Alabama Football: What Nick Saban has done to SEC West is devastating

Alabama Football: Since 2007 the pressure Nick Saban has put on other SEC West teams and Tennessee has been unrelenting.

SEC Football is better because of Alabama Football and Nick Saban. The other SEC West programs, and Tennessee, that play the Alabama Crimson Tide every season, gain enhanced profiles. The schools in both divisions benefit from large revenue distributions that would not be possible without the Crimson Tide and three or four other, top-tier SEC football programs.

The plusses accrued by the other programs come with a price. The high cost is competing with the Alabama Football monster Nick Saban has built. The competition is more than football games. It includes recruiting results and brand reputation. Simply put, it is a heavy load, always being measured against the success of Alabama Football.

The SEC was a great conference before Nick Saban returned from the NFL. It has become mammoth since, overshadowing the other Power Fives. For the six other SEC West programs and Tennessee, it has been most difficult living in Nick Saban’s shadow. LSU has had the most success, but a big part of it is what Les Miles inherited from Nick Saban’s Baton Rouge build. Going back to the 2007 season, LSU has won 75.7 percent of its games and two National Championships. The Bengal Tigers made those accomplishments with two coaches. It could be claimed 2-plus coaches because the 2007 National Championship was at least partially the result of Nick Saban’s earlier work.

Texas A&M has been the next, most successful SEC West team, having won 67.5 percent of games since joining the SEC in 2012. In terms of coaching tenures, going back to 2007, the Aggies have had four head coaches.

Auburn too, has had some success going back to 2007. The Tigers have won 63 percent of games and a National Championship. The pressure of competing against the Alabama Crimson Tide has led to four Auburn head coaches in the period.

For the remaining three SEC West teams and Tennessee, Nick Saban and Alabama Football have been a nightmare. Ole Miss is the only one of the four to have some success winning games against the Crimson Tide. The Rebels-BlackBears-Landsharks had to cheat to get two wins over the Tide and the resulting NCAA penalties crippled them. While having five head coaches going back to 2007, Ole Miss has won 50 percent of its games.

Mississippi State has done a bit better than Ole Miss. Since 2007, four Bulldogs’ coaches have won 56.2 percent of the games. In the same period, Tennessee has had six head coaches and won 50.6 percent of games. Like the Vols, the Arkansas Razorbacks have had six head coaches. The Hogs have won just 47.4 percent of games in the 14-season period.

And there are the losing streaks. Arkansas and Tennessee have lost 14 straight games to the Crimson Tide. The streak count is 13 for Mississippi State; eight for Texas A&M and five for Ole Miss.

More on Alabama Football Winning Streaks

In the 14, Nick Saban, Alabama football seasons, 27 head coaches (SEC West and UT) have battled the Tide. Two more get their first shots this fall. Coaches never fail for a single reason. But a fair assessment is around two-thirds of the 27 coaches had their careers diminished or damaged trying to compete with Nick Saban.

SEC West and Tennessee Head Coaches 2007-2020

• Arkansas – Houston Nutt, Bobby Petrino, John L. Smith, Bret Bielma, Chad Morris and Sam Pittman
• Auburn – Tommy Tuberville, Gene Chizik and Gus Malzahn; new for 2021, Bryan Harsin
• Mississippi State – Sylvester Croom, Dan Mullen, Joe Moorhead and Mike Leach
• Ole Miss – Ed Orgeron, Houston Nutt, Hugh Freeze, Matt Luke and Lane Kiffin
• Tennessee- Phil Fulmer, Lane Kiffin, Derek Dooley, Butch Jones, Jeremy Pruitt; new for 2021, Josh Heupel
• Texas A&M – Dennis Franchione, Mike Sherman, Kevin Sumlin and Jimbo Fisher (Fran and Sherman were before the Aggies moved to the SEC)
• LSU – Les Miles and Ed Orgeron

All records in this post were compiled from data provided by Sports Reference.

For these seven Alabama football opponents, there is no end in sight. Nick Saban has not slipped one bit and there are no indications he will anytime soon. For the seven coaches, more pain is on the way.