The level of football coaching in the SEC continues to rise, as the conference has added a number of proven winners and up-and-comers to the mix in recent years.

You’ll hear from all of them in Nashville this week at SEC Media Days, as they preview the 2023 season and address topics from what was a tumultuous offseason. Fall camp begins in about two weeks, and we’re some six weeks from the start of the regular season, so it’s time again to rank the 14 SEC head coaches.

RELATED: 5 things to expect on Day 1 of SEC Media Days 2023

As we noted last year, this idea was blatantly stolen from our friend Paul Finebaum, who compiled similar rankings during his days as an award-winning columnist at the Birmingham Post-Herald in the 1980s and 90s. Here’s how the SEC head coaches stack up headed into 2023:

14. Zach Arnett, Mississippi State

Arnett is very much an unknown, a 36-year-old former defensive coordinator who took over the Bulldogs in the wake of Mike Leach’s sudden death last December. Arnett faces a tough task in converting his program from its Air Raid roots to a more conventional style of offense.

13. Clark Lea, Vanderbilt

Lea seems to be making progress at his alma mater, having gone from 2-10 in Year 1 to 5-7 last season. That might be somewhere close to the ceiling at Vanderbilt in an ever-more-competitive SEC, so we’ll see if the Commodores continue to improve in 2023.

12. Eli Drinkwitz, Missouri

You wouldn’t know by his hefty contract, but Drinkwitz’s three-year tenure in Columbia has been kind of “meh.” Missouri came closer to beating Georgia than just anyone in the SEC last year, but also lost to Vanderbilt and Auburn. Some consistency would go a long way.

11. Billy Napier, Florida

As you might expect, Napier’s debut season in Gainesville was wildly inconsistent — blow out South Carolina one week, lose to Vanderbilt the next. Napier should be able to recruit his way out of mediocrity, but losing to Kentucky, Tennessee and Vandy isn’t going to be tolerated for long.

10. Shane Beamer, South Carolina

Beamer has put winning teams on the field in each of his first two seasons, and looks like a young coach who is going places. Wins over Clemson and Tennessee last year went a long way with Beamer’s constituents, but the Gamecocks must now prove they can at least stay on the field with Georgia.

9. Sam Pittman, Arkansas

There’s no more popular man with the general football public than the affable Pittman, an old O-line guru who somehow landed an SEC head coaching job. The Razorbacks went from 9-4 to 7-6 in Pittman’s third year, but three of those losses came by a total of seven points.

8. Hugh Freeze, Auburn

Freeze inherited a mess on the Plains and has transformed his roster through an aggressive use of the transfer portal. There remain doubters that Freeze can keep it together off the field, however, and he’s been living a long time on two wins over Alabama nearly a decade ago.

7. Lane Kiffin, Ole Miss

Kiffin has definitely made things interesting in Oxford the last three years, but his team collapsed in inexcusable fashion last year as rumors began to swirl that he might be leaving for Auburn. It looks like he’s at Ole Miss for the long haul, so the time to start winning big is now.

6. Mark Stoops, Kentucky

The bloom is off the rose a little bit in Lexington after last year’s 7-6 finish, which included losses to Vanderbilt and South Carolina and a blowout defeat to Tennessee. Like Lea at Vanderbilt, it’s possible Stoops has reached his ceiling at Kentucky and might never be a serious contender.

5. Jimbo Fisher, Texas A&M

This is about as low as it feels comfortable ranking a coach with a national championship ring, but the farther we get from that 2013 Florida State juggernaut, the more it seems like lightning in a bottle. At some point, Fisher needs to convert all those 5-star recruits into winning football players.

4. Josh Heupel, Tennessee

When you consider what was going on behind the scenes in Knoxville shortly before Heupel arrived, the job he’s done in two years as head coach is nothing short of phenomenal. With Hendon Hooker off to the NFL, however, he’ll have to prove it’s the system, not the quarterback.

3. Brian Kelly, LSU

An SEC West championship and a win over Alabama in Year 1 was quite a debut for Kelly, who comes off as clownish at the podium sometimes, but can flat-out coach. His teams at Notre Dame couldn’t finish the job in the postseason, but he has much more talent to work with in Baton Rouge.

2. Nick Saban, Alabama

There had to be a changing of the guard at some point, and it came after a 2023 season in which Alabama underachieved despite going 11-2. Yes, the losses to LSU and Tennessee both came on the game’s final play, but wins over Texas, Texas A&M and Ole Miss were also narrower than necessary.

1. Kirby Smart, Georgia

Normally, back-to-back national championships would make this not even a discussion, but such is the grip Saban has had over the SEC in the last decade-plus. Smart’s Bulldogs have utilized the Alabama formula to become the top program in college football but must avoid off-field pitfalls to stay at the pinnacle.

Creg Stephenson is a sportswriter for AL.com. He has covered college football for a variety of publications since 1994. Contact him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter at @CregStephenson.