Saban shows former assistants no mercy

Florida head coach Will Muschamp, left, talks with Alabama coach Nick Saban before an NCAA college football game against on Saturday, Sept. 20, 2014, in Tuscaloosa, Ala. (AP Photo/Butch Dill)
Florida head coach Will Muschamp, left, talks with Alabama coach Nick Saban before an NCAA college football game against on Saturday, Sept. 20, 2014, in Tuscaloosa, Ala. (AP Photo/Butch Dill)

It figures to be only a matter of time before Lane Kiffin lands another SEC head coaching job and Jeremy Pruitt gets a shot to run his own SEC program, too.

After all, they’re coordinators for Alabama Coach Nick Saban.

SEC schools like to hire guys who worked for Saban.

Of the 15 head coaching hires in the SEC since 2010, five were assistants for Saban at LSU or Alabama.

The Saban connection has become such an obsession for some SEC schools that Will Muschamp — Saban’s defensive coordinator at LSU — has been hired, fired and hired again in a span of five years.

South Carolina hired Muschamp in December to be its coach even though he was fired as Florida’s coach in 2014 because of a 28-21 record in his four seasons leading the Gators.

So if South Carolina is willing to give Muschamp another chance in the SEC, it figures a conference school will hire Kiffin, who went 7-6 in 2009 in his lone season at Tennessee and has helped Alabama go a combined 25-3 in two seasons as offensive coordinator.

Muschamp wasn’t the only Saban assistant to land an SEC job in the offseason.

Georgia fired Mark Richt — who had a 145-51 record in 15 seasons, including 83-37 in the SEC — after 15 seasons as the Bulldogs’ coach to hire Kirby Smart.

Smart played safety for the Bulldogs, but presumably his main qualification for the Georgia job was that he coached with Saban the last eight years, including being his defensive coordinator for seven years.

Some Georgia officials pushed for Richt to be fired because they were afraid of losing Smart to South Carolina.

Florida replaced Muschamp with another Saban assistant, hiring Jim McElwain, who before coaching at Colorado State for three seasons was Saban’s offensive coordinator at Alabama.

Saban said at SEC media days he was pleased three of his assistants are head coaches in the conference.

“We’re always very happy and pleased to see guys who have done a fantastic job for us — for a long, long time in some cases — get the opportunity that they’ve worked hard to achieve in their personal careers,” Saban said. “Hopefully, some of the things they’ve learned in our program will help them be successful. We wish every one of those guys the utmost luck.”

None of Saban’s former assistants have had any luck beating him.

Maybe that stat is lost on the schools that keep hiring coaches with the idea of duplicating Saban’s success at LSU and Alabama, where he has a combined 148-34 record in 14 seasons with five national championships.

Saban’s four assistants he’s faced — including Michigan State Coach Mark Dantonio and Derek Dooley, who was at Tennessee from 2010-2012 — are a combined 0-9 against him.

The games haven’t been close, either.

Saban has beaten his former assistants by a combined score of 359-88.

The closest margin was Alabama’s 29-15 victory over Florida and McElwain in last season’s SEC Championship Game.

That game dropped McElwain to 0-2 against Saban, including Alabama’s 31-6 victory over Colorado State in 2013.

Muschamp and Dantonio, who was Saban’s assistant at Michigan State, also are 0-2 against him, including Alabama’s 38-0 victory over the Spartans last season in the semifinals of the College Football Playoff.

Dooley, a Saban assistant at LSU, was 0-3 against the Crimson Tide, with the Vols losing 41-10, 37-6 and 44-13.

McElwain, Muschamp and Smart don’t face Alabama in the regular season this fall. The only way they’ll play Alabama is in Atlanta in the SEC Championship Game.

When McElwain was asked at SEC media days if Saban’s former assistants ever talk about beating him and when it might happen, he dodged the question.

“I know what an honor it was to work for Coach, and I was excited to be able to play him,” McElwain said. “I know this: I’ll be excited to play him again this year, because I know it’s in Atlanta.”

It’s probably not a coincidence all of Saban’s assistants hired for SEC jobs took them in the East so they wouldn’t have to compete against him to win the West title, though Dooley had to play Alabama every season because the Tide and Vols are permanent cross-over opponents.

If you want to be retoactive about Saban assistants, Kiffin is 0-1 against him with Alabama beating Tennessee 12-10 in 2009.

