Connelly: Nick Saban built a Bama dynasty and went on the best coaching run … ever
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Bill Connelly, ESPN Staff Writer
For an entire era, Nick Saban completely broke the definition of success in college football.
Mark Richt won at least nine games in 11 of 15 years at Georgia, with two conference titles and seven top-10 finishes, just one fewer than the legendary Vince Dooley had in 25 years. Richt was fired after the last of those nine-win seasons.
Les Miles never won fewer than eight games in 11 full seasons at LSU. He won a national title with five top-10 finishes, more than the Tigers had managed in the 35 years before his hire. He was fired after losing two games early in 2016.
After a run of six straight top-three finishes with two national titles, Dabo Swinney’s Clemson has merely averaged 10 wins over the past three years, and it kind of seems like a crisis. Lincoln Riley has won 65 games in six full-length seasons and Ryan Day has won 46 in four, and they’re both facing extreme pressure and doubt. And while I’m not going to pretend this is all because of one man in Tuscaloosa — losing three straight to Michigan, as Day has, will always test the patience of Ohio State fans, for instance — Saban’s relentlessly consistent success scrambled the brains of fans and administrators throughout the sport.
Simply put, Nick Saban, who announced his retirement from coaching Wednesday, was the best, most successful coach in college football history. No one — not Bear Bryant, not Bobby Bowden, not Bud Wilkinson, not Bernie Bierman, not Frank Leahy, not Woody Hayes, not Walter Camp — can match his seven national titles. And while the College Football Playoff didn’t come into existence until Saban had already won four titles, it will still take Swinney two more trips or Kirby Smart five more trips to match Saban’s eight appearances in 10 years.
It’s not even just the titles, though. Fluky losses happen, and they can derail title bids, but even when Saban’s Alabama teams didn’t win the title, they were almost always title-worthy.
Here’s a complete list of teams that finished either first or second in SP+ — my opponent-adjusted power rating — for at least five straight seasons:
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Penn, 1894-98 (five years)
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Michigan, 1901-05 (five)
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Georgia Tech, 1917-21 (five)
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USC, 1925-29 (five)
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Ole Miss, 1959-63 (five)
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Miami, 1986-91 (six)
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Yale, 1884-95 (12)
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Alabama, 2009-21 (13)
Miami’s five-year run of near perfection was good enough to inspire a 30 for 30. It was the only run of its kind between the mid-1960s and the mid-2000s. But in an era of 85-man scholarship limits, with tougher national title runs — a guaranteed 1-versus-2 matchup starting in 1998, a four-team playoff starting in 2014 — Saban’s Crimson Tide more than doubled Miami’s run and topped that of even late-1800s Yale, which had to compete with only a few dozen football-playing schools.
And even that doesn’t fully capture the brilliance of Saban’s run because it doesn’t capture the complete and total reinvention that happened halfway through it.
Saban won BCS national titles in 2009, 2011 and 2012 with otherworldly defense; SP+, in fact, grades the 2011 unit — which allowed 8.2 points per game and just 3.3 yards per play, pitched a shutout in the BCS Championship and allowed more than 14 points just once all year — as the best defense in college football history. But he saw that the sport was becoming far more offense-oriented. “Is this what we want football to be?” he famously asked of the sport’s increasing tempo and point totals in 2012. But as the joke goes, he wasn’t complaining — he was just confirming. Because starting with the hire of Lane Kiffin as offensive coordinator in 2014, he shifted his program emphasis more to that side of the ball.
“It used to be that good defense beats good offense,” he told ESPN’s Chris Low in 2020. “Good defense doesn’t beat good offense anymore. […] It used to be if you had a good defense, other people weren’t going to score. You were always going to be in the game. I’m telling you, it ain’t that way anymore.”
So be it: After ranking either first or second in defensive SP+ for 10 straight years from 2008 to ’17, his Tide ranked first on offense for five straight years from 2018 to ’22. He completely reinvented his program, and its overall level never really dropped. The Tide continued to rank first or second overall every year and never went more than three years without another national title.
Until 2023. It stands to reason that, even when Bama’s level finally dropped a bit — even as the offense briefly battled its first QB crisis in years, and the Tide both lost at home to Texas by 10 points and had to survive four one-score finishes and a number of performances that were mediocre by their standards — Saban’s final team still went 11-1 in the regular season, won the SEC and derailed Georgia’s nearly two-year winning streak and hopes of a third straight national title. The Tide unjustly secured a CFP bid over unbeaten Florida State, but whether it was deserved or not, they damn near beat eventual national champion Michigan once they got there. Saban seemed to hate dealing with collectives and the NIL era, and he dipped into the transfer portal only so much, but he continued to clear an impossibly high bar when it came to procuring talent, and his worst team in 15 years was still excellent by the standards of anyone other than Saban himself.
