Elephant in the room
Saban keeps winning titles despite changing times, coordinators.
FAYETTEVILLE — The man from Moro Bottom near Fordyce has been the standard by which college football coaches in the modern era are judged.
Paul “Bear” Bryant won 323 games and six national championships in 38 seasons, with a .780 winning percentage at Maryland, Kentucky, Texas A&M and Alabama.
The eighth man to succeed Bryant at Alabama is dominating the sport even more than the Bear did in his heyday.
Nick Saban has won five national titles in 11 years at Alabama, where he has compiled a 132-20 (.868) record in the toughest conference in college football. Saban owns six national championships altogether and a career record of 223-62-1 (.782), which has surpassed Bryant’s winning percentage.
Saban’s No. 1-ranked Crimson Tide (5-0, 2-0 SEC) will bring an 11-game winning streak against Arkansas into today’s 11 a.m. game at Reynolds Razorback Stadium. Alabama is a 35-point favorite, the program’s largest spread on the road during the Saban era.
This will be the fourth time Alabama has played at Razorback Stadium as the No. 1 team, with the previous topranked Tide teams going 3-0.
The University of Arkansas (1-4, 0-2 SEC) is trying to recover from a four-game losing streak.
Coach Chad Morris will get his first head-to-head shot against Saban, who used to recruit his players when Morris was a prep coach in Texas.
“They have been the standard for college football over the last several years,” Morris said. “Watching film on them, there are very few deficiencies. They do what they do and they do it at a very high level.”
Alabama’s run at being ranked No. 1 under Saban is a testament to the excellence of his self-described “process.” Today’s game will be Alabama’s 68th as the No. 1 team under Saban. The Tide are 60-7 in the previous games.
Next on the list of victories at No. 1 are Bobby Bowden of Florida State and Woody Hayes of Ohio State with 40 victories each.
Saban is also 21-12 against teams ranked in the top 5 of the AP poll, giving him the record for both victories and winning percentage (.636) in those games.
Alabama holds the NCAA record for consecutive victories over unranked opponents at 77 games. The streak is current, making Arkansas opponent No. 78 in that run.
“Everybody in the country knows that Alabama is a great program,” Arkansas safety Santos Ramirez said. “What Nick Saban does over there, those guys come to work. They’ve got a championship mentality. I can’t say enough about Bama. But this week we’re focused on beating Bama.”
Arkansas sixth-year defensive back Kevin Richardson agreed.
“I mean, that’s college football’s most dominant program, and Nick Saban’s been leading that ever since before I’ve been in college,” Richardson said. “He does bring the best in, and he has that mindset that they can go out and win every game. Why can’t we have that same mindset to go out and do that same thing?
“I’ve been here six years. We’ve lost to them 52-0. We lost to them 14-13. That’s in the past. Now we’re looking forward and trying to get a win against them.”
The Crimson Tide are 43-2 since Ole Miss held on for a 43-37 upset in Tuscaloosa, Ala., on Sept. 19, 2015.
Saban’s first Alabama team went 7-6, which the NCAA amended to 2-6 by vacating five victories due to violations. Since that first season, the Crimson Tide are 130-14 (.903) with only one threeloss season in the mix.
Saban deflected a question about his historic dominance at Alabama during Wednesday’s SEC teleconference.
“The challenge for us is not what happened in the past, but what’s going to happen this week and the next week after that,” Saban said. “Playing these games one game at a time and trying to keep our players focused on what they need to do … that’s my responsibility and obligation to them.”
Some former Saban assistants, asked this week about Saban’s record and his place in college football history, were less reticent to discuss their ex-boss.
“I know in the last 30 years … he’s done it as good as anybody, especially in the last probably 12 to 15 years,”
said first-year Tennessee Coach Jeremy Pruitt, who served two stints at Alabama and was part of four national championships. “He won a national championship there at LSU, but just here in the last 11 years at Alabama, what he’s put on the field week in and week out, guys graduating and doing what they’re supposed to do, I’d say it’s got to be as good as anybody all time.”
Georgia Coach Kirby Smart was in on four national titles as Saban’s defensive coordinator at Alabama before taking over at his alma mater in 2016. He lost last year’s College Football Playoff championship game to Alabama 26-23 in overtime after leading 20-7 in the third quarter.
“Why does he keep winning? He wins because he’s a really good football coach and he signs really good football players,” Smart said. “If you look at the history of his recruiting, he’s always been relentless in going after top players. If you’re able to sign good football players, they make you into a really good coach. He does a really good
job with that.”
Smart chuckled when asked about Saban’s spot on the all-time coaching list.
“I don’t know that,” he said. “That’s a good question. When you look at his winning percentage and the era that he’s doing it in, when there’s not as many dynasties and you look at the number of championships, it’s hard to argue. I think he’s going to be right up there with the best of them, obviously.”
The Crimson Tide had a revolving door of coordinators, especially on offense, under Saban, but the results seldom change. In succession, Saban has had Major Applewhite, Jim McElwain, Doug Nussmeier, Lane Kiffin, Steve Sarkisian (for the 2016 CFP championship game loss to Clemson), Brian Daboll and Mike Locksley in charge of the Alabama offense.
The defensive coordinator position has been more stable, with Smart following up a one-year stint by SEC veteran Kevin Steele with eight years in the position. Pruitt followed Smart for two seasons and was replaced by Tosh Lupoi this year.
Arkansas defensive coordinator John Chavis noted Saban’s ability to change with the times on both sides of the ball has been a huge asset.
“Coach Saban is where he’s at because he’s a great coach,” Chavis said. “I think he has adapted, there’s no question about that.
“I see them doing a lot of things offensively that are very difficult to defend. I think that helps his defense and their preparation. I know he’s had a bunch of different coordinators … but there’s no question who is running that program.”
Morris will be the fifth Arkansas head coach to try to stop Alabama’s long run of victories over the Hogs under Saban.
“[He’s] just a phenomenal football coach, evaluator of talent, his vision and how he runs a program,” Morris said. “The most impressive thing is just the ability to sustain the success he’s had considering all the different coaching changes he has had to go through. It says so much about his leadership style and what he wants and the vision he has for his program.”