Alabama Crimson Tide head coach Nick Saban, who is widely considered to be the greatest college football coach of all time, decided to retire after 17 seasons Wednesday.
Saban’s accomplishments at Alabama will be difficult to replicate. Saban was 206-29 as the head coach of the Crimson Tide, and his first year in 2007 was the only season in which he finished with under 10 wins. He finished with under 11 wins just twice, and won six national championships at Alabama.
Saban also had nine SEC championships on his way to usurping Paul “Bear” Bryant as the most legendary coach in Alabama football history. Saban became the first head coach since Nebraska Cornhusker legend Tom Osborne to win three national championships in four years.
Saban’s legacy will be long appreciated by Alabama fans, and his impact on the school goes beyond football. The city of Tuscaloosa went from 89,000 residents to 110,000. Alabama’s enrollment went from 25,000 to just under 40,000, and their out of state enrollment went from 25.6% to 57.9%. In an article from Yahoo Sports, Alabama chancellor Robert Witt claimed the investment in Saban was well worth it.
“Nick Saban is the best investment this university has ever made,” Witt said.
Saban’s impact will be hard to replicate, and the lofty expectations he may have created could negatively affect the next Alabama head coach.
The best college football coach of all-time before former Alabama Crimson Tide head coach Nick Saban took the title was Nebraska Cornhuskers head coach Tom Osborne
Before Saban took the title, Nebraska Cornhuskers head coach Tom Osborne was widely considered the best college football coach of all-time. Before Saban, he was the only coach to win three national championships in four years.
Osborne was 255-49-3 at Nebraska, and his legacy was notoriously difficult to live up to. The successor named by him, Frank Solich, was fired after six seasons when he went 9-3 in 2003. Since the firing of Solich, the Cornhuskers program has yet to sniff the greatness they experienced in the 1990s.
Nebraska hasn’t finished ranked in nine seasons, and they haven’t finished with more than 10 wins once since the firing of Solich. The last time the Huskers finished with more than five wins was in 2016. The Huskers never finished with under nine wins when Bo Pelini was the head coach, but he was fired after seven seasons.
Filling the shoes of legendary head coaches is an extremely difficult task, and the two decades of mediocrity that the Nebraska Cornhuskers endured is the epitome of this concept.
Several other head coaches have struggled to follow legendary head coaches like Nick Saban of the Alabama Crimson Tide
Another example of a program struggling upon the departure of a legendary head coach was the Notre Dame Fighting Irish after Lou Holtz. Holtz did not accomplish what Nick Saban did at Alabama, but he won a national championship and finished with a 100-30-2 record.
📹 Pop this 📼 tape in the VCR and rewind the highlights!
Look back at the 1989 Fiesta Bowl, the victory that brought @NDFootball its eleventh national title!#VCRDay #GoIrish pic.twitter.com/0XVBhOnL6H
— The Fighting Irish (@FightingIrish) June 7, 2018
In 11 years, Holtz won over 10 games five times. The coach that followed Holtz, Bob Davie, never achieved a 10-win season in his five year stint with the Fighting Irish. He finished with a 35-25 record, and went winless in bowl games causing him to be fired in 2001.
Another example, which occured at the same school Saban is leaving, is the successor to legendary Alabama head coach Paul “Bear” Bryant. Bryant won five national championships at Alabama and finished with a 205-42-9 record. Bryant was an Alabama legend and has a statue in front of Bryant-Denny Stadium, which is partially named after him.
#Bama Video Day: 1980 Sugar Bowl win over Arkansas. pic.twitter.com/80bx1gCvl2
— Bama247 (@Bama_247) March 25, 2020
His successor, Ray Perkins, finished with a 32-15-1 record at Alabama. He had one 10-win season, which was his last season. He left Alabama for the NFL amid pressure from boosters and alumni, but he was not officially fired.
A more modern instance of this concept is the replacement of Urban Meyer at Florida. Meyer won two national championships and finished with a 65-15 record at Florida. He coached one of the best college football players of all time in Tim Tebow, and had 13 wins in three of his six years.
The “Jump Throw” TD from Tim Tebow #Florida #GoGators #CollegeFootballFanatics @TimTebow pic.twitter.com/EErJ27fUeX
— College Football Fanatics (@CFBallFan) September 22, 2023
His successor, Will Muschamp, only had more than seven wins once in his four year stint. He won just one bowl game, and even failed to make a bowl game in his last full season in 2013 with a 4-8 record. Muschamp finished with a 28-21 record with the Florida Gators.
Meyer was one one example that proves that it is not impossible to be successful while filling in the shoes of a legendary coach. Meyer took over for legendary Ohio State head coach Jim Tressel. Tressel went 94-22 at Ohio State and won a national championship in 2002.
6 days until Ohio State football
Cie Grant- 2003 Fiesta Bowl, Cie Grant pressuring Miami QB Ken Dorsey, forcing him to throw an incompletion. Miami hasn’t been the same since. pic.twitter.com/si5DcgF8jg
— Carrie Lynn (@OSUFAN4U2NV) August 27, 2021
Tressel left amid scandals in 2010, and Meyer took over in 2012 at the end of a two-year bowl ban. Meyer won a national championship at Ohio State in 2014, and finished with an 83-9 record. He had a higher winning percentage than Tressel after replacing him, and he never won less than 10 games with the Buckeyes.
Whoever decides to fill Nick Saban’s shoes at Alabama will have their hands full as a season with two or more losses has become a “down year” for the Crimson Tide. However, it is not impossible to keep the success going, especially when a head coach leaves you with talent like there is at Alabama.
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