There's a difference between coaches who 'can't' win a national championship and coaches who 'haven't'

Ladies and gentlemen, college football is nearly upon us.

In just seven days' time, week zero will be gracing our television with all sorts of pigskin perfection, and one of the byproducts of having college football back in our lives is the myriad "offseason arguments" that plague our timelines on a near daily basis will be a thing of the past.

Unfortunately, one argument that is borderline evergreen and exists as both an offseason and in-season debate is whether certain coaches will ever win a national championship, and it has reared its ugly head on social media once again.

COLLEGE FOOTBALL IS FINALLY BACK AFTER MONTHS OF NCAA LAWSUITS, NIL DRAMA AND CONGRESSIONAL FIGHTS I've seen fans from across the country making their claims that coaches like Dan Lanning and Steve Sarkisian "will never" or "can't" win a national title, and, as usual, a topic that requires a ton of nuance and context has been boiled down to a singular phrase.

"This coach will never win a natty because he hasn't won one yet." It's insane, especially when you consider just the pure math that goes into this argument.

There were 138 FBS teams in 2025, and there was only one national champion.

ONE OF THESE EIGHT COLLEGE FOOTBALL TEAMS WILL BE HOISTING THE NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP TROPHY IN 2026 Now take into account that there are only four active coaches in FBS that have won a national title ( Dabo Swinney , Kirby Smart, Ryan Day, and Curt Cignetti), and you realize how hard it is to actually win one.

I don't think it's fair to say guys like Sark and Lanning can't win a title, especially considering how young they are, relatively speaking.

PAUL FINEBAUM’S PROCLAMATION ABOUT ALABAMA COACH KALEN DEBOER REIGNITES COLLEGE FOOTBALL ‘CULTURE FIT’ DEBATE They "can" win one, they just haven't done it yet.

As long as they keep going to the College Football Playoff and taking swings (and given the talent they have on their respective teams), they are bound to win one eventually.

There is a good chance they don't, that's just the nature of college football, but they are more than capable of doing so.

I mentioned Georgia's Kirby Smart as one of the few active national champions, but that obviously wasn't always the case.

Kirby was one of the former "can't win the big one" coaches, and for a while, plenty of rivals, and even Bulldog fans, thought that would end up being the case.

"He can't get over the hump." "He chokes in big games." "Nick Saban is his daddy." And then he won it all.