Chasing Saban: SEC East trio building own coaching legacy

Nick Saban dominates the SEC. Three of his former assistants are carving out their own legacy in the SEC East. Can they leave Saban’s ominous shadow behind?

In the twilight of his coaching prime, we’ve begun to appreciate the legacy Nick Saban will leave when he retires as the best college football coach to ever grace the sidelines. At 65 years old, Saban has won five national titles (2003, 2009, 2011-12, 2015), seven SEC Championships (2001, 2003, 2009, 2012, 2014-16), and 205 college football games at four Division I schools (Toledo, Michigan State, LSU, and Alabama).

He has earned his place on the Mount Rushmore of college football head coaches. However, Saban’s legacy will be on display through the strength of the branches of his coaching tree.

Saban has his footprint all over football, collegiately and professionally. It helps that he has coaching roots stemming from the Bill Belichick/Bill Parcells school of ‘Do your job!’ coaching. Saban served on Belichick’s defensive staff with the Cleveland Browns in the early 1990s.

Saban disciples like Mark Dantonio (Michigan State), Jimbo Fisher (Florida State), and now Adam Gase (Miami Dolphins) have found their way to being successful head coaches. Other Saban mentees like Bobby Williams (Michigan State), Mike Haywood (Miami (Ohio)), and Derek Dooley (Tennessee) weren’t as fortunate.

Saban has lost his most recent coordinator in Lane Kiffin to the Florida Atlantic Owls job in Boca Raton. Kiffin’s fourth head coaching gig will play out as it will. Alabama coordinators Jeremy Pruitt and Steve Sarkisian will get their opportunities after getting their dose of the Saban treatment.

With all of his success as an SEC head coach, this has left an indelible impression SEC athletic directors. Many have scrambled to find their head coach who can compete with the Goliath of Tuscaloosa. Three of Saban’s most notable disciples have become SEC head coaches in their own right: Jim McElwain (Florida), Will Muschamp (South Carolina), and Kirby Smart (Georgia).

Can any member of the Saban SEC East trio elevate their program into a national power? Will it happen before Saban hangs up the whistle in favor of a promising career as a college football television pundit?

Jim McElwain

In two years with the Florida Gators, McElwain has won back-to-back SEC East Championships. While his teams were properly steamrolled by Saban’s Crimson Tide in the SEC Championship Game, McElwain has quickly asserted himself as one of the best coaches in the SEC.

The former Eastern Washington quarterback first aligned with Saban in 2008 as Alabama’s offensive coordinator. In four years, McElwain and Saban won two national titles (2009, 2011) and reached three SEC Championship games (2008-09, 2011). With McElwain running the offense, the vaunted Alabama rushing attack first gained footing with tailbacks like Glen Coffee, Mark Ingram Jr., Trent Richardson, and Eddie Lacy.

McElwain left Tuscaloosa for his first head coaching opportunity with the Colorado State Rams in 2012. In three years at Fort Collins, Colorado State went 22-16 (14-10) under McElwain. He would leave Colorado State for the Florida coaching vacancy in 2015.

In his first two years in Gainesville, McElwain has gone 19-8 (13-5) as the Gators head coach. He has demanded excellence in the running game and sustained defensive success with players he didn’t recruit to Florida. McElwain was fortunate to land a job at a blue-blood program like Florida. He looks to be a coach capable of making Florida a perennial staple in the AP Top 25 at a minimum.

However, what has plagued Florida since Tim Tebow’s departure continues to be an Achilles’ Heel for Florida: horrendous quarterback play. Even though he is a former quarterback himself, McElwain has not had an easy time getting the position right in his first two years in Gainesville.

Treon Harris, Luke Del Rio, and Austin Appleby weren’t the quarterbacking answers McElwain had hoped for in getting the Florida job. Could it be Feleipe Franks or somebody else yet to grace the Gainesville campus?

Overall, McElwain is a strong head coach. He is keen a player development and a flexible coach in. being able to put his players in positions to succeed. However, his long-term success at Florida will hinge on if he can cultivate a star quarterback. Should McElwain find his quarterback, he could emerge as the strongest branch of Saban’s SEC coaching tree.

Will Muschamp

Muschamp is one of the oldest branches of the Saban coaching tree. The former Georgia defensive back first joined Saban’s staff with the LSU Tigers in 2001 as the secondary coach. Muschamp would be elevated to defensive coordinator in 2002. He would help Saban win his first national title with the 2003 Tigers. Muschamp would follow Saban to the NFL and be with him on the 2005 Dolphins staff as an assistant head coach.

