So now that Alabama coach Nick Saban has shocked the world by announcing that he’s retiring, the big question is, who will take his place as coach at Alabama?
Obviously, these will be big shoes to fill. Saban has a career record as of 292–71-1 as a college head coach.
At Alabama, his record was 206-29 in 17 seasons. His teams at Alabama won nine SEC Championships and six national championships.
So who will take his place? Let’s look at some candidates.
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Dan Lanning, Oregon
Oregon coach Dan Lanning just led his team to a 12-2 record and a Fiesta Bowl win. He is 22-5 in two seasons at Oregon and 2-0 in bowl games.
Lanning was a graduate assistant at Alabama in 2015. That season, the Crimson Tide beat Clemson for the national championship.
He was the linebackers coach/defensive coordinator at Georgia from 2018 until he got the Oregon job before the 2022 season.
Lane Kiffin, Ole Miss
Yes, we’re saying Lane Kiffin. The boisterous coach who sometimes comes off as the bad boy of the profession can recruit and he can run an offense. Kiffin just brought in one of the best transfer portal classes in the country at Ole Miss.
Kiffin has a 12-year college coaching record of 96-49. He has had some strange/entertaining/maddening moments in his tenure – being called a “flat-out liar” by Al Davis after being fired as the Oakland Raiders coach; when he tried to leave Tennessee and take the coaching job at USC late at night without talking to anyone; when he was fired at USC at an airport terminal; being asked not to coach in the national championship game when he was the offensive coordinator at Alabama.
Oh yeah, there’s that. He was the offensive coordinator for the Crimson Tide from 2014-17 and the team was 40-4 in that stretch.
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Kirby Smart, Georgia
Kirby Smart was a big part of Nick Saban’s success as a coach. Smart was a defensive backs coach at LSU with Saban in 2004 and the safeties coach at Miami in 2006. He followed Saban to Alabama in 2007 and in 2008 was promoted to defensive coordinator.
He was the defensive coordinator until 2015, when he took the head coaching job at Georgia, his alma mater. In his tenure as DC, Alabama went 72-9 and won four national championships.
Smart has quickly built Georgia into a powerhouse, going 94-16 with two national championships. The issue Alabama might have trying to lure Smart away is that Georgia is his school. That might win out.
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Dabo Swinney, Clemson
Dabo Swinney never coached under Saban, but he did coach at Alabama. From 1993-2000, Swinney was a graduate assistant, tight ends coach and wide receivers coach.
Swinney left coaching for three years to sell real estate, but was offered a job as a receivers coach in 2003. But what he excelled at was recruiting. He got his shot at head coaching when Tommy Bowden resigned six games into the 2008 season and was offered the head coaching job in 2009.
Since then, all he has done is lead the Tigers to a 170-43 record with four appearances in the national championship game and two national titles.
Related: College Football Playoff picture, history
Kalen DeBoer, Washington
Kalen DeBoer is the first name on our list with no ties to Alabama. That’s not a bad thing. Saban had no ties to Alabama when he got the job.
DeBoer came into the national spotlight after leading the Washington Huskies to the College Football Playoff this season, but he has a pretty impressive resume before that.
Getting his first college coaching opportunity at Sioux Falls, where he was the offensive coordinator from 2000-04. He was promoted to head coach starting in the 2005 season and went 67-3 from 2005-09 and won three NAIA national championships and was the runner up in the other season.
He worked his way up the assistant’s ladder at some Division I schools, got the head coaching job at Fresno State and was 9-3 in 2021 when he was hired at Washington.
Other names to consider: Mike Locksley, Maryland coach; Dan Quinn, Dallas Cowboys defensive coordinator; Brian Daboll, New York Giants coach; Mario Cristobal, Miami coach.