Alabama Football: Absent Nick Saban sets NFL Draft record

Alabama football coach Nick Saban is having to sit out the NFL Draft this year but his presence was certainly measurable in Nashville Thursday during the first round.

This past week, Alabama football fans learned Nick Saban was human – as in not invincible – sort of. An aging hip had to be replaced with a bionic one. So Nick Saban played a round of golf, had surgery and was back at work in his office in less than 48 hours.

Doctors ruled out any travel for a few weeks so even the short trip to Nashville for the NFL Draft was out of the question. Even in absentia, Nick Saban reigned over the Draft Thursday night. With the first-round selections of three more Alabama football players, Nick Saban became the No. 1 college football coach in Draft history.

Nick Saban has now had 34 of his former players become NFL first-round picks. The previous record was held by Penn State’s Joe Paterno. Paterno was a college head coach for 46 seasons. Nick Saban’s college head coach career has been 23 years.

Only three college football coaches have had 30 or more players drafted in the NFL first-round. Joe Paterno had 33 and Bobby Bowden had 32. Nick Saban will undoubtedly chalk up more next year and for years to come.

There is an old story about Mal Moore and Nick Saban flying to Tuscaloosa from Miami. Supposedly Saban asked Mal what he thought he was getting in his new coach. Mal’s answer was the best coach in college football. Saban purportedly laughed and said he didn’t know about that but stated Mal was getting the best recruiter in college football.

Fact or fiction, the story rings true. But it is not enough to identify and rein in the top talent. All of that talent must be turned from potential to reality. Nick Saban’s system has done that exceedingly well.

Scroll through the list of Saban’s NFL first-rounders and you see something else. There are only a few who have not prospered in the NFL.

Saban-Alabama Football First Round Pick Successes

Each first-round Draft position in ()

2009 – Andre Smith (6)

2010 – Kareem Jackson (20)

2011 – Marcell Dareus (3), Julio Jones (6), James Carpenter (25), Mark Ingram (28)

2012 – Mark Barron (7), Dre Kirkpatrick (17), Donta Hightower (25)

2013 – Chance Warmack (10), D.J. Fluker (11)

2014 – C.J. Mosley (17), HaHa Clinton-Dix (21)

2015 – Amari Cooper (4)

2016 – Ryan Kelly (18)

2017 – Marlon Humphrey (16), Jonathan Allen (17), O.J. Howard (19), Reuben Foster (31)

2018 – Minkah Fitzpatrick (11), DaRon Payne (13), Rashaan Evans (22), Calvin Ridley 26)

2019 – Quinnen Williams (3), Jonah Williams (11), Josh Jacobs (24)

Only Rolando McClain  (8), Trent Richardson (3)), Dee Milliner (9) can be said to have been first-round flops. And McClain failed because of personal issues, not because of any football deficiencies.

Paul ‘Bear’ Bryant had 18 first-round picks during his 38 seasons of coaching. Drawing conclusions from different coaching eras is problematic. Adjust Bryant’s number to only 23 coaching seasons and his first-round number would have been about 11.