What the SEC schools counting on Saban assistants to win a conference championship might not have taken into account is that they probably have to beat him to accomplish that goal, and he doesn’t seem ready to step away from coaching any time soon.

“I’ve been part of a team since I was 9 years old,” Saban said at a news conference after Alabama beat Clemson 45-40 in last season’s national title game in Tempe, Ariz. “It scares me to think of the day when I’m not a part of a team.

“The feeling that you get being associated with a group like this makes you want to do it more. That’s kind of how I feel about it.”

Saban will turn 65 on Oct. 31 — yes, he was born on Halloween in 1951 — but said he has no plans to retire.

“I know you can’t do this forever, but I certainly enjoy the moment and certainly look forward to the future and the challenges that we have,” he said in Tempe. “I really have no timetable for ever not being a part of the team.”

Alabama senior tight O.J. Howard said at SEC media days Saban coaches like a young man.

“I don’t see him slowing down at all,” Howard said. “Coach is with us out there, throwing the ball around at practice. He’s running well and looks to be in a great shape. He keeps himself up well.

“No telling how long Coach will coach, but I see him going for a long time.”

McElwain and Smart agreed they expect Saban to continue coaching for the foreseeable future.

“I think he can go forever,” McElwain said. “That’s just the way he’s wired.

“When we were around each other at the SEC Championship Game, I didn’t see one less bounce in his step, anything like that. The guy’s something special.”

Smart said it’s simple to pinpoint what keeps Saban in coaching.

“He’s driven to be the best,” Smart said. “He’ll coach for a long time. I believe that.

“He’s passionate about it. He’s very healthy. He takes care of his body. He hasn’t slowed down a bit, I promise you that.”

Arkansas hasn’t beaten Alabama since Saban became the Tide’s coach in 2007. The Razorbacks’ coaches to lose to Saban since then are Houston Nutt, Bobby Petrino, John L. Smith and Bret Bielema.

“I’ve only been around him three years, but he seems to be more excited/angry/happy/sad, whatever it is that he’s feeling, he expresses it quite a bit,” Bielema said of Saban. “But he’s an unbelievable coach and an unbelievable human being.”

Not only does Saban seem ready to continue coaching for several years, he’s said repeatedly he intends to end his career at Alabama.

That might have seemed hard to believe because Saban never had been a head coach at the same place for more than five years previously, but he’s now going into his 10th season at Alabama.

Saban’s contract, which pays him $7 million annually, runs through 2021.

“I think you get to a station in your life, whether it’s family or relationships, a combination of all the above, that you just feel like you’re entrenched,” Saban told ESPN.com in March. “You can’t even visualize being somewhere else, and that’s where I am right now.”

Alabama, where Saban has won four national championships after winning his first title at LSU in 2003, is ranked No. 1 in most preseason polls.

If the Tide win a national championship this season, Saban will match the six titles Fordyce native Bear Bryant won as Alabama’s coach.

“That would be awesome,” Howard said. “If we do the right things we’re coached to do, all that stuff will take care of itself at the end of the day.

“All the praise and the glory will come with it.”

CAN’T BEAT NICK

Alabama Coach Nick Saban is 9-0 in matchups against his former assistants who have become head coaches. He’s won those games by a combined 359-88.

Luckily for three SEC coaches who used to work for Saban — Florida’s Jim McElwain, Georgia’s Kirby Smart and South Carolina Coach Will Muschamp — their teams don’t play Alabama in the regular season.

Here’s a rundown of Saban’s beatdowns of his former assisistants:

season;ex-assistant, team;score

2010;Derek Dooley, Tennessee;Alabama won 41-10

2010;Mark Dantonio, Michigan State;Alabama won 49-7*

2011;Derek Dooley, Tennessee;Alabama won 37-6

2011;Will Muschamp, Florida;Alabama won 38-10

2012;Derek Dooley, Tennessee;Alabama won 44-13

2013;Jim McElwain, Colorado State;Alabama won 31-6

2014;Will Muschamp, Florida;Alabama won 42-21

2015;Jim McElwain, Florida;Alabama won 29-15$

2015;Mark Dantonio, Michigan State;Alabama won 38-0#

*Citrus Bowl

$SEC Championship Game #College Football Playoff semifinal in Cotton Bowl

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