How do you determine who’s actually a good college football head coach? Is it the program that the coach is at? Is it the coach’s scheme? His recruiting?

Yes, yes and yes. And so much more.

“All politics are local. You’re gonna say in every hire that you make that you did a nationwide search, and all the happy jargon that you put together,” one coaching agent told The Athletic. “But at the end of the day, you need to find a head coach who knows how to manage people and how to manage expectations because those are the first two things you want to make sure your head coach knows how to do. You don’t even discuss these guys unless you know they understand the sport well.”

The Athletic spoke to administrators, agents, coaches and industry insiders to get a sense of the kind of job that each head coach is doing. As we introduce our College Football Coaching Tiers, we take a look at a coach’s measurables (championships, draft picks, etc.), while also weighing internal support and resources. We look at those who may be flashes in the pan and those who have been able to sustain success over a period of time. We lean heavily on a coach’s complete body of work as a head coach, so as to avoid recency bias. The longer the sustained success, the more credit is given.

“I tell guys all the time when preparing for interviews: If you wanna go in there and tell these guys, ‘This is when you’re gonna run cloud or Cover-2 or double-bracket,’ you’re wasting your time,” the agent said. “The person in those interviews who know football best are always the head coach candidates; the people who have the most success are the ones who know how to deal with people.”

Those entering their first season as a permanent head coach were ineligible for these tiers because there’s not enough to evaluate, which leaves us with 115 head coaches to place. To do that, we broke them down into five tiers, with one special exception.

Just five active FBS coaches have won national titles. Just three of those coaches have won titles at their current schools. And just two of those coaches have won multiple national titles. One, of course, trumps all. Let the fun begin.

Tier 1A

Nick Saban – Alabama

When you win seven national titles, make seven College Football Playoff appearances and deem your 13-2, national runner-up campaign a “rebuilding year” — as the Alabama coach recently did — then you are in a category all by yourself. Nick Saban is easily the best active college coach by any measure, and he is probably the best of all time, too.

Saban enters Year 16 in Tuscaloosa with yet another preseason No. 1 team, this time led by the reigning Heisman Trophy winner at quarterback in Bryce Young. He’s one of four Heisman winners that the Crimson Tide have produced under Saban’s watch — the only four, in fact, in the storied program’s history.

This past NFL Draft marked the 11th consecutive year that at least seven Alabama players were drafted. The Tide have produced a national-best 113 draft picks since 2009. Saban’s coaching tree knows no bounds, with former assistants of his now running FBS programs of their own at Arkansas State, Central Michigan, Florida, Georgia, Georgia Tech, James Madison, Maryland, Marshall, Miami, Michigan State, Ole Miss, Texas and Texas A&M. (And the last three head coaches of the New York Giants, for good measure.) Heck, two of his pupils finally beat him last season, the first time that has happened.

“You just take Nick and Dabo (Swinney) for granted because they are so good,” the agent said. “And the thing is, Nick’s replaced everybody on that f—— coaching staff five times and it doesn’t matter.”