This College Football Playoff is unique for a couple of reasons. Not just because it has featured a shocking run by Miami, a budding dynasty in Indiana and an exciting redemption story of sorts with Ole Miss. But that’s just scratching the surface of all the unique things to happen this year. One of the most unique things about this year is every head coach in the CFP semifinals game is from the Nick Saban coaching tree.
But what exactly does that mean?
The Nick Saban coaching tree is engrained in college football's fabric
Well, the Nick Saban coaching tree refers to the long list of coaches that served as assistants under Nick Saban during his illustrious career at Alabama. Saban was known for being a rehab coach for failed coaches as he has taken in some of the biggest names including Bill O’Brien, Steve Sarkisian, Lane Kiffin and Kirby Smart.
The coaches that have survived his boot camp and turned themselves into respectable head coaches, it’s clear why they succeeded: They learned well from their master. Smart’s Georgia team is a near mirror image of some of Bama’s most feared teams; Kiffin and Sarkisian have each turned around programs that needed help. But it’s not just about building them up, but building them in the same way Bama teams thrived.
Here’s everything you need to know about what it means to be part of the Nick Saban coaching tree and how all four coaches’ unique path to their respective schools all started with one person.
Which Nick Saban coaching tree members are in this year’s College Football Playoff?
Coach | Years with Alabama | Role under Saban | Championship(s) Won |
|---|---|---|---|
Curt Cignetti | 2007-11 | WR coach and recruiting coordinator | 2009, 2011 |
Mario Cristobal | 2013-15 | Assistant HC/offensive coordinator/recruiting coordinator | 2015 |
Dan Lanning | 2015 | Graduate assistant | 2015 |
Pete Golding | 2018-22 | Defensive coordinator | 2022 |
As you can see, every coach in the CFP worked under Saban at one point in their careers. Coincidentally enough, Mario Cristobal and Dan Lanning’s time in Tuscaloosa overlapped for one season. Sabans’ reign in Tuscaloosa was so dominant, all of them have at least one national championship as an assistant under Saban.
Pete Golding was the most recent coach under Saban to get a head coaching job. Golding was promoted earlier this year, just before the CFP, after another Saban-ite, Kiffin, spurned Ole Miss for LSU. Golding coached under Saban from 2018 to 2022 as a defensive coordinator before joining Kiffin’s staff.
Before Golding, Mario Cristobal was an assistant from 2013 to 2016, Lanning was there for just one year in 2015 and Curt Cignetti was in Tuscaloosa from 2007-2011.
How Pete Golding went from Alabama to the CFP
In the four seasons Golding was the defensive coordinator in Tuscaloosa, the Crimson Tide lost seven games and one a national championship with two title appearances. Alabama’s defensive success during that time is what led Golding to joining Kiffin’s staff. Golding’s move to Ole Miss was a good one not just because it earned him a promotion, but because he was able to continue that success, especially when Kiffin needed an improvement in the defense.
Golding was promoted to head coach without the interim tag after the drama surrounding Kiffin threatened the Rebels’ best season in program history. Golding’s response to adversity was to win consecutive CFP games and reach the semifinals with a shot at a national title.
Curt Cignetti’s head coach gamble that graduated him from Nick Saban’s tutelage
Google him, he wins. That tracks back all the way to his time with Saban. Believe it or not, he was on the original staff when Saban first took the job at Alabama. But Cignetti earned his way, winning through recruiting. He was the top recruiting coach and helped bring Julio Jones and Mark Ingram to Tuscaloosa.
He left Saban’s staff after the 2011 season to coach at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. Saban was baffled, recalling: “I remember him telling me where he was going, IUP, and thinking that’s a big drop from coaching in the SEC. But he wanted to be a head coach.”
It worked out because Cignetti has turned around every program he’s touched. He led James Madison to prominence in FCS, engineering their jump to FBS, and now has Indiana within reach of a national championship in his second consecutive trip to the CFP.
Dan Lanning’s pay cut that paid off in the end
When talking about his experience with the Nick Saban coaching school, Dan Lanning recalled being questioned why he took a pay cut to be a graduate assistant under Saban. “I was going to take a pay cut to go be a GA there. When anybody asked me why, I said I'm going to get my doctorate in football... Things I thought I knew, I realized I didn't really know anything."
Now he’s leading Oregon to their second straight College Football Playoff appearance with much better success this year, already having two wins this year. Since taking over the Ducks after Cristobal left for south Florida, he has a 48-7 record with two CFP appearances.
Mario Cristobal’s rise from Nick Saban’s top assistant to The U
Cristobal earned his stripes under Saban as his top assistant for four seasons. During that time, The Crimson Tide won a national championship and was well in the dominant phase of Saban’s leadership. Cristobal also led the offense, working with quarterbacks like AJ McCarron and Jalen Hurts. That helped prepare him for leading Oregon. With the Ducks, he spent just one season as an offensive coordinator before getting promoted to head coach.
It wasn’t until this season where he reached the CFP for the first time as a head coach and he’s gotten two wins already. With another, he'll compete for his first title as a head coach.
Why the Nick Saban coaching tree still shapes the CFP
What makes Saban’s run as a head coach so remarkable isn’t just the dominance he had himself, but the fact that while he was churning out talented football players, he was building talented coaches too. It’s something to be able to turn assistants into successful head coaches. No college coach has been as successful as Saban.
Saban hasn’t coached a football game in three years, and his legacy is still running through the veins of college football. What’s crazy is there’s either going to be more coaches that have some sort of connection to Saban or these same coaches are going to become the new faces of dominant programs for decades to come.