Countdown to Study Hall: Beat you with my guys, then beat you with yours

One of my goals with Study Hall was to take some of the ideas I love discussing and bring them to coaches. I talked to quite a few, and it was enlightening for any number of reasons. From Fisher DeBerry to Mike Macintyre, they all seemed to get into coaching for a pretty pure reason -- they just couldn't imagine life without the sport, basically. From Bob Stitt to Sonny Dykes, they all had different views for how best to finish drives (and really, they're probably all right). And from Bob Davie to Pete Lembo, they all had slightly different views on the best way to use stats in week-to-week scouting and self-scouting.

Today's discussion topic, then, is this:

There are 100 different ways to evaluate a college coach. We tend to discount recruiting prowess when we talk about "good" coaches, but it is indeed part of the job. But for today, let's just frame the conversation this way. Give me your top three active college football coaches in terms of their "Beat you with their guys, then beat you with yours" ability. Let's leave recruiting out of the conversation for a moment and focus on pure game-planning, preparation, and game-coaching ability. Who are your top three?