip recruits who wound up going in the middle rounds, it's also worth pointing out the coaches who have done some solid work on the other end of the recruiting spectrum.

For Cal's Wilcox, linebackers make up a third of the draft picks (all of which have been on defense) he's produced over the course of six seasons in Berkeley. That includes the most recent of the group, as former two-star Cameron Goode was drafted last year in the seventh round.

Interestingly, he has not yet been able to produce a Day 1 or 2 selection at the position while Troy Taylor takes over at rival Stanford and can claim as many (or more) top-100 picks in his coaching career as four other coaches in the Pac-12 after sending Marte Mapu from the FCS ranks to the New England Patriots in the most recent draft.

Likewise, Washington State's Jake Dickert also had a linebacker taken in the top 100 in the most recent draft after having turned a former zero-star prep player into third-rounder Daiyan Henley.

If there's one trend that isn't kind to a Pac-12 coach, it might be with Kelly. After a solid start with three linebackers drafted in his four seasons at Oregon, none have been drafted after taking over at UCLA. That's notable considering at least one Bruins LB was taken in the five drafts prior.

Defensive backs

The Best: Kyle Whittingham, Utah
Others of note: Justin Wilcox, Cal; Dan Lanning, Oregon

Once again it should be no surprise that Whittingham excels as one of the best coaches around at developing defensive backs.

His total number nearly matches the 18 pro DBs that the other 11 head coaches have produced combined, and the median pick of the Utes who have been taken is a borderline top-100 player (104th overall to be exact). All told, Whittingham has had seven top-100 selections in the secondary, which matches the number that Iowa's Kirk Ferentz has sent to the NFL over 11 more seasons as a head coach (to say nothing of the added benefit of working in a Power 5 league for nearly all of his career).

An increased talent pipeline for Whittingham to work with has not really changed things in terms of development either, with players 2023 draftee Clark Phillips III becoming part of a growing number of four-star recruits who have worn the red and white before making it to the pros. While the overall sample size remains small compared to a few peers in the SEC, 42% of those who arrive in Salt Lake as a four-star defensive back wind up in the draft.

Elsewhere around the league, Whittingham's peers can't quite match the overall level of productivity but do have some positive stories to tell.

Cal's Wilcox, a former defensive back himself at Oregon who has coordinated defenses in the league at Cal, USC and Washington, seems to have a natural eye for the instincts required to play at the next level. His lone top-100 pick is a defensive back in the form of Ashtyn Davis, who didn't have any stars as a high schooler and instead was a former track star who walked on to the football team.

Only Whittingham has produced more draft picks in the secondary among Pac-12 coaches, and Wilcox has sent at least one DB to the league in the past four consecutive drafts.

Then there's Lanning, who has the only first-round defensive back to his name as a head coach in the league after former Colorado transfer Christian Gonzalez went 17th overall to New England this spring.

Speaking of the Buffs, there has been quite a bit of ink spilled about one of the greatest defensive backs ever to play the position in Deion Sanders. While it won't be until the 2024 NFL Draft before we can truly start judging Coach Prime, it's worth noting that he could quickly earn a top-notch reputation with a headset on as Travis Hunter — the former No. 1 overall recruit — could end up hearing his name called in Detroit next spring after three years of pointers from the Hall of Famer who has taken over in the Flatirons.

Until then, there is a limited sample with which to judge Sanders when it comes to the league he is most closely associated with. While in charge at Jackson State, he sent two players to the pros as draft picks and one of them was defensive back Isaiah Bolden this year. The latter was a former four-star who first began his college career at Florida State and his selection allowed for Sanders-coached players to represent 40% of the total number of draft picks produced by all HBCU's during the time frame he has been a head coach.

Colorado was one of just seven Power 5 teams that actually didn't have a player drafted in 2023, but something says that will not be the case moving forward in Boulder, given both the talent influx the program has experienced and the general level of intrigue surrounding one of the best to ever play in the back end coaching the players up.

Bryan Fischer is a college football writer for FOX Sports. He has been covering college athletics for nearly two decades at outlets such as NBC Sports, CBS Sports, Yahoo! Sports and NFL.com among others. Follow him on Twitter at @BryanDFischer.

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