During his time dominating college football, he was also defining the future of it, hiring the coaches who would occupy seemingly every major job around him. At Michigan State, he hired future MSU head coach, playoff participant and soon-to-be Hall of Fame inductee Mark Dantonio. At LSU, Saban employed future national champion Jimbo Fisher, plus future SEC head coaches Will Muschamp and Dooley and future NFL head coaches Pat Shurmur and Adam Gase. The Bama staff was constantly raided by rivals hoping to find their own Saban. Current Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian, Ole Miss‘ Lane Kiffin, Oregon‘s Dan Lanning, Florida‘s Billy Napier, Maryland‘s Mike Locksley, Miami‘s Mario Cristobal, Indiana‘s Curt Cignetti, Marshall‘s Charles Huff, Arkansas State‘s Butch Jones and Central Michigan‘s Jim McElwain are among the current active coaches who spent time under Saban in Tuscaloosa, as is the New York Giants‘ Brian Daboll. Hell, even Saban’s Miami Dolphins staff featured a number of future NFL coaches.
Then there was Kirby Smart. The former Georgia safety landed on Saban’s LSU staff in 2004, then scored an assistant role with Saban’s Dolphins in 2006. And from 2007 to ’15, Smart was the veritable right-hand man for the sport’s best coach. In 2016, he replaced Richt at UGA and proceeded to build the only Death Star that could consistently rival Saban’s. Georgia lost a heartbreaker to Bama in 2017’s national title game but returned the favor in 2021, then won a second title a year later. The Dawgs have finished either first or second in SP+ for three straight years, and while that’s still 10 years short of Saban’s incredible run, if any active coach has a chance of matching Saban’s exploits, it’s his greatest protege.
Saban’s last win, by the way, came over Smart. There’s some poetry in that.
Michigan State had been stuck in a rut when Saban began his first head-coaching job there in 1995. The Spartans had averaged just 5.9 wins per season in the seven years before his arrival, and after a few years of laying groundwork, his final MSU team went 10-2 with a top-10 finish in 1999.
LSU had been regarded as a sleeping giant for decades when Saban moved to Baton Rouge in 2000. The Tigers had enjoyed only one top-five finish between 1962 and ’99 and had averaged 5.5 wins over the previous 12 years. Saban averaged 9.6, breaking through with a 10-win campaign in 2001 and a national title in 2003.
Alabama, of course, was a spectacular mess when he finally gave in to athletic director Mal Moore’s persistent pleas and signed up after a brief sojourn in the NFL. Despite winning the 1992 national title, the Tide had averaged 8.1 wins per year with three top-five finishes in the 24 years since Bear Bryant had retired. Between 1997 and 2006, the school cranked through four head coaches and finished .500 or worse on five occasions. Boosters and administrators were pulling the program in about 17 different directions, but after a single transition year, Saban had everything aligned. And he unleashed a run of dominance we might never see again.
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Kyle Bonagura, ESPN Staff Writer
GLENDALE, Ariz. — For weeks, since his team received the No. 3 seed in the College Football Playoff, Boise State coach Spencer Danielson has heard the gripes about the selection process and that the Broncos didn’t earn their spot in the quarterfinals.
In the wake of a 31-14 loss to sixth-seeded Penn State in the VRBO Fiesta Bowl, Danielson said the Broncos showed they belonged.
“A lot of people counted us out and we were a couple plays away from winning,” Danielson said. “That’s football, though. We could lose to anybody in the country. But I also believe we could beat anybody in the country.”
After Boise State fell behind 14-0 in the first quarter, it seemed as if the game had a chance to turn into a rout, but the Broncos cut the deficit to 17-14 early in the third quarter despite limited production from star running back Ashton Jeanty.
“Hopefully everybody just watches the film,” Danielson said. “That’s been my big message all year: watch the film. Watch the game tonight. They had 387 yards; we had 412. Yes, we didn’t execute. We lost the game. That is what it is but watch our team.”
Danielson lauded his team’s effort to roll off 11 straight wins to close the regular season, culminated by the program’s first back-to-back Mountain West Conference championships.
