Building an impressive staff of assistants is a necessity in the SEC. Here are the league’s five-best assistant coaches on the offensive side of the football as we near the finale of spring practice in April:

SEC’s 5 best offensive assistant coaches

Just missed the cut: Shawn Elliott, South Carolina, offensive line; Mario Cristobal, Alabama, offensive line

5. Burton Burns, Alabama, running backs: You’d be hard-pressed to find an assistant coach blessed with more talent at his position in college football over the last few seasons, beginning with Heisman winner Mark Ingram in 2009 and ending with multi-year, 1,000-yard rusher T.J. Yeldon last fall. Burns has directed a rushing offense ranked in the SEC’s Top 5 for seven of his eight seasons in Tuscaloosa, led by future draft picks Trent Richardson and Eddie Lacy. Derrick Henry is Burns’ next monster, a rising junior expected to approach the 1,200-yard plateau in 2015.

4. Rhett Lashlee, Auburn, offensive coordinator: Relatively new to the college coaching scene, Lashlee’s Part II of the Auburn offensive braintrust alongside his mentor and former high school coach, Gus Malzahn. Lashlee first joined Malzahn’s staff at Arkansas State in 2011 after coming over from Samford following a stint as a grad assistant at Arkansas and Auburn. As the Tigers’ offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach over the last two seasons, Lashlee has helped Auburn establish one of the nation’s most productive rushing offenses centered around tempo and misdirection.

3. Sam Pittman, Arkansas, offensive line: Pittman’s offensive lines protect their quarterbacks, leading the SEC three consecutive years in fewest sacks allowed (2013-14, Arkansas; 2012, Tennessee). An assistant with 21 years of experience at the FBS level, Pittman’s all business in the trenches and has coached eight NFL selections since 2013, including first-round picks in consecutive drafts (Ja’Wuan James, 2014; Jonathan Cooper, 2013). On Bret Bielema’s staff at Arkansas, Pittman’s helped the Razorbacks establish one of the nation’s best offensive lines, anchoring a rushing attack that averaged 218 yards per game last fall.

2. Frank Wilson, LSU, running backs: Since joining Les Miles’ staff in Baton Rouge for the 2010 season, Wilson has coached four NFL draft pics in the backfield — Stevan Ridley, Spencer Ware, Jeremy Hill and Alfred Blue — and helped acquire the nation’s top player at his position, Leonard Fournette, in the 2014 class. One of the Tigers’ top recruiters, Wilson has been named the SEC’s best at luring prospective student-athletes to LSU three different years during his tenure by several media outlets including Rivals and NFL.com. LSU has ranked in the league’s top six in rushing yards per game every year since Wilson’s arrival.

1. Lane Kiffin, Alabama, offensive coordinator: In one season under Nick Saban, the former Tennessee coach transformed the Crimson Tide offense into a multi-element spread monster orchestrated by a quarterback who had never started a single game before his senior season. Alabama averaged 484.5 yards per game — more than 30 yards better than its previous best in program history. Kiffin was a finalist for the nation’s top assistant award after junior wideout Amari Cooper shattered school records with an incredible 124-catch, 1,727-yard campaign. Cooper was a Heisman finalist and was named the SEC’s offensive player of the year.