| FTBL With hire of Lane Kiffin, Nick Saban continues to stockpile former head coaches on Alabama staff

A handful of schools across the country embrace the moniker "cradle of coaches" because of their reputation for sending assistant coaches off to their first head coaching gigs. Under Nick Saban, Alabama's been a little different.

While similarly sending off numerous assistant coaches into bigger roles, Alabama's also become a "cradle of former head coaches."

Friday's addition of Lane Kiffin, the Crimson Tide's new offensive coordinator, only padded Alabama's total in comparison to the rest of its SEC peers.

Of Alabama's on-field assistants, Kiffin is the third of nine who has head coaching experience at the FBS level. Tack on Kevin Steele, Alabama's Director of Player Personnel who recently turned down an opportunity to become Louisville's defensive coordinator, and the Crimson Tide has four former head coaches working beneath Saban.

The rest of the SEC combined (minus Vanderbilt because of James Franklin's departure to Penn State) boasts seven former head coaches in assistant roles.

Kiffin, of course, was the head coach of the Oakland Raiders from 2007-08, at Tennessee in 2009 and at USC from 2010 to the fifth game of 2013.

Longtime tight ends coach/special teams coordinator Bobby Williams replaced Saban at Michigan State when Saban left for LSU. He lasted three seasons and has been an assistant coach ever since.

With a brief pit stop at his alma mater Miami, offensive line coach Mario Cristobal came to Alabama in 2013 directly after six seasons as the head coach at Florida International.

Steele was the head coach at Baylor from 1999-2002. He arrived at Alabama for his second stint under Saban after three seasons as Clemson's defensive coordinator.

LSU is the only other SEC school with more than one former Division I head coach on its assistant coaching staff. Offensive coordinator Cam Cameron was the head coach at Indiana from 1997-2001 and logged one year as the Miami Dolphins' head coach. Steve Kragthorpe, formerly the head coach at Louisville, holds an administrative role with the Tigers.

In the SEC West, Auburn (defensive coordinator Ellis Johnson - The Citadel, Southern Miss), Texas A&M (defensive coordinator Mark Snyder - Marshall) and Arkansas (linebackers coach Randy Shannon - Miami) each boast one former head coach. In the East, there's Florida wide receivers coach Joker Phillips (Kentucky) and Kentucky safeties/special teams coordinator Bradley Dale Peveto (Northwestern State).

According to data collected by USA Today
, only LSU paid out more to its assistant coaching staff than Alabama in 2013.
 
My guess we top LSU in money spent on assistant coaches this year. The Orgeron rumors are gaining steam.

They were roughly 300K higher that us last season. Cameron, who was paid 600K, is getting bumped to the million plus range for 2014 and Chavis is getting a raise as well.

I wouldn't be surprised of what you're saying is correct. The only thing I wonder about is how much Kiffin will still get paid by USC. As example, Steele was still getting paid by Clemson this season. People talked about Mike Groh working as a GA when he first arrived without considering he was getting paid assistant coach money.

Speaking of Steele...you've probably seen some talk about him returning to the field in a coaching position. One of the reasons cited as to him leaving Clemson was a defense that struggled against mobile QB's and spread offenses.
 
I think Terry means he was the DL coach for Miami (FL) from 89-92 not 98-92 lol Also DL coach for Syracuse in the mid 90s and at USC from 98-2004. One thing about the defenses when he was at USC that always stuck out to me was the tackles for loss. They also had a crap ton and I think one year at USC they had something like 150 tackles for loss
 
No, just don't remember anything about the guy till he was the Mudsippi HC

It was him being hired at Mississippi that made me look into his history in more detail. It's stuck in my mind because he was working alongside Tuberville and I found it ironic both ended up being the HC at Ole Miss.

His experience at USC as an assistant head coach, defensive line coach, and recruiting coordinator was something I thought was common knowledge.

FWIW, he started off as a strength coach at Arkansas.
 
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