The Most Influential Coaching Tree in College Football
When Nick Saban retired after the 2023 season with 7 national championships and a 206-29 record at Alabama, he left behind more than trophies. He left behind a coaching tree that now stretches across nearly every Power Four conference -- and increasingly defines the sport itself.
Two years into the post-Saban era, his former assistants and proteges hold some of the most prominent jobs in college football. Their programs reflect different branches of the Saban philosophy: the relentless recruiting, the process-driven culture, and the belief that talent development wins championships.
Kirby Smart -- Georgia
The crown jewel of the Saban tree. Smart served as Alabama's defensive coordinator from 2007 to 2015 before taking the Georgia job, where he has compiled a 117-20 record. He brought two national championships back to Athens and has turned Georgia into a perennial top-five program.
Smart's coaching DNA leans heavily toward the defensive side -- strong havoc rates, elite run defense, and a secondary that consistently produces NFL draft picks. Georgia has produced 76 draft picks under Smart, including 20 first-rounders, a pipeline that rivals Alabama's peak output.
What separates Smart from the rest of the tree is recruiting. Georgia has finished with a top-three recruiting class in nearly every year of Smart's tenure. Explore Smart's full DNA profile on our Coaching Constellation.
Steve Sarkisian -- Texas
Sarkisian's path to the top of the Saban tree is one of the more compelling stories in the sport. After personal struggles cut short his first stint as a head coach at USC, Saban brought him to Alabama as an offensive analyst and eventually promoted him to offensive coordinator. The move revitalized Sarkisian's career.
At Texas, Sarkisian has built a roster that led the Longhorns to back-to-back College Football Playoff appearances. His offensive DNA emphasizes a layered RPO attack -- blending run-pass options with deep shots and an aggressive tempo that stresses defensive communication. With 43 total draft picks and 10 first-rounders during his Texas tenure, Sark has proven he can develop talent at an elite level.
Read more about how RPO-based offenses show up in our data in Air Raid vs RPO: How Offensive Philosophy Shapes Team Identity.
Lane Kiffin -- LSU
No one on the Saban tree has moved around quite like Lane Kiffin. After serving as Alabama's offensive coordinator from 2014 to 2016, Kiffin rebuilt Florida Atlantic, transformed Ole Miss into an offensive juggernaut, and then made the leap to LSU in late 2025.
Kiffin's coaching DNA is unmistakable: high-tempo, pass-heavy, and explosive. His offenses at Ole Miss frequently ranked among the nation's best in SP+ offensive rating, finishing top 15 in four of his six seasons -- including a top-three finish in 2025. He compiled a 55-19 record in Oxford. At LSU, he inherits a talent-rich roster and a fan base hungry for a return to the playoff.
Dan Lanning -- Oregon
Lanning represents the second generation of the Saban tree. He was a graduate assistant at Alabama, then became the defensive coordinator at Georgia under Kirby Smart -- making him a direct product of two Saban-tree branches.
At Oregon, Lanning has built a program that went 48-8 through his first four seasons and reached the College Football Playoff multiple times. His DNA profile skews defensive, with strong pass defense and havoc metrics, but his offenses have also been among the most explosive in the Big Ten. With 24 draft picks including 4 first-rounders already, Lanning's player development is accelerating.
Curt Cignetti -- Indiana
Cignetti's path is arguably the most unlikely in the entire Saban tree. He served as Alabama's wide receivers coach and recruiting coordinator from 2007 to 2010 -- helping recruit Mark Ingram and Julio Jones -- then left to become a head coach at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, a Division II program. From there he climbed through Elon, James Madison, and finally Indiana, where he compiled a 27-2 record and delivered the Hoosiers their first national championship in program history with an undefeated 2025 season.
Cignetti's coaching DNA is pure Saban distillate: ball control on offense, schematic disguise on defense, and an obsession with fundamentals over flash. His 2025 Indiana defense ranked No. 2 nationally in scoring at 11.1 points per game, and his offenses led the nation in turnover margin. Where other Saban disciples grabbed Power Four jobs out of the gate, Cignetti proved that the process works at every level -- and that the longest road through the tree can still lead to the top.
Mario Cristobal -- Miami
Cristobal served as Saban's associate head coach, offensive line coach, and recruiting coordinator from 2013 to 2016 -- overlapping with Smart, Kiffin, and Sarkisian on what might be the most stacked coaching staff in college football history. Before Alabama, he had built FIU from scratch; after Alabama, he took Oregon to a Pac-12 title and the Rose Bowl.
At Miami, Cristobal returned to his alma mater with a 32-18 record through four seasons, capped by a College Football Playoff semifinal run in 2025. His DNA is the most physically imposing branch of the tree: run-first, offensive-line-driven, and built on recruiting dominance. With 32 career draft picks including 4 first-rounders -- highlighted by Justin Herbert, Penei Sewell, and the No. 1 overall pick Cam Ward -- Cristobal's player development rivals anyone on this list.
The Ripple Effect
Beyond these headliners, Saban's influence radiates further. Kalen DeBoer, Saban's successor at Alabama, carries the weight of following a legend. Billy Napier (Florida) worked under Saban as an analyst and receivers coach before launching his head coaching career. Other coaches across the sport trace their development through Saban's staff at various stops. Some have thrived; others have struggled. But the sheer reach of the coaching tree is unmatched in the modern game.
What makes the Saban tree so fascinating from an analytics perspective is that each branch develops its own distinct DNA. Smart builds defenses. Sarkisian designs offenses. Kiffin pushes tempo. Lanning blends both sides. You can see these divergent identities come alive on our Coaching Constellation, where each coach's 12-dimension radar chart tells the story of how they adapted the lessons they learned in Tuscaloosa.
If forced to pick the Saban disciple best positioned to win the next national title, our data points to Dan Lanning. Oregon's defensive metrics under Lanning have trended upward every season, his recruiting classes are closing the gap with Georgia and Texas, and the Big Ten's expanded playoff pathway gives him more margin for error than the SEC gauntlet offers Smart or Sarkisian. Lanning has diverged the most from the Saban template -- blending elite defense with a spread-option attack that looks nothing like Alabama -- and that adaptability may be exactly what gives him the edge.
With spring practice weeks away and the 2026 transfer portal reshaping rosters in real time, the Saban tree is entering its most competitive chapter yet. Smart is retooling Georgia's secondary, Sarkisian is integrating a new wave of portal talent at Texas, and Kiffin faces the challenge of installing his system at LSU with a roster built for a different scheme. How each branch adapts this offseason will tell us whether the Saban coaching tree keeps growing -- or whether its branches start to break under the weight of their own ambition.
Related Analysis
- What Is Coaching DNA? How We Map a Coach's Identity -- The methodology behind the 12-dimension profiles referenced throughout this piece.
- Air Raid vs RPO: How Offensive Philosophy Shapes Team Identity -- A deeper look at the offensive systems Sarkisian and Kiffin run.
- Understanding SP+ Ratings -- How advanced efficiency metrics capture the differences between Saban-tree programs.
- Why Predicting College Football Is So Hard -- The variance and parity that make coaching trees like Saban's so valuable to study.
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