Nick Saban is already being considered old news, with College Football's current hot commodity, defending champion Indiana Hoosiers head coach Curt Cignetti, being labeled as someone already "pushing" the seven-time national champion former Alabama Crimson Tide and LSU Tigers headman's legacy.
USA Today's Matt Hayes made the case that Cignetti deserves the nod as Saban's most successful assistant over two-time national champion Georgia Bulldogs head coach Kirby Smart because of what he built off of what was left when he arrived.
"Cignetti has won 27 of 29 games, and the two losses in 2024 were to national champion Ohio State and runner-up Notre Dame. He’s quickly pushing Georgia’s Kirby Smart for the most successful assistant from the Nick Saban coaching tree," Hayes prefaced before saying, "Shoot, he may as well be pushing Saban at this point.
"Smart walked into a program that was averaging nine wins a season in the best conference in college football, and won a national title in his sixth season. Cignetti walked into the losingest program in college football history, a team that had one Big Ten win the year before he arrived. He won it all in Year 2, and the program’s emergence has pushed the Big Ten past the SEC as the strongest conference in college football."
"Pushing Saban" is probably a bridge too far for College Football fans outside of the Hoosier State. The statement is fun and plays on Indiana's epic 38-3 Rose Bowl win over Alabama on New Year's Day, but it definitely borders on bait.
Cignetti's Hoosiers had one of the greatest seasons of all time in 2025, but Indiana needs to do that at least two more times over the duration of the former West Virginia Mountaineers quarterback's time in Bloomington to "push Saban."
Indiana is part of CFB's broader shift to Big Ten dominance
Cignetti is probably getting too much hype this offseason. It's hard not to rave about what Indiana just accomplished, but it's premature to crown him the king of the sport. Joel Klatt putting Cignetti at No. 1 on his top coaches list was a stretch. Smart and the Ohio State Buckeyes' Ryan Day have had more sustained success.
About Ohio State, though. The Buckeyes have produced rosters that no SEC team can match up to over the past two seasons. The Michigan Wolverines did that in 2023/2024.
It's not just an IU thing. It's a Big Ten thing. Several SEC teams, namely, LSU and the Texas Longhorns, took note and spent big accordingly this past offseason in the portal.
We'll see if the broader trend of B1G dominance continues for a fourth season.