Overview
- Indiana’s Curt Cignetti, Oregon’s Dan Lanning, Miami’s Mario Cristobal and Ole Miss’s Pete Golding all previously served on Saban’s staff at Alabama in roles ranging from graduate assistant to coordinator.
- Their Alabama tenures include Cignetti as wide receivers coach and recruiting coordinator from 2007 to 2010, Lanning as a 2015 graduate assistant, Cristobal as assistant head coach/offensive line/recruiting from 2013 to 2016, and Golding as co-defensive coordinator then defensive coordinator beginning in 2018.
- Reported compensation places the quartet among the sport’s top earners: Cignetti at $11.6 million, Lanning at $10.4 million, Cristobal at $8.3 million and Golding at $6.8 million, with Georgia’s Kirby Smart cited at $13.2 million as the highest-paid coach.
- Each of the four semifinal coaches worked on at least one Alabama staff that won a national championship during Saban’s 17 seasons in Tuscaloosa.
- Coverage notes the breadth of Saban’s coaching tree—roughly 18 FBS head coaches—and flags a discrepancy over Golding’s final Alabama season, reported as ending in either 2021 or 2022.