Nick Saban weighs in on his 16-0 record vs. former assistants: ‘That’s not a very fair stat’
By Adam Spencer
Published:
Alabama coach Nick Saban’s coaching tree continues to grow, but he has still never lost to a former assistant. That group includes guys like Kirby Smart, Jimbo Fisher, Will Muschamp, Jeremy Pruitt and others.
He’s 16-0 against former assistants, but when he was asked about it at SEC Media Days, he said that stat doesn’t tell the whole story.
Saban made sure to note that when coaches leave his program to take over other squads, those squads have fired their previous coaches for a reason:
“I think that’s not a very fair stat,” he said. “All the former assistants we have that get jobs, they don’t take over programs that have the established culture we have at Alabama. … Most of the time when you get a job, it’s because the guy before you didn’t do a good job, so you have a lot of work to do to bring the program to that level.”
It will likely happen at some point that Saban loses to a former assistant, but whether it happens in 2019 or not remains to be seen.
Adam is a daily fantasy sports (DFS) and sports betting expert. A 2012 graduate of the University of Missouri, Adam now covers all 16 SEC football teams. He is the director of DFS, evergreen and newsletter content across all Saturday Football brands.
