Nick Saban will have a huge impact on the College Football Playoff semifinals despite the fact that he hasn’t coached for two seasons now.
The legendary head coach, now retired but working as a college football analyst for ESPN, has his hands all over this CFP semifinal round.
No. 6 Ole Miss is taking on No. 10 Miami at the Fiesta Bowl Thursday. Ole Miss head coach Pete Golding was the defensive coordinator at Alabama from 2018 to 2022. Miami head coach Mario Cristobal coached the offensive line at Alabama from 2013 to 2016.
On Friday night, No. 1 Indiana takes on No. 5 Oregon at the Peach Bowl. Indiana head coach Curt Cignetti was a wideouts coach at Alabama from 2017 to 2011, and Oregon head coach Dan Lanning was a graduate assistant at Alabama in 2015.
Each of these elite head coaches have technically come from the Saban coaching tree, and while they’re all vastly different people, Saban is hoping that there is one thing they each learned from him.
“They had some characteristics that were very similar,” Saban said. “They had great competitive character. They were good people, they were good teachers, they could relate well with the players. And there’s one thing that they learned from me: it’s how to get your a– chewed out. And I hope that they learned how to do it.”