Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
SEC report: Yet again, Nick Saban faces off against his pupils.
There’s nothing new about Alabama Coach Nick Saban facing a head coach who used to be one of his assistants.
When the No. 2 Crimson Tide play No. 13 Texas A&M on Saturday at Bryant-Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa, Ala., it will be the 20th time a former assistant of Saban’s has faced his old boss.
But never previously has Saban had a month full of games against his former assistants.
The Texas A&M game will be the first of four consecutive games in October in which Saban plays an opponent led by someone who used to coach for him at Michigan State, LSU or Alabama. Aggies Coach Jimbo Fisher was Saban’s offensive coordinator at LSU from 2000-04.
The next three games Alabama plays are Ole Miss, Georgia and Tennessee.
Rebels Coach Lane Kiffin was Saban’s offensive coordinator at Alabama, and Georgia Coach Kirby Smart and Tennessee Coach Jeremy Pruitt were his defensive coordinators with the Tide.
Saban said Wednesday on the SEC coaches teleconference that he didn’t realize he had a four-game stretch against his former assistants.
“I’m really happy for the guys that did a great job for us and got opportunities to become head coaches, which is what they probably all really aspired to be, and worked hard to be,” Saban said. “It’s very challenging when you play folks that know you well, but we also probably know them a little bit, too.”
Saban is 19-0 in games against eight of his former assistants.
Fisher, 0-3 against Saban, said he hopes to be the first former assistant to beat him.
“That’s what our plan is,” Fisher said. “We need to go in there and play well, but they’re a very good team.”
Smart and Pruitt are each 0-2 against Saban. Kiffin will face Saban for the first time as one of his former assistants. Kiffin was Tennessee’s coach in 2009 when Alabama beat the Vols 12-10, but that was before he worked for Saban.
“It’s obviously challenging for me,” Saban said of the next four games. “Because you’d like to see your team play well against people that you know. But I’m sure they all feel the same way about that as well.”
Fisher said it’s a compliment to Saban that he has played so many head coaches who were his assistants.
“I think it’s a very good sign of what Nick has done,” Fisher said. “People want to hire people that come from successful places.”
Other former Saban assistants who are current head coaches include South Carolina’s Will Muschamp, Oregon’s Mario Cristobal, Maryland’s Mike Locksley and Louisiana-Lafayette’s Billy Napier.