Muschamp would leave the NFL in 2006 for the Auburn Tigers defensive coordinator position. He would spend the next five seasons as a college defensive coordinator at Auburn (2006-07) and at Texas (2008-10). Muschamp before getting his first head coaching gig with Florida in 2010. However, his four years in Gainesville did not go over well.

While 2012 saw his Gators team would reach the Sugar Bowl, 2013 and 2014 were disasters. Muschamp continuously botched the quarterback position, causing Florida to miss a bowl game in 2013. He stepped down at the end of the 2014 regular season. Muschamp left Florida worse than he found it.

He would then spend a year in a familiar post with Auburn as Gus Malzahn’s defensive coordinator in 2015. Muschamp garnered his second head coaching opportunity in the SEC with the South Carolina Gamecocks in 2016.

South Carolina is a tricky job, as no head coach lands another head coaching opportunity after roosting with the Gamecocks. However, his two predecessors of Lou Holtz and Steve Spurrier were in their 70s when they hung up the headset/visor.

In Muschamp’s first year in Columbia, he moved mountains in getting the Gamecocks to a bowl game. South Carolina went 3-9 in 2015 and was expected to be as bad in 2016. Through great coaching, Muschamp has his South Carolina program easily two years ahead of schedule. Once again, he showed that he can install a great defense and get the most out of players he didn’t recruit.

Muschamp is only 45 years old and could have staying power with the South Carolina program should he get the right quarterback. He does seem to have something special in true sophomore Jake Bentley. There is a reason to believe that Muschamp can be as good as Spurrier was in Columbia because he could have more time on the job. It’s all on Muschamp at this point. Does he have what it takes to be a Power 5 head coach?

What could lead to Muschamp’s downfall in Columbia is three-fold: 1.) An in-state behemoth in the Clemson Tigers to deal with in recruitment. 2.) The University of South Carolina has not historically given its coaches the best of resources to succeed. 3.) Frankly, Muschamp’s own temperament.

If Muschamp can do better in his second go-around as a head coach, he can certainly be a strong SEC branch of the Saban tree. He should realize this is his last opportunity to get it right as a head coach. Honestly, Muschamp faces the most pressure of the three, as he is already on his second chance.

Kirby Smart

In determining the strength of Saban’s SEC coaching tree, no branch will be more scrutinized than Smart at Georgia. Smart is former defensive back at Georgia, slightly younger than Muschamp. Before landing the job at his alma mater Georgia Bulldogs in 2016, Smart had spent 11 of the previous 17 seasons as an assistant coach working under Saban.

Smart first joined up with Saban on the 2004 LSU staff. When Saban went to the NFL in 2005, Smart would spend a year coaching running backs at Georgia for Mark Richt. Smart would join Saban’s Dolphins staff the following year. He stayed by his side for the next 10 seasons, mostly with the Crimson Tide (2007-15).

Smart became Saban’s defensive coordinator in 2008. He helped cultivate historically dominant defenses for a program that won four national titles in seven years. When Richt was fired in 2015, Smart took the opportunity of his lifetime to go coach at Georgia.

Like McElwain at arch-rival Florida, Smart went to a job that always does well with recruitment. Smart will win with players he inherits from Richt era in Athens. The Bulldogs went 8-5 in the first year of the Smart era, an obvious rebuilding year for the program.

While McElwain and Muschamp are good coaches, too, Smart does have two things working for him that they will have to overcome: quarterback situation and no serious in-state recruiting rival. Because Georgia Tech runs the triple-option, Georgia has an easier time of landing more of the state’s top recruits. Muschamp has to fend of Clemson. McElwain has to deal with both Florida State and Miami. Smart inherited Jacob Eason when he took the job in 2016. Five-star Jake Fromm has followed Smart from Tuscaloosa to Athens with his firm commitment.

Smart seems to be a recruiter on par with Saban. However, does he have the grasp of the x’s and o’s to back it up as an in-game tactician? While he faces absurd pressure to bring Georgia a national championship, Smart may have the best shot at being the SEC heir apparent to Saban. Smart has the in-state talent and the recruiting chops to be the next great SEC coach. If he can get better at game planning, look for Georgia to pop in 2017.

Conclusion

2016 was not a great year for the SEC. Alabama didn’t win back-to-back national titles and the other 13 SEC teams lost at least four games apiece. Saban will go out on his own terms, but don’t be surprised if one of his SEC protegés becomes the next great head coach in the conference.

There is a path to success for all three. However, only one will receive the SEC coaching coronation once Saban abdicates the throne. Together, these three Saban disciples in the SEC East will make that division great again.