Urban Meyer Is Twitter's Most Followed College Football Coach

By D.J. Byrnes on March 3, 2015 at 1:55 pm
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It's likely Urban Meyer, like most Fortune 500 CEOs, has never personally sent a tweet in his life. But, that doesn't mean his online #brand is lacking.

As pointed out today by ESPN's corporate toad, Darren Rovell, and confirmed through UTSports.com, Urban Meyer is the most followed college football coach on Twitter. 

What might be more intriguing, however, is the list's No. 2, Jim Harbaugh, who ascended to such heights despite only being on Twitter for two months. (Jim's son, Jay, claims his father's insane Twitter account is run by Jefe Harbaugh himself.)

Here's the nation's top 25; I added the percentage of "real" followers, as dictated to me by TwitterAudit.com:

MOST FOLLOWED CFB COACHES
RANK COACH SCHOOL FOLLOWERS AUDIT %
1 URBAN MEYER OHIO STATE 238,378 85%
2 JIM HARBAUGH MICHIGAN 192,743 81%
3 BUTCH JONES TENNESSEE 174,019 73%
4 MARK RICHT GEORGIA 160,696 48%
5 LES MILES LSU 159,144 62%
6 BRIAN KELLY NOTRE DAME 124,049 62%
7 BERT BIELEMA ARKANSAS 116,791 52%
8 GUS MALZAHN AUBURN 114,488 54%
9 JAMES FRANKLIN PENN STATE 100,505 76%
10 HUGH FREEZE OLE MISS 97,023 60%
11 MIKE RILEY NEBRASKA 95,306 57%
12 CHARLIE STRONG TEXAS 91,463 68%
13 MARK STOOPS KENTUCKY 85,702 51%
14 KLIFF KINGSBURY TEXAS TECH 79,162 66%
15 BOB STOOPS OKLAHOMA 74,698 60%
16 DAN MULLEN MISSISSIPPI STATE 74,024 66%
17 KEVIN SUMLIN TEXAS A&M 67,085 82%
18 GARY PINKEL MISSOURI 56,968 67%
19 STEVE SARKISIAN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA 54,645 80%
20 MIKE GUNDY OKLAHOMA STATE 52,142 62%
21 MIKE LEACH WASHINGTON STATE 51,129 78%
22 DANA HOLGORSEN WEST VIRGINIA 50,882 69%
23 STEVE SPURRIER SOUTH CAROLINA 44,403 87%
24 MARK DANTONIO MICHIGAN STATE 43,593 76%
25 JIM MCELWAIN FLORIDA 43,330 78%


Yes, you read that right: Not only does Urban Meyer lead the way in followers, but he only trails Steve Spurrier, who joined Twitter yesterday, in "real follower percentage." That's the kind of dominance we've come to expect from Ohio State's football coach.

Am I surprised that the SEC coaches have some of the lowest real follower percentage? No. Sometimes perception means more than reality, after all.

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