1. Nick Saban, Alabama
Shockingly enough, the greatest college football coach of all time is also the best coach in the sport right now. Who’d have thought?
Nick Saban’s level of success at Alabama is remarkable almost any way you want to look at it. From a pure success perspective, the Crimson Tide have won six National Championships since he came around and have made the College Football Playoff all but one year (when Tua Tagovailoa got hurt). The program is also 91-8 in the playoff era, which is simply absurd.
Moreover, Saban remains a top-tier recruiter who consistently replaces one group of former 5-star talents with another group. It’s a cycle of greatness in the SEC West right now as Alabama has been the epitome of the phrase “they don’t rebuild, they just reload”.
And what the all-time great often doesn’t get enough credit for is doing all of this while playing musical chairs with his staff. As you’d expect, his top assistants have consistently been poached for head coaching jobs of their own and the level of performance for the Tide hasn’t dropped off despite that.
As long as Saban is on the sidelines, Alabama is going to be one of the favorites to win the National Championship. I’m not sure there’s any other coach, even Swinney, who that can be said of, which is why Saban is clearly No. 1.
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