Nick Saban’s record at Alabama speaks for itself. The legendary coach went 206–29 with the Crimson Tide, winning over 87% of his games. He captured six of his seven national championships at the school, winning the BCS national title in 2009, ’11 and ’12, and bringing home the College Football Playoff trophy in ’15, ’17 and ’20.
For years, an Alabama loss—especially in the regular season—felt like an event, especially when over 20% of those losses came during the 7–6 2007 campaign. That first season in Tuscaloosa was a true rebuild. Just a year later, the Tide went 12–2 with a Sugar Bowl appearance, giving way to a national title in 2009, just Saban’s third season with the program.
Some of the losses feel fluky for sure. Louisiana-Monroe’s win over Alabama in ’07 is a fun footnote that should make for good trivia for years to come. However, the full list of Saban’s 29 losses at Alabama only serves to illuminate just how dominant his run was.
Saban’s 29 losses came from 22 different coaches. Only five managed to do it more than once. Five of the coaches with just one win against Saban picked it up during the ’07 season.
Of those coaches, 11 have captured national championships, with 16 total titles between them. At least four of the other coaches—Brian Kelly, Gus Malzahn, Mark Richt and Kyle Whittingham—can be argued as among the most successful of their generation. The jury is out on current SEC coaches Hugh Freeze, Steve Sarkisian and Josh Heupel, but it wouldn’t be a major surprise to see them join that group as well.
