Nick Saban coaching tree dominates College Football Playoff semifinals
By David Wasson
Published:
How do you define legacy for a college football coach?
Is it only about victories? Or conference championships or perhaps even national titles? How about players who advance to play in the National Football League?
Or is a college coach’s true legacy in the number of former assistants who go on to enjoy the same kind of success you did?
There is no question that former Alabama coach Nick Saban can check off all of those boxes – having piled up 297 on-field victories at Toledo, Michigan State, LSU and then with the Crimson Tide along with 12 conference crowns (1 in the MAC and 11 in the SEC), an astounding 7 national titles (1 at LSU, 6 at Alabama) and 171 players that heard their name called at the NFL Draft.
But what could well be Saban’s greatest accomplishment takes center stage this week in the 2025-26 College Football Playoff semifinals – as all 4 programs still alive are coached by former Saban assistants at Alabama.
That’s right, arguably college football’s greatest coach still has his fingerprints all over the sport. Indiana’s Curt Cignetti, Oregon’s Dan Lanning, Miami’s Mario Cristobal and Ole Miss’s Pete Golding all spent time under the Nick Saban Learning Tree before making their way toward the sport’s summit.
Cignetti, who has engineered perhaps the greatest turnaround in college football history at Indiana, was the OG of the Semifinal Four – serving as wide receivers coach and recruiting coordinator under Saban from 2007-11.
“Well, yeah. Four for four. I think everybody learned a lot from Nick. He was a great mentor, very organized, detailed, had a plan for everything. Manage, lead, how to stop complacency, game day, recruiting, recruiting evaluation, player evaluation. I mean, he had it all,” Cignetti said after Indiana swamped the Crimson Tide in the Rose Bowl. “And if you were serious about your career and wanted to be a head coach one day, you took great notes or great mental notes.
“So I felt like after one year with Coach Saban, that I had learned more about how to run a program than I maybe did the previous 27 as an assistant coach, and stayed with him for 3 more years. So there’s a lot of disciples out there doing well, and that’s why he’s the greatest of all time.”
Cignetti is correct, of course, and not just in the semifinals of the College Football Playoff. In 2025 alone, 16 former Saban assistants or staffers were FBS head coaches out of 136 total. That’s 11.7%, meaning almost 1-of-8 FBS coaches once worked for Saban at Alabama.
Cignetti’s Hoosiers match up against Oregon in Friday’s Peach Bowl (7:30 p.m. ET, ESPN), with the Ducks coached by Dan Lanning – who was a graduate assistant under Saban in 2015.
“In my time, I was working at Sam Houston State before I went to Alabama and was going to take a pay cut to go be a GA there,” Lanning told reporters over the weekend. “And when anybody asked me why, I said, ‘I’m going to get my doctorate in football.’ And that’s what I feel like working for Coach Saban, just like Coach (Cignetti) said, you learn so much. Things I thought I knew, I realized I didn’t know anything.”
On the other side of the bracket, Miami takes on Ole Miss in Thursday’s Fiesta Bowl (7:30 p.m. ET, ESPN) – with both the Hurricanes and Rebels also led by former Saban assistants. Mario Cristobal, who has engineered a resurgence in Coral Gables, was an assistant head coach, offensive line coach and recruiting coordinator under Saban from 2013-16.
“He’s a super valuable resource,” Cristobal said about Saban earlier in the season. “I’m sure like anybody that coached for him, that reaches out to him — he’s always available. Him and Ms. Terry. They were awesome for myself, my wife and my family. So, very grateful for him.”
Cristobal will face off against the newcomer of the bunch in Ole Miss coach Pete Golding, who was only promoted from defensive coordinator to the big headset prior to the CFP after Lane Kiffin bolted Oxford for LSU. Golding served Saban and the Tide as defensive coordinator and inside linebackers coach from 2018-22.
“I think most people who went through and were fortunate enough to be around coach Saban understand, number one, life blood of the program is recruiting,” Golding said after the Rebels stunned Georgia in the Sugar Bowl. “And then you’ve got to have sound schemes on both sides. You want to keep stability within those schemes for the development of players. And there’s a toughness component, a competitive character component to hold these guys accountable and hold them to a high standard. And I think that’s pretty consistent with whoever is playing right now.”
An APSE national award-winning writer and editor, David Wasson has almost four decades of experience in the print journalism business in Florida and Alabama. His work has also appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times and several national magazines and websites. He also hosts Gulfshore Sports with David Wasson, weekdays from 3-5 pm across Southwest Florida and on FoxSportsFM.com. His Twitter handle: @JustDWasson.
