The Alabama Crimson Tide is getting set to take on the Indiana Hoosiers in the Rose Bowl, their first playoff bowl game under Nick Saban’s successor Kalen DeBoer.
While Saban clearly still has his fingerprints all over the Alabama program and will continue to be their biggest supporter, Tuscaloosa is far from the only place he left an impact on the sport of college football. Perhaps there is no bigger evidence of just how deep Saban’s roots still run than looking at the coaches who are still remaining in the College Football Playoff.
With eight teams still left standing, five of them — not even including Alabama — are led by a head coach who at one time worked for Saban in some sort of assistant capacity.
Dan Lanning, Oregon
Lanning had the least prominent role on Alabama’s staff under Saban, but the Ducks head coach got his first real coaching break when he was hired as a graduate assistant for the Crimson Tide on the staff for the legendary 2015 national championship team. After a year learning from the GOAT, Lanning moved on to Memphis to become a linebackers coach and recruiting coordinator, and eventually he found himself working under Kirby Smart at Georgia as a co-defensive coordinator for four years before being hired by Oregon.
Curt Cignetti, Indiana
Cignetti’s Hoosiers team has been the story of college football this season, sitting as the undefeated No. 1 ranked Big 10 champions and taking the sport by storm. His rebuild of the Indiana program though was built on the heels of his time on Saban’s first staff at Alabama, having served for four years as the wide receivers coach and recruiting coordinator before he eventually moved on. His long journey has him on the cusp of continuing to make history, and he has often credited Saban for helping make him into the coach he is today.
Kirby Smart, Georgia
Smart might just be the biggest success story from Saban’s coaching tree, famously working at Alabama from the moment Saban took over in 2007 all the way up until he received his dream job leading his alma mater. From 2008-2015, Smart was Saban’s defensive coordinator and oversaw some of the best units in the history of college football. Helping Alabama win five SEC titles and four national championships, Smart has won two titles of his own in Athens and likely is not done winning them either.
Mario Cristobal, Miami
Cristobal has taken some time to build Miami into a real championship contender after spending 2013-2016 in Tuscaloosa, but his Hurricanes have improved every year and are now the premiere program in the ACC and a perennial threat to compete for a playoff spot. During his time at Alabama, Cristobal served as the assistant head coach, offensive line coach, and recruiting coordinator, helping secure some of the best classes of Saban’s tenure as an elite recruiter and guiding some spectacular offensive line play as well.
Pete Golding, Ole Miss
Golding wound up as head coach of the Rebels under some absolutely crazy circumstances following the Lane Kiffin fiasco, eventually being named the permanent head coach after Kiffin left for LSU. Golding spent half a decade as Alabama’s defensive coordinator under Saban from 2018-2022 before he was eventually hired in the same role at Ole Miss. He was likely always going to be a head coach sooner than later, and now he gets his first chance with an Ole Miss program that is in a phenomenal spot as a yearly playoff contender.
