It’s been two years since Nick Saban last took the field as a coach, but he still has his hands all over the College Football Playoff, regardless of how it shakes out.
Five of the 12 CFP teams this year are led by a coach who served directly under Saban at one time or another. Four of them are still in the race: Curt Cignetti at No. 1 Indiana, Dan Lanning at No. 5 Oregon, Pete Golding at No. 6 Mississippi, and Mario Cristobal at No. 10 Miami.
“Four for four,” Cignetti said. “There’s a lot of disciples out there doing well. That’s why he’s the greatest of all time.”
The disciples Cignetti speaks of are some of the most successful in the game. Cignetti and the Hoosiers will face Oregon in the Peach Bowl. Across the country, Cristobal’s Miami Hurricanes and Golding’s Ole Miss Rebels go head-to-head in the Fiesta Bowl.
Kirby Smart and the Georgia Bulldogs were eliminated in the quarterfinals. Lane Kiffin passed the baton to Golding after leading Ole Miss to the playoffs. Brent Key’s Georgia Tech team had a historic season and fell just short of the ACC Championship game. Jimbo Fisher stepped away from coaching after a highly decorated career.
Saban’s disciples argue it’s no coincidence.
“Everybody learned a lot from Nick,” said Cignetti, who was Saban’s initial receivers coach and recruiting coordinator at Alabama. “He was a great mentor, very organized, detailed, had a plan for everything. Managed lead, how to stop complacency, game day, recruiting, recruiting evaluation, player evaluation. I mean, he had it all. And if you were serious about your career and wanted to be a head coach one day, you took great notes or great mental notes.”
Lanning saw the value in learning under Saban from afar. He took a gamble, leaving behind a full-time position at Sam Houston State and taking a pay cut to accept a graduate assistant role with Alabama.
“When anybody asked me why, I said, ‘I’m going to get my doctorate in football,’” Lanning said. “Working for Coach Saban, just like Coach [Cignetti] said, you learn so much. Things I thought I knew, I realized I didn’t know anything. I got to really carry that over with the opportunity to work with Coach [Kirby] Smart, who built off of that as well at Georgia. And that was an unbelievable experience for me, and obviously it shows here as we enter the semifinals.”
Similar sentiments are being echoed in Arizona, as Ole Miss and Miami prepare for the Fiesta Bowl.
Golding and Cristobal narrowly missed each other in Tuscaloosa. Cristobal was Saban’s offensive line coach from 2013-16. Golding led the Crimson Tide defense for five years, from 2018-22.
Cristobal says his time in Tuscaloosa opened his eyes to what college football has become and what’s necessary to run a successful program. But above all else, he adapted Saban’s mentality, and keeping that alive will always be a top priority for him as a coach.
Golding doubled down. In an era where the life of a college football player can be luxurious, keeping the traditional hard-nosed spirit of college football, embodied by Saban for 17 years at Alabama, is key.
“There’s a toughness component, a competitive character component to hold these guys accountable and hold them to a high standard,” Golding said. “I think that’s pretty consistent with whoever is playing right now.”
Reporting by The Associated Press.
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