College Football’s 10 greatest back-to-back coaching duos

Before Nick Saban became the savior at Alabama, he was in charge of elevating another SEC West program to the peak of the sport. Saban came to LSU from Michigan State in 2000, at the time a rising star in the coaching ranks rather than the man everyone was aiming to beat. Upon his arrival, the Tigers went from a three-win team to an eight-win team. The following season, the 2001 squad won LSU’s first SEC championship since 1988.

After regressing back to eight wins in 2002, the Bayou Bengals obliterated Georgia 34-13 in the SEC title game. Then LSU followed it up with a 21-14 win over Oklahoma in the 2003 BCS championship game, held just a few hours from home at the Sugar Bowl. Saban coached one more year in Baton Rouge, then opted to leave LSU for a shot at coaching in the NFL.

The Tigers turned to another rising head coach, Oklahoma State’s Les Miles, to replace their outgoing national champion. In his first three seasons, LSU won 34 games and the BCS national championship game after a wildly chaotic 2007 season. Miles had another shot at the title in 2011, but were forced to play an Alabama side the Tigers already beat in the regular season. Going up against Saban, the man he replaced, Miles was unable to bring a second crystal pigskin home.

Saban and Miles combined to go 162-50 in 17 seasons leading the Tigers. LSU, always a good SEC school but historically not much of a national powerhouse, was reborn as a perennial contender under the two men. Their respective BCS titles with LSU trebled the school’s all-time number of national championships.