The players Nick Saban coached include some of the best to ever grace a college football field. Paring his rosters down is a difficult task, but Sports Illustrated has taken the best players from his college head-coaching stops at Michigan State, LSU and Alabama to try to determine who makes the All-Saban team, and we’re not just limiting it to players. A coach with the impact schematically that Saban has, as well as the illustrious coaching tree, deserves a section devoted to assistants, too.
The first quarterback to ever win the Heisman Trophy for the Crimson Tide had a singular ability to take games by the scruff of the neck to pull a Tide team that was comparably worse against Saban’s best out of the fire time and again—on the road against Texas, Auburn and LSU while under siege, as well as in the SEC championship game against Georgia. Young was box office in his off-schedule abilities and his preternatural connections with elite Tide receivers.
Second team: Tua Tagovailoa (Alabama)
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The last of the Bama bell cows, Henry carried the ball a staggering 395 times in his 2015 Heisman season as the Tide were transitioning to more of an RPO spread system. His punishing runs were of a bygone era, and he gave us one of the funniest college football memes in recent memory.
Second team: Mark Ingram (Alabama)
DERRICK HENRY vs. mark ingram ... soon ???? pic.twitter.com/5RJOoKs74p
— ESPN (@espn) January 11, 2020
Burress’s 1999 season set the standard for wideouts at Michigan State, and he broke school records leading the Spartans’ offense to a 10-win season.
Saban regards Jones as “one of the most important” players to ever play for him because when Jones signed, Bama wasn’t yet a machine, they were a 7–6 team that just lost to Louisiana-Monroe. Jones signed anyway and from Day 1, he lived up to the billing.
Smith broke the Heisman jinx for wideouts with his transcendent 2020 season featuring 117 catches and 1,856 yards for 23 TDs leading Bama’s best Saban-era offense. His career started with his catching only eight balls in his freshman season, however one of them won the ’17 national championship game on fourth-and-26 in overtime.
Second team: Amari Cooper (Alabama), Michael Clayton (LSU), Muhsin Muhammad (Michigan State)
Howard was always seen as an x-factor with moments of brilliance, but it was never more pronounced than in the 2015 national championship game against Clemson when he roared Bama’s offense to life with five catches for 208 yards and two touchdowns. He had a penchant for big nights against the Tigers. His second-highest receiving total as a member of the Crimson Tide came against Clemson in the ’17 national championship game (106).
Second team: Irv Smith (Alabama)
Smith was an athletic freak of a five-star prospect who Saban actually inherited from the previous staff, but he became a two-time first-team all-conference player, unanimous All-American and Outland Trophy winner in 2008.
Whitworth set an LSU record starting 52 straight games and famously missed only one practice during his career because he attended graduation. His 52 starts ranked second all-time when he left school.
Robinson started all 14 games at left tackle for the Tide as a true freshman, the first player to ever do that under Saban. He earned a starting spot in spring practice that he never gave back.
Warmack and Jones anchored Alabama’s 2012 offensive line, perhaps Saban’s best ever. At one point, Warmack backed up Jones at guard before taking the position over. Jones is likely the most accomplished offensive lineman Saban ever had playing and starting at three different positions winning the Outland Trophy (interior lineman) in ’11 and the Rimington (center) in ’12.
Second team: D.J. Fluker (Alabama), Arie Kouandjio (Alabama), Lester Cotton (Alabama), Ross Pierschbacher (Alabama), Ryan Kelly (Alabama)
Kyle Williams and Spears anchored a fearsome defensive front that allowed only one team to score more than 20 points, and Spears capped off the season in style with a pick-six in the 2003 national championship game against Oklahoma.
Quinnen Williams won unanimous All-American honors for the Tide in 2018 and also brought home the Outland Trophy.
Dareus lays claim to one of the most famous individual plays of the Saban era.
Second team: Will Anderson Jr. (Alabama), Jonathan Allen (Alabama), Daron Payne (Alabama), Terrence Cody (Alabama)
Peterson played a key role on Saban’s first fearsome college defense as a standout for the Spartans. His four sacks and forced fumble led the Spartans to the landmark upset of then No. 1 Ohio State in 1998.
