College Football Countdown: 91 Days
By Matt Green
With 91 days remaining on Southbound and Down’s College Football Countdown, we take a look at one of the best coaches in the history of the SEC.
Nick Saban is not only the best current head coach in college football, he’s one of the greatest, if not the greatest, coach in the history of the sport.
It isn’t just his time at Alabama that established him as one of the all-time greats. Saban had built quite the resume before arriving in Tuscaloosa. And that leads us to no. 91 on today’s College Football Countdown.
91
Nick Saban’s career wins before arriving at Alabama.
Nick Saban made three stops in college football before arriving in Tuscaloosa. After spending one year at Toledo, Saban spent five years each at Michigan State and LSU before leaving for the Miami Dolphins.
At those three stops, Saban went 91-42. In 1990, Saban led the Toledo Rockets to a 9-2 record before leaving to become the defensive coordinator for the Cleveland Browns under Bill Belichick.
In 1995, Saban became the head coach at Michigan State. In his first four years in East Lansing, the Spartans went just 25-22, but the highlight was an upset win over no. 1 Ohio State in The Horseshoe in 1998. Then in 1999, Saban led them to a 9-2 record and a Citrus Bowl victory over Steve Spurrier and the Florida Gators.
Then in 2000, Saban took over for the LSU Tigers. In his five years in Baton Rouge, the Tigers went 48-16, while winning two SEC championships and the national championship in 2003, the school’s first national title since 1958.
In those 11 seasons prior to arriving at Alabama, Saban won 68.4 percent of his games as a head coach.
To put that in perspective, Guz Malzahn and Kevin Sumlin have the next best winning percentages for current SEC coaches at .677 and .675 respectively. And that doesn’t even include Saban’s 10 years in Tuscaloosa, where he’s gone 119-19, while winning 86.2 percent of his games.