SEC Football by the numbers: Nick Saban

SEC Football by the numbers: Nick Saban

Nick Saban spent 22 of his 30 seasons as a head coach in the SEC before retiring on Wednesday. Saban guided LSU from 2000 through 2004, and he spent the past 17 seasons at Alabama. Here are 22 numbers about Saban’s coaching career:

0 SEC teams had a winning streak against Nick Saban at the time of his retirement. Alabama has won at least its most recent game against every other member of the conference. While at Alabama, Saban went 17-0 against Arkansas, 12-5 against Auburn, 8-1 against Florida, 8-2 against Georgia, 6-0 against Kentucky, 13-5 against LSU, 16-1 against Mississippi State, 2-0 against Missouri, 15-2 against Ole Miss, 2-1 against South Carolina, 16-1 against Tennessee, 10-2 against Texas A&M and 4-0 against Vanderbilt.

1 Major-college football program has had two coaches with 200 victories. Alabama’s 24-21 victory over Arkansas on Oct. 14 was the 200th for coach Nick Saban with the Crimson Tide. By raising his on-the-field record to 200-28 at Alabama, Saban joined Paul “Bear” Bryant, who had a 232-46-9 record with the Tide from 1958 through 1982, as 200-game winners with the program. (Saban finished his career at 206-29, although his official record is 201-29 due to five vacated victories in 2007, his first season with Alabama, because of NCAA sanctions.) Nine other coaches have won at least 200 games at one major-college program — Penn State’s Joe Paterno with 409 victories, Florida State’s Bobby Bowden with 304, BYU’s LaVell Edwards with 257, Nebraska’s Tom Osborne with 255, Chicago’s Amos Alonzo Stagg with 244, Virginia Tech’s Frank Beamer with 238, Kansas State’s Bill Snyder with 215, Ohio State’s Woody Hayes with 205 and Georgia’s Vince Dooley with 201.

1 SEC coach has more victories while guiding conference members than Nick Saban. Saban had 254 victories at LSU and Alabama. Paul “Bear” Bryant holds the league record with 292 victories at Kentucky and Alabama. With 208 wins at Florida and South Carolina, Steve Spurrier is third on the list.

1 SEC coach has a higher winning percentage than Nick Saban, among those with at least five seasons in the league. Saban had an on-the-field record of 254-45 as an SEC coach – a winning percentage of .849. Ahead of Saban is current Georgia coach Kirby Smart, who has a 94-16 record over the past eight seasons with the Bulldogs since leaving his post as defensive coordinator on Saban’s Alabama staff. That’s winning percentage of .855. Smart also is the only coach with a better winning percentage in conference regular-season games than Saban in SEC history. Smart has a 56-9 record in league play for an .862 winning percentage. Saban had a record of 148-30 in SEC regular-season games for a winning percentage of .831. In his 17 seasons at Alabama, Saban had an overall winning percentage of .877 and a conference winning percentage of .870.

1 Coach has won more SEC regular-season games than Nick Saban, who had 148 conference victories at LSU and Alabama. Paul “Bear” Bryant holds the SEC record with 159 league wins at Kentucky and Alabama. Steve Spurrier ranks third on the list with 126 conference victories at Florida and South Carolina. The other coaches with more than 100 victories in SEC regular-season games are Johnny Vaught with 106 at Ole Miss and Vince Dooley had 105 at Georgia.

3 Victories were needed by Nick Saban to become the 16th college football coach with 300. Saban retired with an on-the-field record of 297-71-1 at Toledo, Michigan State, LSU and Alabama. Coaches with 300 victories include John Gagliardi with 489, Joe Paterno with 409, Eddie Robinson with 408, Bobby Bowden with 389, Kevin Donley with 342, Ken Sparks with 338, Larry Kehres with 332, Paul “Bear” Bryant with 323, Pop Warner with 319, Roy Kidd and Amos Alonzo Stagg with 314 each, Frosty Westering, Larry Wilcox and Brian Kelly with 305 apiece and Tubby Raymond with 300. Saban had nine victories at Toledo, 34 at Michigan State, 48 at LSU and 206 at Alabama.

7 National-championship teams were led by Nick Saban, more than any other coach. Saban produced the BCS national-championship team at LSU in 2003 and Alabama in 2009, 2011 and 2012 and the CFP national-championship team in 2015, 2017 and 2020 with the Crimson Tide. In the pre-playoff era, coach Paul “Bear” Bryant had the most national titles with six at Alabama in 1961, 1964, 1965, 1973, 1978 and 1979.

11 Victories for Alabama against the No. 1 team in the AP Poll, the most victories against the top-ranked team. Alabama has an 11-6 record, including an 8-3 mark under coach Nick Saban, when playing the No. 1 team. Only two programs have more victories over the No. 1 team than Saban – Miami (Fla.) and Notre Dame with nine apiece. Saban has twice as many victories against the top-rated team as any other coach. Four coaches had four victories over the No. 1 team – Jimmy Johnson, Lou Holtz, Jack Mollenkopf and Joe Paterno.

