Alabama is a double-digit favorite in every game this season. But don’t tell that to Nick Saban. Check out his coaching career and record.
Nick Saban : Coaching career | Alabama record
Nicholas Lou Saban Jr. is an American football coach who has been the head football coach at the University of Alabama since 2007.
| Current position | |
|---|---|
| Title | Head coach |
| Team | Alabama |
| Conference | SEC |
| Record | 179–25 |
| Annual salary | $11.7 million |
Saban previously served as head coach of the National Football League’s Miami Dolphins and at three other universities: Louisiana State University (LSU), Michigan State University, and the University of Toledo.
He is considered by many to be the greatest coach in college football history.
Saban led the LSU Tigers to the BCS National Championship in 2003 and the Alabama Crimson Tide to BCS and AP national championships in 2009, 2011, 2012, and College Football Playoff championships in 2015, 2017 and 2020.
He has won seven national titles as a head coach, the most in college football history.
Nick Saban coaching career
Saban had not intended to enter the coaching ranks until Don James hired him as a graduate assistant at Kent State, while Saban waited for his wife to graduate.
He later served as an assistant coach in NCAA Division I-A, at several schools: Syracuse in 1977, West Virginia in 1978 and 1979, Ohio State in 1980 and 1981, Navy in 1982, and Michigan State from 1983 to 1987.
| Coaching career (HC unless noted) | |
|---|---|
| 1973–1974 | Kent State (GA) |
| 1975–1976 | Kent State (LB) |
| 1977 | Syracuse (OLB) |
| 1978–1979 | West Virginia (DB) |
| 1980–1981 | Ohio State (DB) |
| 1982 | Navy (DB) |
| 1983–1987 | Michigan State (DC/DB) |
| 1988–1989 | Houston Oilers (DB) |
| 1990 | Toledo |
| 1991–1994 | Cleveland Browns (DC) |
| 1995–1999 | Michigan State |
| 2000–2004 | LSU |
| 2005–2006 | Miami Dolphins |
| 2007–present | Alabama |
After the 1987 season, Kent State passed over Saban for its vacant head coaching position and hired Dick Crum.
Saban was then hired as an assistant for the Houston Oilers in the National Football League.
Saban began his career as a head coach when he was hired by the University of Toledo on December 22, 1989.
Coming off of 6–5 seasons in both 1988 and 1989, the Rockets found quick success under Nick Saban in 1990.
The following February, Saban resigned as Toledo’s head coach after only one season in order to become defensive coordinator of the Cleveland Browns under head coach Bill Belichick.
Saban became head coach of Michigan State prior to the 1995 season. Michigan State had not had a winning season since 1990, and the team was sanctioned by the NCAA for recruiting violations that were committed under his predecessor and former mentor, George Perles.
Alabama record
On January 4, 2007, at a press conference on the Alabama campus, Saban was officially introduced as the head football coach of The University of Alabama.
On September 1, 2007, his Crimson Tide opened the season with a 52–6 win over the Western Carolina Catamounts, scoring more points than during any game in the 2006 season.
From 2007 up to now, Saban has won 177 games and lost just 24. Several of those losses actually came in Saban’s first season in Tuscaloosa as the Crimson Tide struggled to a 7-6 record (which the NCAA knocked down to a 2-6 record). But the Crimson Tide improved considerably from there.
Saban became the fifth Alabama coach since 1900 to start his first season 3–0, earning a win over then-ranked No. 16 Arkansas Razorbacks.
Alabama ended the regular season with a 6–6 record, including a four-game losing streak, a particularly humiliating loss at home to Louisiana-Monroe, and a sixth straight loss to Auburn in the Iron Bowl. The Crimson Tide defeated Colorado in the 2007 Independence Bowl, 30–24, to end the year 7–6.
During his second year as head coach of the Tide, Saban led his team from a sub-par season in 2007 to a perfect 12–0 regular season record.
Saban finished the regular season undefeated for the first time in his career as a head coach as he led the Crimson Tide to its first undefeated regular season since 1994.
He appeared on the September 1, 2008, cover of Forbes magazine as “The Most Powerful Coach in Sports.”