How Good was Nick Saban at Alabama?

When Nick Saban took the reins at Alabama in 2007, the program wasn’t exactly the powerhouse we remember from recent years…

Before Saban, Alabama was just average. They would definitely have a few good seasons, going 10-2 in 2005 and 10-3 in 2002, but from 2000-2005, they had a combined record of 40-33. Now, that isn’t bad by any means, but it was a far cry from what Alabama fans were used to.

Because before the 21st century, in the early 90s, with Gene Stallings as the head coach from 90-96, Alabama would win a national championship in 1992 with a 13-0 season and win over the Miami Hurricanes, and it would also win an impressive four SEC West titles.

But before Stallings, there was Bear Bryant. In his 25 years with the Crimson Tide, he had a combined 232 wins, 46 losses, and 9 ties. That’s roughly an 82 percent winning percentage or an 8-9 win season on average.

Let’s fast forward to the 2007 season when Nick Saban was named the head coach for the Crimson Tide.

He definitely wasn’t adopting a thriving program at the time, just coming off of a 6-7 season Led by Mike Shula, and to make this coaching change even more interesting, it isn’t like Nick Saban was seeing much success as a coach in recent years, at least as an NFL coach…

After proving himself as a successful college coach he decided to take a leap into the NFL, being named the head coach for the Miami Dolphins in 2005.

Simply put, he struggled to see the same success that he had in college so after going 15-17 in his 2 seasons with Miami he decided to take a step back down to the collegiate level.

Things didn’t take off right away for Saban. Alabama ended the regular season with a 6–6 record, with a humiliating loss at home to Louisiana-Monroe, and a sixth straight loss to Auburn in the Iron Bowl. But they did make it to a bowl game as the Crimson Tide defeated Colorado in the 2007 Independence Bowl, 30–24, to end the year 7–6. Not the amazing start Alabama fans were hoping for but it was a step in the right direction.

In 2008 Alabama would finish 12-2 the most wins in program history since 1994. It got even better, as Saban led his team to an undefeated 14-0 season and National Championship in 2009 with a victory over Texas.

Fast forward to now, and Alabama football under Saban has been arguably the best coach in college football history. He completely flipped the script, turning a struggling program into a dynasty. Six national championships (2009, 2011, 2012, 2015, 2017, 2020), 10 SEC titles, and a jaw-dropping 15 consecutive 10-win seasons, and hold a record of 44 players to get selected in the 1st round of the draft.

In Saban’s Final season with the Tide, they finished 12–2 with a loss to Michigan in the National Championship game.

As for the current state of Alabama well, Coach Deboer has been on the hot seat after an underperforming Alabama team currently posts an 8-3 record, with little to no hope of making the 12-team CFP.

I don’t want to take anything away from Debeor, I think he is still a good coach with the ability to carry this Alabama program to multiple conference titles, but the absence of Nick Saban and the culture he built at Alabama has been made clear, and let’s just say he set the standard for Alabama football.