This morning, Nick Saban is the man of the hour. He breaks hearts of SEC football fans, gives Alabama fans massive sized egos and makes anti-SEC trolls in the sports media want to melt like the wicked witch of the west. Last night, Saban pulled off the best coaching job I’ve ever seen in a major college football game. The guy’s a genius, and geniuses are always rich, but the question is, how rich?
1971-1976
Nick Saban was born on October 31, 1971, in Fairmont, West Virginia. He played college football at Kent State and earned his master’s degree in sports administration in 1975. Saban has spoken about his experience at Kent State during the infamous Kent State shooting. His first coaching job was when he was a graduate assistant with Kent State from 1973-1974 and from 1975-1976 served as the Kent State Linebackers coach.
Nick Saban’s Estimated Net Worth as of 2018: 35 Million
As most would know, a significant chunk of this money comes from his eleven-year tenure at Alabama. When he first accepted Alabama’s coaching job but lets also not forget about his less glamorous coaching tenures at Michigan State, LSU, and the Miami Dolphins. At Michigan State, Saban was paid $700,000 annually for five years, which seems like chump change. When he jumped ship to LSU, he was granted a five-year deal, for 1.5 million annually as a base salary. In 2004, Saban actually signed a seven-year deal with LSU, even though he actually jumped ship to the Miami Dolphins before he could even begin with this new deal. At Miami, he was given a 5 year 22.5 million dollar deal, 4.5 million annually. As we all know, he only stayed for two years before accepting the Alabama job, where he signed an 8 year, 32 million dollar contract. Nick Saban’s current contract is an eight-year deal worth 65 million dollars.
1995-2004
His career as college football head coach began at the University of Toledo. Needless to say, he turned a previously 6-5 team into a 9-2 team in his one season as head coach. After one year at Toledo, he realized he was too good for that job (clearly he was right, sorry Toledo) and took a job as a defensive coordinator under Bill Belichick. What’s most amazing is that what would now be viewed as the dream team of coaching staffs, they earned a 32-34 record throughout their four-year tenure and made the playoffs one of those years and won one game. I guess they’re the dream team coaching staff to any football fan other than Cleveland Browns fans.
After Saban left his job at Cleveland, he became the head coach of Michigan State in 1995 and served for five seasons. His record throughout his tenure was 34-24-1 and went 0-3 in Bowl games. He dropped Michigan State like a hot potato in 1999 when LSU gave him an offer he couldn’t refuse. At LSU, Nick Saban recorded a 48-16 record, went 3-2 in Bowl games, including his first national championship in 2003.
2005-2006
Many football fans claim that Nick Saban can’t coach in the NFL because of his 15-17 record and fail to make the playoffs both years in a row with the Miami Dolphins. However, the idea that Nick Saban can’t coach in the NFL solely because of his tenure in Miami is wildly misinformed about coaching in football and Saban’s situation. Saban wanted to sign Drew Brees, but he didn’t pass his physical. Instead, they ended up signing Dante Culpepper and the franchise hasn’t been the same. If Miami ended up signing Drew Brees, who knows, maybe Saban would have won a SuperBowl and Alabama never would’ve enjoyed his football brilliance. Moreover, most head coaches in the NFL stink at some point in their coaching. Hell, Bill Belichick stunk in Cleveland and Pete Carroll stunk as the Jets head coach. A two-year glimpse isn’t really a fair judgment into Saban’s NFL head coaching career.
2007-Present
Alabama is where Saban finally established his legacy as the greatest college football coach of all time. In his eleven seasons, he now has five national titles with 132-20 record and is 10-4 in Bowl games. The only other legendary coaching tenure that is even comparable at this point is Urban Meyer at Ohio State. But in six years, he only has one national title and is 4-2 in Bowl games. How about Pete Carroll at USC? Sure, “Big balls Pete” was legendary, but he went 7-2 in Bowl games, won 2 national titles and went 97-19 overall. Lets put it this way, Pete Carroll only has lost one game fewer than Nick Saban, despite coaching against a bunch of gym teachers in the Pac-10 and coaching two fewer seasons. In Saban’s first nine years, he had four national titles with Alabama.
All hail King Saban.