11 SEC championships were won by Nick Saban-coached teams, the second-most in conference history. Saban won the SEC Championship Game at LSU in 2001 and 2003 and Alabama in 2009, 2012, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2018, 2020, 2021 and 2023. The only coach with more than Saban, Paul “Bear” Bryant led 14 SEC championship teams. Bryant coached before the SEC Championship Game, and four of his championships came in seasons when the Crimson Tide tied for the title, so Saban has one more outright SEC crown than Bryant.

15 Consecutive seasons with an appearance at No. 1 in the AP Poll for Alabama, more than twice as long as the next-longest streak. The 2023 season, when the Crimson Tide got as high as No. 3 in the rankings, was the first season without an appearance at No. 1 for Alabama since 2007, Nick Saban’s first season in Tuscaloosa. The second-longest streak for appearances at No. 1 is seven seasons by Miami (Fla.) from 1986 through 1992.

16 Consecutive seasons with at least 10 victories for Alabama, the major-college record streak with double-digit wins. The Crimson Tide moved past the record for consecutive 10-win seasons established by Florida State from 1987 through 2000 when it defeated Auburn 49-27 on Nov. 26, 2022. Alabama won at least 10 games in every season under Nick Saban except his first, when the Tide went 7-6. Alabama won 12 games in 2008, 14 in 2009, 10 in 2010, 12 in 2011, 13 in 2012, 11 in 2013, 12 in 2014, 14 in 2015, 14 in 2016, 13 in 2017, 14 in 2018, 11 in 2019, 13 in 2020, 13 in 2021, 11 in 2022 and 12 in 2023.

17 More victories for Alabama since Nick Saban became the Crimson Tide’s coach than for any other NCAA FBS program. Alabama has 206 victories since 2007, with Ohio State next on the list at 189. The Tide’s victory total in Saban’s 17 seasons was 93 more than Alabama had in the 17 seasons before he arrived. From 1990 through 2006, the Tide won 113 games, which ranked 43rd among NCAA FBS programs – 55 fewer than frontrunner Nebraska.

30 Victories for Nick Saban against teams ranked in the top five of the AP Poll, 12 more than any other coach has had. Saban had a 30-16 record against top-five opponents. Bobby Bowden had 18 victories against top-five opponents during his career.

31 Appearances at No. 1 in the AP poll by Alabama in the first 71 years of the rankings. Under Nick Saban, Alabama was No. 1 in 109 polls in 17 seasons. Alabama was ranked in 266 polls under Saban, the most in the nation during his tenure as the Tide appeared in 96 percent of the polls. Before Saban, Alabama was ranked 607 times, the eighth-most from 1936 through 2006, appearing in 63.5 percent of the polls.

34-17 Is the average score of Nick Saban’s 369 games as a collegiate head coach. Saban’s teams have outscored their opponents 12,723-6,410.

55 Are the most points that were scored against a Nick Saban team in one game. On Sept. 7, 1996, Michigan State lost to Nebraska 55-14.

57 Consecutive non-conference regular-season games were won by Alabama under Nick Saban — the longest streak in the nation during the SEC era. Between a 21-14 loss to Louisiana-Monroe on Nov. 17, 2007, and a 34-24 loss to Texas on Sept. 9, 2023, Saban’s Crimson Tide teams beat every non-conference opponent they faced in the regular season. Saban had a 61-3 record in such games at Alabama, with the other loss coming 21-14 to Florida State on Sept. 29, 2007.

66 Are the most points that were scored by a Nick Saban team in one game. Alabama defeated Ole Miss 66-3 on Sept. 30, 2017, Western Carolina 66-3 on Nov. 23, 2019, and Chattanooga 66-10 on Nov. 18, 2023.

88 Victories in 98 games as the coach of the No. 1 team in the AP Poll for Nick Saban, with all the games coming at Alabama. Both numbers are records.

104 Victories and 48 losses for Nick Saban in games against opponents ranked in the AP Poll. Saban has the most coaching victories against ranked opponents after passing former Penn State coach Joe Paterno, who had an 86-82 record against ranked teams. Twenty-three of Saban’s victories came with a margin of victory of 25 or more points.

172 Consecutive Alabama games have featured at least 10 points for the Crimson Tide, the longest streak for scoring in double figures in major-college football history by 47 games. Alabama most recently failed to score 10 points in a game in a 9-6 overtime loss to LSU on Nov. 5, 2011. Under Saban, Alabama also ran up the longest major-college football streak for scoring at least 30 points at 34 games between a 44-16 loss to Clemson in the CFP national-championship game on Jan. 7, 2019, and a 20-14 victory over LSU on Nov. 6, 2021. Those 34 games were the first in a 40-game streak of scoring 20 or more points, which is the SEC record. It broke the mark of 35 consecutive games with at least 20 points set by another Saban-coached Alabama team from 2011 into 2014.

264 Games without a shutout loss for Nick Saban to end his career. The last opponent to shut out a Saban-coached team was Alabama, which defeated LSU 31-0 on Nov. 16, 2002. The only other shutout loss of Saban’s collegiate career came on Dec. 31, 1996, when Michigan State lost to Stanford 38-0 in the Sun Bowl. Alabama has scored in its past 310 games, the third-longest scoring streak in SEC history and the 12th-longest in major-college football history. Saban was the coach for the past 235 games of that streak.

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Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.