Nick Saban draws unexpected connection to national champion head coach

Nick Saban has drawn a surprising linkage between himself and a national champion college football coach.

Indiana Head Coach Curt Cignetti watches his team get loose before the College Football Playoff National Championship college football game at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens on Monday, Jan. 19, 2026. | Rich Janzaruk/Herald-Times / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

The 2025 college football season came to an end with No. 1 Indiana's victory over No. 10 Miami (27-21) in the College Football Playoff national championship game. The Hoosiers' perfect record marked just the second 10-win season in program history, adding to the improbability of the feat.

Indiana is led by head coach Curt Cignetti, the man who is responsible for both of its 10-win seasons. Cignetti is 27-2 in his short but prolific Indiana career, although winning is nothing new for him.

Prior to his arrival in Bloomington, Cignetti guided James Madison to a 52-9 overall record while it was in a transitional period from FCS to FBS. Prior to James Madison, he totaled a 67-26 record between stops at Indiana University of Pennsylvania and Elon.

One of the biggest storylines in Indiana's rise in the college football ranks has to do with Cignetti's final stop before embarking on his head coaching journey. Cignetti was hired by Nick Saban for his inaugural Alabama staff, where he served four seasons as a wide receivers coach and recruiting coordinator up until 2010.

While this connection rightfully receives plenty of attention, there is a lesser-known connection between Saban and Cignetti involving Cignetti's father.

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— Momma Commish (@hoosiermama77) January 24, 2026

Saban began his college football coaching journey at his alma mater, Kent State, serving as a graduate assistant and then a linebackers coach for the Golden Flashes from 1973 to 1976. He coached outside linebackers at Syracuse in 1977 before returning to his home state of West Virginia to be the Mountaineers' defensive backs coach.

The man who hired Nick Saban as West Virginia's defensive backs coach was Frank Cignetti Sr., Curt Cignetti's father. The elder Cignetti began his football coaching career at Leechburg High School in Pennsylvania before working his way up the college coaching ranks as an assistant at Pittsburgh, Princeton and West Virginia.

Frank Cignetti Sr. was named head coach of the Mountaineers in 1976. His head coaching tenure at West Virginia was only four seasons long, peaking at 5-6 in three different seasons before his firing in 1979.

Saban worked as a defensive backs coach at Ohio State, Navy, Michigan State and in the NFL with the Houston Oilers between his time at West Virginia and his first head coaching job at Toledo.

Frank Cignetti Sr. became the athletics director at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, where he played end from 1957 to 1959. He became the Crimson Hawks' head football coach in 1986, leading them to a 182-50-1 record over his 20-year tenure.