The more national championships Nick Saban racks up as Alabama’s head football coach, the more former assistants he has admiring from afar.
Former assistants with much larger paychecks.
Saban’s unprecedented success with the Crimson Tide, which has included a 125-14 record in the past 10 seasons and five national titles in the past nine, has resulted in several assistants getting cracks at head-coaching opportunities in the Southeastern Conference. The league in 2018 has four former Saban coordinators in charge of programs: Georgia’s Kirby Smart, South Carolina’s Will Muschamp, Tennessee’s Jeremy Pruitt and Texas A&M’s Jimbo Fisher.
Fisher was the offensive coordinator and Muschamp the defensive coordinator on Saban’s 2003 national championship team at LSU.
“Athletic directors are always looking for the next mold of what that could be, and I think that’s what has provided myself and other guys opportunities,” Muschamp said. “That’s not to say that we haven’t done a good job in the roles that we’ve had with Nick, but it gives you the opportunity and the chance to be a head coach.”
It’s an appreciation similar to PGA Tour players quickly recognizing their hefty earnings today are largely the result of the excitement Tiger Woods created for the sport, which started with his runaway victory at the 1997 Masters.
Yet the flip side to this coin is how Saban continues to thrive with the multitude of new guys who work for him. Alabama has six new assistant coaches this year and only one assistant – offensive line coach Brent Key – in the same role as last season.
“I want people who are knowledgeable and good teachers, but I also think they have to be a really good fit on your staff,” Saban said. “It’s one of the reasons that I think a lot of people misjudge my reason for having this kind of staff size and having lots of interns. I like to help develop those coaches, so when they go someplace else and coach, I can hire them back someday.
“I would rather hire somebody I know as a person in terms of who they are, the kind of character they have, the kind of leadership they demonstrate and the kind of teacher they can be rather than having to go on somebody else’s recommendation.”
Saban has withstood a whopping 39 coaching changes among his assistant coaches during his time in Tuscaloosa, and that doesn’t include his interns. Among his interns this year is Butch Jones, who went 34-27 the last five seasons as Tennessee’s head coach.
For the first time since 2008, when Saban hired Fresno State offensive coordinator Jim McElwain to the same role with the Crimson Tide and promoted Smart to defensive coordinator, both of the top assistant positions turned over. Saban didn’t have to go outside to make either change, promoting Mike Locksley as offensive coordinator and Tosh Lupoi on defense.
Lupoi is in his fourth season as a full-time assistant, making him the veteran of the staff, while Locksley was an offensive analyst in Tuscaloosa in 2016 before serving as receivers coach last year.
“We have somebody in our organization who is always on top of who are the best people developing at every position out there regardless of what level they are coaching at in terms of their ability to coach players, teach players and have success in leadership roles,” Saban said. “That’s with the offensive coordinator, defensive coordinator or whatever it might be, and we want to pinpoint who are the best recruiters.
“So there’s quite a bit that goes into it.”
That sentiment is echoed by those who once worked for Saban and no longer are rising stars in the assistant ranks but SEC counterparts looking to somehow knock him off. Saban has never lost to a former assistant, with Smart coming the closest in January when the Bulldogs fell to the Crimson Tide 26-23 in overtime in the national championship game.
Smart is coming off a 13-2 season that included the SEC title, while Muschamp’s Gamecocks are coming off a 9-4 year. Fisher’s final Florida State team struggled last season, but he did guide the Seminoles to the 2013 national title, which helped him land a 10-year, $75 million contract with the Aggies.
Pruitt is the latest Saban assistant to test the waters as a head coach, having served as Alabama’s defensive coordinator the past two seasons.
“I think a lot of Jimbo Fisher and Jeremy Pruitt and Kirby Smart,” Muschamp said. “When you work for Coach Saban, it’s a total education in the game of football – the recruiting and all of the things that you’ve got to do to be successful. Each one of those guys will have their own spin on how they want to do things, but I think they’re all quality coaches and friends.”
Said Pruitt: “There are a lot of us in the league, and now I get an opportunity. It’s probably better that you write down everything you can when you’re with Coach Saban. You better take it all in while you have the opportunity.”
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524.