Although undersized, Mosley was the rock of Bama’s 2012 and ’13 defenses up the middle. Saban has always raved about his ability, however. “This guy actually makes more plays on the football field, plays faster, reacts more quickly than anybody that I’ve ever had the opportunity to coach,” Saban said.
Hightower, like Julio Jones, was part of the program-changing 2007 recruiting class. He also went on to be one of Saban’s most decorated NFL products.
Second team: Rolando McClain (Alabama), Reuben Foster (Alabama), Courtney Upshaw (Alabama)
Surtain started in 39 games for the Crimson Tide, including 38 consecutive times, hitting the field almost immediately and was a unanimous first-team All-American in 2020. He was targeted 48 times that season and allowed only 21 completions.
Webster, a converted wide receiver, ended up being a two-time first-team All-American, and he’s still second all-time in interceptions for the Tigers with 16.
Second team: Marlon Humphrey (Alabama), Dre Kirkpatrick (Alabama)
Of all of the defensive backs Saban has ever coached, Fitzpatrick is the most complete. He played all three defensive back positions: slot corner, nickel (called “star” in Saban’s system) and safety, excelling at all three.
Landry starred as a true freshman on the 2003 national title team and still is high in LSU’s record book for defensive players in tackles and interceptions. He also started 48 straight games.
Second team: Mark Barron (Alabama), Landon Collins (Alabama)
Saban kickers used to be the butt of the joke and the only position he seemingly couldn’t recruit. That ended when Reichard showed up in Tuscaloosa. His 547 points scored are an NCAA record.
Second team: Leigh Tiffin (Alabama)
Scott is the Alabama record holder in career punting yards and as good as he was on the field, wait till you see him solve a Rubik’s cube.
Second team: Cody Mandell (Alabama)
Saban also inherited Arenas from the previous coaching staff, but he was well on his way to being a dynamic threat for the Tide. He still holds the SEC’s record for punt return touchdowns.
Second team: Cyrus Jones (Alabama)
Despite the fact that his tenure in Tuscaloosa ended unceremoniously, Kiffin was at the forefront of Alabama’s offensive openness and Saban’s embrace of the RPO-spread offense era. Their personalities did not mix, but they needed each other. Saban needed someone to take his offense in the future, and Kiffin needed someone to rehabilitate his career.
Of all the assistants Saban has had, Smart has been the only student you could say has any real chance of surpassing the teacher. He beat him to win the 2021 national title and repeated the next year as champion with Georgia. But Saban’s final victory, fittingly, came over Smart in the ’23 SEC championship game.
Fisher became the first Saban assistant to actually beat him in 2021, and their name, image and likeness feud was the stuff of deep college football lore, but Fisher was an integral piece to Saban’s run at LSU and for a time looked like his most promising assistant turned head coach while at Florida State.
For 11 years, Burns tutored Alabama’s running backs including Heisman winners Henry and Ingram. Especially when the Tide were more ground-and-pound, it was Burns’s charges that kept Alabama’s offense humming.
Cignetti was with Saban from Day 1 in Tuscaloosa for three years and as recruiting coordinator helped Saban lay the groundwork for the budding dynasty.
Stoutland had only a two-year stint with the Tide, but his two years may have featured the best two offensive lines of the Saban era. He’s gone on to be a legendary OL coach in the NFL.
Between LSU, the Miami Dolphins and two stints at Alabama, Davis has coached with Saban for 10 seasons as a strength coach first, then a defensive line coach, tutoring some of the best players Alabama has produced at any position.
Steele has had an off-field role and a couple of on-field roles including linebackers coach and defensive coordinator although, as he quipped before Saban’s last game, “Who do you think the defensive coordinator at Alabama is? There ain’t but one, and he’s won seven national championships.”
It takes a lot to coach defensive backs for Nick Saban, as Dantonio did for all five of Saban’s seasons in East Lansing. Dantonio would return as head coach and surpass his former bosses’ achievements in Green.
Shurmur is one of the forgotten fruits of Saban’s coaching tree from his early Michigan State staffers who Saban actually retained from his predecessor.
Nobody is more synonymous with Alabama’s toughness than Scott Cochran, who worked as a graduate assistant at LSU, then as a strength coach at Bama for Saban’s first 12 years in charge with the Tide. His high-energy approach was easy to see whenever you looked at Alabama’s sideline.
