Nick Saban Championships: 1 National Title Away from History
How many Nick Saban Championships are we going to witness?! In the Rose Bowl game on Friday, Nick Saban will lead Alabama out of the tunnel for the sixth time in the College Football Playoff era. The Crimson Tide will battle Notre Dame inside of AT&T Stadium for a Rose Bowl title and more importantly, a ticket to Miami for the National Championship Game.
Saban has been a collegiate head coach for a quarter of a century with four programs: Toledo, Michigan State, LSU, and Alabama. Saban took over the job in Tuscaloosa back in 2007 and the Southeastern Conference hasn’t been the same since.
Saban won his first national title at LSU in 2003, but he has done much more in his time leading the Crimson Tide. At Alabama, Saban’s record is 163-23. The 69-year-old has won five National Championships with the Tide giving him a total of six victories all time.
Saban is currently tied with Alabama legend, Bear Bryant, for the most National Championship wins of all time by a head coach. Two games in 2021 stand in his way of dethroning Bear Bryant and taking sole possession of first place on this legendary list. Will we see more Nick Saban Championships in 2021 and the near future?
Nick Saban Championships: The Football Resume
Coach Saban has done it all in the football world. He has spent close to fifty years of his life coaching football and this legend isn’t done yet. The majority of Saban’s coaching career has been spent at the collegiate level, but he was an NFL defensive coordinator twice and a head coach once. Before he took over the Alabama job, Saban was the head coach of the Miami Dolphins.
Saban found his niche in the SEC. In his time at LSU and Alabama, Saban has won nine SEC Championship Games in eleven trips to the conference finale. He has been named SEC Coach of the Year five times and is also a two-time recipient of the Walter Camp Coach of the Year Award (2008 & 2018).
On the national stage, Coach Saban has dominated as well claiming six national championships. He has taken his team to the College Football Playoff in six of the seven seasons that this postseason format has been in place.
Saban’s winning resume conveys how successful this man has been as a collegiate head coach. Something that isn’t always noted is Saban’s ability to recruit and develop talent. At Alabama, Saban has produced 33 first-round picks in the NFL Draft. The six-time national champion has turned Alabama into a dynasty in countless ways.
Nick Saban Championships: The Culture
Nick Saban is a master of implementing winning culture into any locker room that he leads. This has been clear in his time at the University of Alabama. Every Alabama team under Saban has been known for their relentless style of play.
Saban has a unique talent for figuring out a way for his players and coaches to buy into his philosophy. The culture of success that Nick Saban has developed at Alabama doesn’t ever seem to fade.
Saban continuously drills his message of accountability into the Tide’s locker room. A few of Saban’s major principles are work ethic, discipline, toughness, and effort. In my opinion, there isn’t a team in the country that exemplifies these values more than Alabama every single Saturday in the fall.
Saban preaches that high achievers don’t fit in with mediocre people. He doesn’t allow ‘mediocre’ anywhere near his program.
– Nick Saban
“There are two pains in life. There is the pain of discipline and the pain of disappointment. If you can handle the pain of discipline, then you’ll never have to deal with the pain of disappointment.”
Nick Saban has made Alabama the first thing that comes to mind when college football is mentioned. His winning culture has led the way for Alabama’s success in his tenure as the head coach of the Tide.
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Nick Saban Championships: The Record
Saban has plenty of critics throughout the media which is preposterous. People say that Nick Saban only wins because he’s at Alabama. Nick Saban is Alabama. He built this factory from the ground up. Alabama had success prior to Saban, but the program hadn’t won a national title since 1992 before he took over the head coaching duties.
Saban has created a dynasty at Alabama, but he did it because of his mentality. Nothing has been given to the future Hall of Famer. Everything has been earned by Saban and the 69-year-old is still working like he hasn’t accomplished a damn thing in the game of football.
Saban exemplifies the message that he gives his players every single day. There isn’t a harder worker in college football than Coach Saban. He deserves this record, and I can’t wait to see him conquer it in 2021.
I believe that Saban will win his seventh National Championship on January 11th. Although, I guarantee that Saban isn’t thinking about this record. All he is thinking about is dominating Notre Dame on New Year’s Day.
That mentality has allowed Nick Saban to take Alabama to unimaginable heights in the college football world.
