Alabama Football: Winning big games – no one beats Nick Saban
By Ronald Evans
Alabama football and Nick Saban thrive on big games. No coach or team in college football’s modern era has won more big games.
Nick Saban has said he hates losing more than he loves winning. As he told former LSU player, Marcus Spears in a moment of offseason candor, he also never tires of winning. Nick Saban did not have to build a championship culture for Alabama football. Wallace Wade, Frank Thomas, Paul Bryant and Gene Stallings did that over the span of many decades.
Nick had to rebuild a program that treasured its championship legacy but had forgotten how to achieve it. What Nick Saban has rebuilt in Tuscaloosa has exceeded past glories and made Alabama football the top program in college football history.
ESPN’s Rece Davis explains what separates Saban and Alabama in big games.
"They’re used to the stage…They have established a standard to which they — more times than not — play as opposed to being caught up in the magnitude in the game."
Alabama football won many big games under Bear Bryant. What the Saban teams do more often than Bryant teams is play more ranked teams. According to Christopher Walsh,
"The Crimson Tide faced a combined total of 17 ranked opponents in the six seasons they claim a national championship with Paul “Bear” Bryant."
In the five national championship seasons for Nick Saban and Alabama football, the Tide has faced 33 ranked opponents. Add to that the five ranked teams, LSU played in Saban’s 2003 national championship season and the total is more than double the Bear’s 17. Admittedly, teams play more games each season than in the 1960’s and 1970’s but the extra games do not come close to explaining the difference. Simply put, in national championship seasons, Saban’s teams played more quality opponents than Bryant’s teams.
Incomparable Stats for Saban
Saban Championships
Nick Saban and Alabama football rarely lose the biggest of games. Saban’s SEC Championship Game record is 7-1 (5-1 at Alabama). In College Football Playoff semi-final games, Saban and Alabama football are 3-1. In national championship games, Saban is 6-1, including 5-1 at Alabama.
Consecutive seasons with a No. 1 Ranking
Alabama leads college football with a current run of ten consecutive seasons with No. 1 rankings. Next closest to the Tide is Miami with seven from 1986-1992. After Miami, three programs have five consecutive seasons ranked as no. 1: Texas; Oklahoma and Notre Dame.
Record as a No. 1 Team
Nick Saban has been a head coach in college for 22 seasons. In his career, his teams have played games as the No. 1 ranked team 62 times. All those games were played by Alabama and the record of success is an unparalleled 55-7.
Those 55 wins rank Saban as the winningest coach of No.1 ranked teams in the history of college football. A distant second are Bobby Bowden and Woody Hayes. Bowden in 40 seasons and Hayes in 28 seasons had 40, No. 1 wins.
Beating No. 1 Ranked Teams
Some will consider beating a No. 1 ranked team as the best measurement of accomplishment. Alabama football under Nick Saban is 6-1 when playing against a No. 1 ranked team. The one loss, against LSU, was redeemed by a national championship win a couple of months later. Saban’s total is 7-1, including a Michigan State upset over Ohio State.
Three coaches, Joe Paterno, Lou Holtz and Jimmy Johnson have four wins over No. 1 ranked teams. Bear Bryant, Bo Schembechler, Barry Switzer, Dennis Erickson and Urban Meyer have three.
How has Nick accomplished such success on the biggest stages? His teams mirror his obsession with competing not against other teams but against their best selves.
Next: The secret to Nick's process is there is no secret
The consecutive seasons with a No. 1 ranking should increase to 11 when the Tide takes on Louisville in September. What a great time to be an Alabama football fan.