Nick Saban record vs. assistants: Texas' Steve Sarkisian latest to challenge Alabama coach

Virtually all Nick Saban has known throughout his college coaching career is success. The Alabama legend is 195-28 just during his Crimson Tide tenure, including only nine losses in Tuscaloosa. He has been a scourge on the ever-vaunted SEC.

With that success comes teams looking to poach it: A whopping 26 Saban assistants have gotten gigs in either college football or the NFL, including program mainstays such as Texas A&M's Jimbo Fisher, Georgia's Kirby Smart, Ole Miss' Lane Kiffin and former Michigan State coach Mark Dantonio (with Mel Tucker following in his footsteps).

No program has built a dynasty like Saban's (although Smart is certainly laying the groundwork in Athens). Another protégé trying to replicate that success is Texas' Steve Sarkisian, who has sparked some well-earned optimism for Texas in 2023.

Asked about overcoming that historical hurdle ahead of his Week 2 matchup against Saban, Sarkisian simply joked: "What's the record for all the guys who aren't former assistants against Nick Saban?"

REQUIRED READING: College football Week 2: Six blockbuster games to watch, including Texas at Alabama

Despite a few underwhelming seasons (5-7 in 2021 and 8-5 in 2022), a nail-biting 20-19 loss to Alabama last season led to declarations of Texas' arrival back onto the scene. The team disappointed after that, thanks in part to an injury Quinn Ewers suffered Week 2 against the Crimson Tide. But the successful recruitment of Arch Manning has only heightened the optimism around Sarkisian in Austin.

If Texas is truly going to make its way back onto the scene, however, it has to run with the best. That begins with beating Saban's Tide. The Longhorns are preparing to join the SEC next season, which means this matchup is going to be a lot more commonplace. Sarkisian and the Longhorns announced their arrival in a big way Saturday, becoming just the third former Saban assistant to defeat him. The Longhorns took a 34-24 victory out of Tuscaloosa, thanks in large part to a massive game from Ewers and some uncharacteristic mental errors by Saban's tide.

Sarkisian was an analyst for Saban in 2016 and offensive coordinator from 2019 to 2020. He is now 1-1 against Saban in their matchups. With that, here's what you need to know about the Alabama coach's record vs. former assistants, including the three who managed to beat him:

What is Nick Saban's record against former assistants?

Saban is 28-3 against his former assistants, good for a 90.3 all-time win percentage. He has coached against 10 of his former assistants, only three of whom have gotten an upper hand on him: an impressive feat in and of itself.

REQUIRED READING: Nick Saban on Alabama-Texas: 'Everybody has got to look at this like it's a street fight'

Nick Saban coaching tree

Saban's coaching tree is wide and branching. He has 26 former assistants seeded throughout the college and professional football landscape.

Some of the most notable include Smart at Georgia, Fisher (from Saban's LSU days) at Texas A&M, and Lane Kiffin, now at Ole Miss.

The record, of course, speaks for itself. The other notable aspect is that Saban's assistants tend to get hired away in bunches. His LSU run is especially impressive, but the 2007-2011 run was notable as well.

REQUIRED READING: No. 4 Alabama, No. 11 Texas meet in rematch of last year's down-to-wire game

Assistants Nick Saban has lost to

Saban doesn't lose to his former assistants often, but three coaches have managed to get the better of him.

Only Jimbo Fisher — whose unranked Aggies defeated the No. 1 Crimson Tide 41-38 in 2021 — Kirby Smart, who led the Bulldogs to a win over Alabama for a national championship in 2022, and now Sarkisian have unseated Saban.

Fisher defeated Saban in a shocking upset of the No. 1 Crimson Tide. It snapped Alabama's streak of 100 straight wins over unranked opponents.

Smart's win with Georgia had much higher stakes. The Bulldogs beat Alabama 33-18 in the 2022 College Football Playoff national championship game to clinch Georgia's third national title, and first since 1980; it also was a rematch from the 2022 SEC championship game, which saw the Tide beat the Bulldogs 41-24.

Sarkisian's Longhorns defeated Alabama 34-24 Saturday, with Texas leaning on one of the best quarterbacks in the country in Ewers. It's the earliest in a season Saban has lost to one of his assistants, and it's going to have all of Austin declaring: "Texas is back."

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Nick Saban record vs. assistants ahead of Alabama-Texas game