Breaking Down Nick Saban's Impressive Coaching Tree

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — The last time the University of Alabama’s Nick Saban faced Michigan State, he had already gotten used to seeing one of his former teams on the opposing sideline.

“I get this every year when we play LSU, and they’re not quite so understanding,” Saban said before the Capital One Bowl at the end of the 2010 season.

Now, though, going up against one of his former assistant coaches is becoming a regular thing. Last Saturday the Crimson Tide took out Florida and Jim McElwain in the SEC Championship Game. Next up, the Spartans and Mark Dantonio in the Cotton Bowl in a national championship semifinal.

Moreover, on Monday both Kirby Smart and Will Muschamp were introduced as head coaches at Georgia and South Carolina, respectively.

The way this is going, pretty soon the SEC might be known as the Saban’s Everywhere Conference.

“It always makes me proud and happy for the guys that did a great job for us when they were part of our staff, and they go on and move on and have success other places,” Saban said. “It kind of makes me happy and proud, and I'm not the kind of guy who has to dislike my opponent to play well against him. Sometimes ‘respect’ is a better word, and when you know somebody is a really good coach and has done a great job for you, it's really easy to respect them. 

Sean Rayford/Associated Press

“That's certainly the case in this game, and it was certainly the case last week against Jim McElwain at Florida and Will at Auburn and will be when we play Kirby someday.”

Imagine what it’ll be like when offensive coordinator Lane Kiffin and offensive line coach Mario Cristobal become head coaches again, or when the next wave of assistant coaches are deemed ready. Just as Saban tries to prepare players to be better and move on, he pretty much does the same thing with his coaches.

“It's difficult,” said Dantonio, who was Saban’s defensive backs coach at Michigan State for five seasons. “There are challenges. You guys know that. But I think my relationship with Coach Saban, with Nick Saban, is excellent. He's truly a mentor of mine.”

While the coaching tree is growing exponentially, it also has strong roots, and while Saban is most associated with Bill Belichick from their years on the Cleveland Browns (1991-94), his college coach, Don James, had a profound impact on him as well at Kent State.

James’ coaching philosophy emphasized defense, teamed with a disciplined offense, and his reputation was that of a stern leader. There was no doubt who was in charge, things had to be done his way and excuses weren’t tolerated. A stickler for details, he was highly organized, and there was little wavering from the set schedule.

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“A tidy ship is a happy ship,” was one of his favorite sayings.

After Kent State (1972-76), Saban bounced around as an assistant coach from Syracuse (1977) to West Virginia (1978-79), Ohio State (1980-81), Navy (1982) and Michigan State (1983-87), not to mention the Houston Oilers (1988-89) and Cleveland Browns in the NFL.

The influences on him were numerous, including Frank Maloney, Frank Cignetti, Earle Bruce, Gary Tranquill, George Perles and Jerry Glanville.

“George Perles, who was a great coach at Michigan State, also at the Pittsburgh Steelers with Chuck Noll, really taught me a lot about developing as a coach,” Saban said. “I'm talking about technique of being a good defensive coordinator and a secondary coach, and was great at how he handled people and treated people, was a great recruiter. I learned a lot from him.”

Interestingly, that was about the time that Saban first thought about—and actually gave up on—becoming a head coach. When he was the defensive coordinator at Michigan State, which had just played in the Rose Bowl, the head-coaching job at his alma mater opened up, and Saban interviewed. Kent State instead hired Dick Crum at the end of his career.

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“I got a little frustrated and said, ‘Wow! You did what you did here this year and they didn’t hire you at your own school, you’re probably never going to be a head coach,’” Saban said. “That’s exactly what I thought, and that had a lot to do with me going a few months later to the Houston Oilers and coaching in the NFL for two years, because I thought I was never going to get to be a head coach in college.”

Obviously it did happen a couple of years later at Toledo (1990), but Belichick called Saban, who returned to the NFL until taking over Michigan State in 1995.

“That’s really the job I always wanted,” he said.

Perhaps that’s why Saban was so supportive of Smart in his pursuit of someday becoming head coach but waiting years for the right job to come along. He ended up landing his dream job at his alma mater.

John Bazemore/Associated Press

When Saban initially hired him at LSU in 2004, he was looking for a young coach to groom and develop. Last week he got a little emotional while calling Smart as loyal as any assistant coach he’s ever had.

“His reaction was he was excited for me,” Smart said during his introductory press conference at Georgia on Monday. “He and I have a great relationship.

“He’s been a great mentor for me and was very supportive and said he’ll do anything he can to help me and continue that development. He’s always been supportive. He’s got a lot of guys out there that he’s worked with in this profession.”

They range from the NFL’s Dallas Cowboys to Indiana University in Pennsylvania, (which was just bounced from the Division II playoffs). More than 10 former Saban assistant coaches have gone on to serve as a head coach in either the pros or collegiate ranks, and more than 20 have been coordinators.

Name	Head coaching job	Years	Record
Curt Cignetti	Indiana University (Penn.)	2011-15	43-15
Mark Dantonio	Cincinnati, Michigan State	2004-6, 2007-13	87-32
Derek Dooley	Louisiana Tech, Tennessee	2007-10, 2010-12	32-41
Jimbo Fisher	Florida State	2010-13	68-13
Jason Garrett	Cowboys (NFL)	2011-13	44-39
Mike Haywood	Miami (Ohio), Texas Southern	2009-10, 2016	10-15
Scott Linehan	Rams (NFL)	2006-08	11-25
Jim McElwain	Colorado State, Florida	2012-14, 2015	32-19
Mike Mularkey	Jaguars, Titans (NFL)	2012, 2015	3-17 (17-32)
Will Muschamp	Florida, South Carolina	2011-14, 2016	28-21
Dan Quinn	Falcons (NFL)	2015	6-6
Pat Shurmur	Browns (NFL)	2011-12	9-23
Kirby Smart	Georgia	2016	0-0
Bobby Williams	Michigan State	2000-02	16-17

Some, obviously, have been more successful than others. Jimbo Fisher has won a national championship at Florida State, and Dantonio just won his third Big Ten title. McElwain won the SEC East in his first year at Florida, while Michael Haywood, Saban's former running backs and special-teams coach at LSU, was named the head coach at Texas Southern last week. 

Mike Mularkey, who was on Saban's staff with the Miami Dolphins (and had previously been the head coach of the Buffalo Bills), is the interim head coach with the Tennessee Titans. Pat Shurmur is the offensive coordinator of the Philadelphia Eagles, while New England Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels has one of the hottest coaching names at the NFL level.

“I got that opportunity, and I think most people would agree maybe it wasn’t the smartest thing for me to do, but you learn a lot about yourself and you figure out where you want to go and what you want to do, and I thought I wanted to be,” Saban said. “(I) enjoyed college coaching more because of the things you do for players and how they sort of develop and benefit personally, academically, and athletically, and there’s a lot more personal gratification in some of those areas and some of those things. And they happen every day.

“I see (former Alabama players) Roy Upchurch having success in his life right now and B.J. Scott being a coach and a lot of guys who have been in this program are doing really well now, and it makes me feel good to see them have success and feel like something they learned while they were here kind of helps them do that.” 

It’s not just a coaching tree with Saban, he might eventually have a forest.

Quotes were obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted.

Christopher Walsh is a lead SEC college football writer. Follow Christopher on Twitter @WritingWalsh.