“There’s been a lot of teams that have said that they should be in it. I’m curious how they played their bowl games,” Danielson said. “To me it’s all about putting the ball down, play the game, whatever they set to make the playoff, that’s on us as coaches and competitors to go get it done.”
Alabama, Miami and South Carolina — three of the teams that just missed the playoff cut — all lost their bowl games.
“With the expansion of the College Football Playoff, all you want is to give teams a chance,” Danielson said. “Everybody knew how to make the playoffs to start the season. There was no gray area.
“We’ve been in playoff mentality since September. We knew after we lost on the last-second field goal in Oregon, we can’t lose again and we didn’t.”
With Jeanty bottled up for most of the night — he was held to a season-low 104 yards — most of Boise State’s production came through the air. Quarterback Maddux Madsen completed 23 of 35 passes for 304 yards, but threw three interceptions. Jeanty also had two fumbles, one of which was lost. Those four turnovers, combined with 13 penalties for 90 yards and a pair of missed field goal attempts, proved to be too costly to overcome.
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Heather Dinich, Senior College Football Insider
GLENDALE, Ariz. — As the Penn State players made their way through the tunnel and into the bowels of State Farm Stadium after a historic 31-14 win against No. 3 seed Boise State on New Year’s Eve, 305-pound defensive tackle Dvon J-Thomas had a bounce in his step as he yelled, “Jeanty who?!” before disappearing into the locker room.
Penn State and Boise State had never played each other before Tuesday night’s College Football Playoff Quarterfinal at the VRBO Fiesta Bowl, but the Nittany Lions were all too familiar with No. 2 — Heisman Trophy runner-up Ashton Jeanty, who entered the game 131 yards shy of tying Barry Sanders’ FBS single-season rushing record set in 1988.
“We had it in our mind that, ‘Oh, he’s going to try to break the record on us tonight,'” J-Thomas said, a huge grin across his face as he sat on a chair in a locker room buzzing with celebratory photos and cigars. “That’s not going to happen.”
It didn’t.
Even with defensive end Abdul Carter, who is ranked No. 2 in Mel Kiper’s latest Big Board, sidelined by an undisclosed injury for most of the game, Penn State’s defense stifled Jeanty, holding him to a season-low 104 rushing yards, his first time not rushing for at least 125 yards in a game this season. Jeanty finished 28 yards shy of breaking Sanders’ record.
“I think we did corral him,” Penn State coach James Franklin said, correcting a reporter. “Not ‘sort of.'”
Penn State, which won 13 games for the first time in school history, will face the winner of Notre Dame–Georgia in the College Football Playoff Semifinal at the Capital One Orange Bowl on Jan. 9. The Nittany Lions are two wins away from the school’s first national championship since 1986.
Though Boise State’s running game struggled, Penn State’s flourished with the dynamic duo of Nicholas Singleton and Kaytron Allen. The two combined to rush for 221 yards, the most yards that Boise State has given up to running backs in a game this season. Franklin said it was the first time the program has had two 1,000-yard rushers in a single season since joining the Big Ten.
“Obviously, I’m biased, but I tell everybody we have the two best running backs in the country,” PSU running backs coach Ja’Juan Seider said. “You give them 300 carries a game and their stats will look different, too. I didn’t have to say anything all week. They knew what was at stake. I mean, the kid deserved the praise and credit he got, but I also knew what I had.”
Jeanty finished without a rushing touchdown in a game for only the second time this season; it also happened against Portland State on Sept. 21.
“I think defensively, I think our team was sick of me talking about him,” Franklin said. “I think we got the point across about the respect that we have for that young man and the type of running back he is. Even today, I think our defense would say they have a ton of respect for him and how many tackles he was able to break and how strong he is and the contact balance. He’s an impressive guy. But we’re pretty good on defense. Thought our D-line did a really good job of being disruptive and getting in the backfield. I thought we did a really good job gang tackling. There were a few times where we didn’t wrap like we should have. But for the most part, our defense played lights out.”
Carter left the game in the second quarter, an apparent upper-body injury as he was able to ride a stationary bike and roam the sideline for the rest of the game. During the final two-minute timeout, Carter stood alone on the field near the 45-yard line with a towel on his head, facing the crowd, pumping his fist and cheering along with them as they yelled “P-S-U! Let’s go PSU!”
It was the most Penn State fans got to see him on the field in the second half. Penn State doesn’t release injury information, and Franklin didn’t have much of an update afterward. Though the rest of his team was celebrating in the locker room after the game, Carter went to the trainer’s room.
