They may have had the three best starts in SEC football coaching history. But which SEC coach of the past 20 years got off to the best start? Steve Spurrier? Phillip Fulmer? Or Mark Richt?

Richt has completed his fifth season at Georgia, so that's a nice round number for us to start with. Let's see how those coaches compare to one another through their first five full seasons in the SEC.

National Reputation

Spurrier: "St. Steve." "Steve Superior." He's known for backhanded compliments and cutting barbs designed to get under his opponents' skins. Oh, and he's also known for visortossing. His confidence/arrogance (depending on your point of view) makes him the main draw for soundbite-hungry ESPN'ers.

Fulmer: Well, I'm not really sure. Fulmer is so far down on the national radar that I sometimes wonder if he's known at all. In reality, he's won a higher percentage of games than any active, veteran coach in the nation (depending on how you break down the statistics ... "most wins by a coach with more than nine years on the job and a name that starts with a consonant"). It's not fair, but Fulmer's lowkey style has kept him from getting the national respect that he's earned over his career.

Richt: He's got the looks, the sunglasses, and the Bobby Bowden pedigree to make him the next "it" coach in America. But he lacks the folksy charm of his mentor, Bowden, he doesn't throw zingers like Spurrier, and he's not a cheerleader like Pete Carroll. So how many non-hardcore football fans could even pick him out of a line-up? Like Fulmer, his wins have spoken louder than his words.

Success In First 5 Years

Spurrier: No one thought that a coach could win, and win clean, at Florida. Certainly not some "Fun N' Gun" guru from Duke. But Spurrier immediately turned the Gators into the second-best dynasty in SEC history (behind Bear Bryant's Alabama squads of the 1960s and 1970s). He won nearly 80 percent of his games in those first five years, but more importantly, he won championships. Three of them in his first five seasons, and that number would have been four if his first squad hadn't been ineligible for the title.

Fulmer: His winning percentage from 1993 (his first full season as head coach) to 1997 was higher than the first five-year percentages of Spurrier or Richt. No one in league history had as much immediate success as Fulmer. The only knock on this period was his lack of SEC titles. At the time, Fulmer couldn't seem to get past Spurrier and Florida. Interestingly enough, Richt's nemesis has also been Florida during his great start, and Spurrier had a rough time with Florida State early on. Every Superman has his Kryptonite.

Richt: Not as many titles as Spurrier. Not as high a winning percentage as Fulmer. However, he's ranked No. 2 in both categories with two titles in five seasons and an impressive 52 wins over that time period. Those titles carry a lot of weight.

Building A Winner

Spurrier: None of these coaches took over bad programs. While Florida had never won an SEC title preSpurrier, they had reached "top of the conference" levels at times (thanks to a few hundred dollar handshakes). In terms of a jump in winning, however, Spurrier has the numbers on his side. In the five seasons prior to his arrival, the Gators had won .603 percent of their games. In St. Steve's first five years, they won .790 percent of their games. When you go from a 60 percent winner to a near 80 percent winner ... and you rack up three titles in your first five years (en route to six overall), you've built a winner.

Fulmer: Of the three coaches compared, Fulmer, without question, took over the best program. Throwing out the 1992 season (which was split between Johnny Majors and Fulmer), the Vols had won .721 percent of their games preFulmer from 1987-91. King Phil raised that to .819 in his first five seasons. And eventually, he would take the program to its first national title since 1951. It's not fair to say that Fulmer "built a winner" at Tennessee, but you can say, during his hey-day, he took them to higher heights.

Richt: The Bulldogs' jump in winning percentage pre-Richt to post-Richt is not quite up to the Spurrier level, but Richt took over a program that was a perennial 8-4 team. Georgia could not win "the big one," under Jim Donnan or Ray Goff before him. And they had farther to climb, needing to pass both Tennessee and Florida, who had become dominant in their own division. Looking at the last five years, that's exactly what Richt has done.

Lasting Legacy

Spurrier: He completely changed the SEC. When he arrived from Duke, the SEC was a run-first league. His throw-first offense ushered in a new era of big armed quarterbacks and pass-happy scoring machines. Whether he is able to rebuild South Carolina or not will have some affect on how he is remembered, but the stretch of consecutive 10-win seasons (six) and the number of SEC titles won (six ... seven if not for an inherited probation) will place him alongside Bryant on the SEC's Mt. Rushmore.

Fulmer: How different might things look if the Vols had not been upset by LSU in the 2001 SEC championship game? If Fulmer had reached two BCS title games and won a third SEC title, last year's 5-6 record might not have done as much damage to his reputation as it did. As it stands now, the jury is once again out on a man who at one point looked ready to supplant Gen. Robert Neyland as Tennessee's "best ever." A return to prominence and his legacy will be secure. A repeat of last year, and he could be facing his final curtain call in Knoxville.

Richt: Like Fulmer, his legacy is still being written. His start surpasses Fulmer's in terms of championships. His start surpasses Spurrier in terms of winning percentage. But even if Richt continues to win Georgia fans will eventually become bored by success. "Wins? We want championships! And we mean NATIONAL championships! Spurrier and Fulmer both became victims of their success, raising expectations for their schools and therefore upping the pressure on themselves. Fulmer won a national title in his sixth season at Tennessee. Spurrier in his seventh at Florida (though he played for one in his sixth). Is Richt on the verge of doing the same?