re: Which Saban disciple would you rather have as head coach?

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Also, what is the current list of saban disciples, and ones to watch?

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From wiki:

Bobby Williams: Michigan State (1999–2002)
Mark Dantonio: Cincinnati (2004–2006), Michigan State (2007–present)
Derek Dooley: Louisiana Tech (2007–2009), Tennessee (2010–2012)
Lane Kiffin: Oakland Raiders (2007-2008), Tennessee (2009), USC (2010-2013), FAU (2016–present)
Mike Haywood: Miami (OH) (2009–2010), Texas Southern (2016–present)
Jimbo Fisher: Florida State (2010–2017), Texas A&M (2018–present)
Jason Garrett: Dallas Cowboys (2011–present) [55]
Will Muschamp: Florida (2011–2014), South Carolina (2016–present)
Jim McElwain: Colorado State (2012–2014), Florida (2015–2017)
Dan Quinn: Atlanta Falcons (2015-present)
Adam Gase: Miami Dolphins (2016–present)
Kirby Smart: Georgia (2016–present)[56][57]
Major Applewhite: Houston (2016–present)[58]
Mario Cristobal: Oregon (2017–present)
Jeremy Pruitt: Tennessee (2018–present)[59]
Billy Napier: Louisiana–Lafayette (2018–present)

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Ie kirby hc ability is hard to measure with what he walked into.

Thing about saban is he essentially built bama back up when it was down. Thats a piece of his legacy

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I'm not totally in agreeance there. People act like Kirby was handed the keys to the kingdom but we weren't a very good program when he took over. People look at 2015 and see we won 10 games and just assume we were in great shape but that's not really the case.

First look at the on field stuff. We didn't belong on the same field wiht the best team in the league that year and got blown out. We lost to a 4 loss UT coached by butch. We didn't score a TD in a 9-6 victory over 5-7 missouri. We got blown out by 3 touchdowns and only scored 3 points against a 4 loss UF team. We barely scraped by in the 4th quarter against a 7-6 AU team. We had to go to overtime against friggin georgia southern. Had to hang on late fo ra 6 point win over a 3-9 tech team. To sum up, our record was pretty deceiving and we were at best an average team.

Then look at off field stuff. The 2014 signing class was 8th nationally but 6th in the SEC alone. Let that sink in. The '15 class was 6th nationally, but 4th in our own league. The roster was left with some gaping holes, notably OL. When you have to steal a grad transfer from Rhode Island to come be your day 1 starter at LT you've got problems. Not to mention that in Kirby's first offseason his QB choices were a mediocre at best transfer from Virginia or a true freshman.


Kirby "walked into" a deceiving situation that on the surface may have looked great but really had a TON of work to do. Much like Saban at alabama, it took a first year of culture-changing to get guys to do things his way. We stunk in '16 going 8-5 but in year 2 went to the title game. That didn't happen simply on the back of 1 recruiting class. I think anyone downplaying kirby's head coaching abilities just has an axe to grind.