CFP Coaches Thriving—and Cashing In—As Nick Saban Disciples

All four head coaches of this season’s College Football Playoff semifinalists have something in common: Nick Saban—and deeper pockets because of him. 

Each coach still fighting for a national championship previously spent at least one season working as an assistant coach at Alabama during Saban’s 17-season stint in Tuscaloosa, which resulted in six national championships and nine SEC titles.

• Curt Cignetti, Indiana: Was part of Saban’s first coaching staff in Tuscaloosa, serving as wide receivers coach and recruiting coordinator from 2007 to 2010
• Dan Lanning, Oregon: Graduate assistant at Alabama for the 2015 season
• Pete Golding, Ole Miss: With the Crimson Tide from 2018 through 2021, first as co-defensive coordinator and inside linebackers coach, then as defensive coordinator
• Mario Cristobal, Miami: Assistant head coach, offensive line coach, and recruiting coordinator from 2013 to 2016, overlapping with Lanning for his lone season at Alabama

All four coaches were a part of a national-championship-winning staff under Saban. Now, each leading their own program, the quartet is among the highest-paid coaches in college football.

Cignetti’s new deal, just signed in October, pays him $11.6 million annually (and will likely come with a $1 million raise after Indiana’s Rose Bowl victory). Lanning is making $10.4 million this season at Oregon. Miami is paying Cristobal $8.3 million this season. And Golding’s first-year salary as Ole Miss head coach will be $6.8 million. 

And Georgia’s Kirby Smart, whose Bulldogs lost to Ole Miss in the CFP quarterfinals, had a longer tenure with Saban than any of the remaining coaches. Smart, the highest-paid coach in college football with a $13.2 million salary, was Alabama’s assistant head coach and defensive backs coach in 2007, and then defensive coordinator from 2008 to 2015, helping the Crimson Tide win four national championships.

Alabama paid Saban $11.4 million during his final season in 2023. 

Talk of the Town

Saban, 74, and his coaching disciples have plenty of mutual respect for one another.

“I remember him telling me where he was going, IUP, and thinking that’s a big drop from coaching in the SEC,” Saban told On3 of Cignetti leaving Alabama to coach Division II Indiana University of Pennsylvania in 2011. “But he wanted to be a head coach. He was ready to be a head coach, and it tells you a lot about the belief he had in himself that he would take a job at that level at a place that hadn’t had great success.”

Cignetti said “everybody learned a lot” from Saban. “If you were serious about your career and wanted to be a head coach one day, you took great notes,” he said in a pre-CFP semifinal press conference.

When Lanning joined Alabama, he dropped down from being the defensive backs coach and co-recruiting coordinator at Sam Houston State to take a graduate assistant position. “When anybody asked me why, I said, ‘I’m going to get my doctorate in football.’ And that’s what I feel like working for Coach Saban,” he said ahead of the Ducks’ matchup with the Hoosiers.

Saban said Golding texted him after being promoted to head coach following Lane Kiffin’s departure. “Don’t worry about what people are thinking,” Saban said he told Golding during ESPN’s College GameDay. 

In September, before Miami became a CFP contender, Saban said Cristobal was the “perfect guy” for the Hurricanes job.