“We’ll get that checked out and see,” Franklin said. “Obviously, No. 1, the safety and health and welfare of our guys is priority No. 1. But then, I know Abdul will want to play next week and he’ll do everything in his power to play next week, if he’s able to. We’ll find out more. I don’t have a whole lot more information than that.”
Without Carter, Penn State leaned on Amin Vanover, who added 6 tackles, 1 sack and 2 tackles for loss. Defensive end Dani Dennis-Sutton added a sack and 2.5 TFLs. Defensive end Max Granville also helped on third-down situations. According to ESPN Research, Jeanty had 29 yards on nine rushes when Penn State had seven or more defenders in the box. He led the FBS with 1,507 such yards during the regular season.
“It was numbers in the box,” Franklin said. “Obviously, being able to play man coverage also helps with that, because you’re able to drop a safety down there and get an extra man to add numbers.”
This season, Jeanty had averaged 4.8 yards after contact per rush, and in the first quarter, Penn State limited him to an average of 1.1. The Broncos’ 48 rushing yards in the first half were their fewest in a half all season.
“They heard about No. 2 the entire time, so it was like a little edge they had to themselves to make sure that he didn’t take over the game at all,” defensive line coach Deion Barnes said. “They wanted to be known for taking over the game.”
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Pete Thamel, Senior College Sports Insider
Arizona State and football coach Kenny Dillingham have agreed to a new five-year contract that will put him in the top tier of Big 12 coaching salaries, sources told ESPN on Tuesday.
Dillingham’s five-year deal includes a “pathway” to extend to 10 years, according to sources. While Arizona law limits state school contracts to five years, sources said incentives give the deal a runway to get to 10 years.
The new deal includes a wide-ranging commitment to football at Arizona State, which won the Big 12 this season and plays Texas in the College Football Playoff quarterfinals Wednesday. It was the school’s first outright conference title since 1996.
The deal will come in concert with the addition of 20 more football scholarships next season, as rosters are set to expand to 105. The deal includes an increased commitment to staff, according to sources, and ASU also plans to be a full participant in revenue share.
Arizona State won the Big 12 after being picked last — No. 16 overall — in the preseason poll. And this significant commitment is indicative of the school’s desire to remain atop the Big 12.
“We are in the national conversation,” said a source with knowledge of the deal. “We want to be committed to give our program the resources to stay in the national conversation and compete nationally for the best coaching talent and recruit the talent to compete at the highest level.”
Dillingham is currently among the lower tier of Big 12 coaches in base salary at $4.05 million. But he has already earned more than $2.5 million in bonuses after leading ASU to an 11-2 season and conference title. The additional bonus money puts him near the top of the league.
That bonus number is expected to climb past $3 million later in the spring with expected academic bonuses. Any wins in the CFP would also yield a significant bonus, as a semifinal and final appearance would each be worth nearly $200,000.
Dillingham famously gave away one of his bonuses — $200,000 for ASU’s ninth win — to members of the support staff. This new deal is expected to give him bonus money to distribute to staff to use at his discretion, per sources, so it doesn’t come from his pocket.
ASU added more than 45% to the football operation budget in 2024 compared to 2023. The program also proactively signed offensive coordinator Marcus Arroyo and defensive coordinator Brian Ward to new three-year contracts in late November to keep its top staff talent intact. Those deals will pay them an average of more than a million dollars annually, which is in the high end for Big 12 coordinator pay.
In 2024, Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy’s $7.75 million salary led all Big 12 coaches, and he ended up taking a pay cut after going winless in league play. Dillingham’s new base salary is expected to be in the top echelon of the league, and there will still be significant incentives for bonuses.
Dillingham is from Scottsdale, graduated from Arizona State and has long called the school his dream job. And that label came years before he got hired. Every move in his career — Memphis, Auburn, Florida State and Oregon — has come with targeting a return to ASU as head coach.
“The fit is so important,” Dillingham said earlier this week. “And me understanding the place here, I think it helped the fit and helped the transition because I just understand what the school and the city is about, and you’re recruiting to the school. So you want people who understand that like you understand it. I think my knowledge of the place definitely helped.”
Dillingham went 3-9 in his first year at ASU in 2023, and the Sun Devils’ turnaround to 11 wins and Big 12 champion has been one of the most remarkable stories in college football. ASU’s league title earned it a bye in the first round of the College Football Playoff.
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