Nick Saban on Dan Lanning: "I actually wanted to hire him"
Everyone knows that Nick Saban is the greatest head coach college football has ever seen. That’s common knowledge.
Since announcing his retirement in January, the former Alabama Crimson Tide head coach has been enjoying himself, and making a slew of media appearances—as the college football world prepares for his debut as an analyst on ESPN’s College GameDay crew this season.
Saban joined the Pat McAfee show in Dublin, Ireland on Friday and was speaking about members of his coaching tree when Dan Lanning came up in the conversation. Prior to landing the head coaching job at Oregon, Lanning, now 38 years old, coached under Saban as a young graduate assistant in Tuscaloosa.
Saban saw he was full of potential and revealed on Friday that he had hoped to hire Lanning to a bigger position on his staff. However, that didn’t come to fruition, as former Alabama defensive coordinator and current Georgia head coach Kirby Smart nabbed him and hired him as a linebackers coach in Athens.
“Dan Lanning’s a really good coach,” Saban said. “He’s done a great job at Oregon. He was a GA for us. I actually wanted to hire him.”
Apparently Saban’s big picture plan was to work with up-and-comers on his staff at Alabama and then bring them back somewhere down the line.
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Well maybe he did too good of a job. Because his coaching tree is now spread throughout the sport, and a those coaches are now at the helm of numerous programs, and they’ve turned back to what they learned and perhaps more importantly who they met during their time in T Town.
“My theory of having all these young guys on a staff and developing ’em—was to get ’em a job at Memphis State and be able to rehire ’em. When all these guys starting coaching, Kirby (Smart), (Jeremy) Pruitt, Billy Napier, Mike Locksley, they all hire ’em before I could hire ’em. So it kind of blew up on me.”
Maybe Saban’s big picture plan to get Lanning back on his staff didn’t work out in the long run, but Oregon fans are sure happy that he’s in Eugene, as he’s led the Ducks to a 22-5 record, two bowl victories, and signed the best recruiting class the program has ever seen.
Saban’s impact on the sport won’t stop any time soon. Fans will have to get used to hearing his voice calling college games on Saturday’s this fall, but there will be plenty of coaches, including Dan Lanning in Eugene, who either got their start or were influenced in some way by the greatest to ever do it.
