How Nick Saban Compares To Bear Bryant And The Active Coaches With National Titles
Alabama head coach Nick Saban won his sixth career national championship with a 26–23 overtime victory over Georgia in the 2018 College Football Playoff National Championship.
Saban tied legendary head coach Bear Bryant for the most titles by a head coach in the Poll Era, which dates back to 1936. Bryant won six national championships (1961, 1964, 1965, 1973, 1978, 1979) with Alabama. Saban won one with LSU in 2003 and five with Alabama (2009, 2011, 2012, 2015 and 2017) since 2009.
This marked Alabama's 12th AP/Coaches Poll national title in the Poll Era, which is four more than any other school. Notre Dame has the second-most with eight.
Saban also has more national championships than all other active college football coaches. Ohio State's Urban Meyer has won three championships. Jimbo Fisher won a national championship with Florida State in 2013 and is now coaching at Texas A&M. Clemson's Dabo Swinney has one national championship from 2016.
Saban went up against his former assistant Kirby Smart in this year's national title and remained undefeated at 12–0 against his former assistants in head-to-head matchups.