The University of Alabama boasts some of the best coaches in the country. Since athletic director Greg Byrne took over in 2017, the University has won two national championships and three SEC championships in football, as well as SEC titles in men’s basketball, gymnastics, softball, and men’s outdoor track and field.  

Byrne has also made huge strides in improving the athletic facilities on campus, implementing The Crimson Standard, a 10-year, $600 million initiative to make the University of Alabama the place to be for student-athletes and fans. 

In the last five years, Byrne has made five different head coaching hires to add to the already impressive coaching list that Alabama employs. 

There are a total of 15 standout individuals on campus that lead the athletic programs that make up the “Everything School.” Here’s where the coaches stand up against each other, according to the 20 writers on the sports desk at The Crimson White. 

1. Nick Saban (Football)

Where else would this list start? Since arriving in 2007, Saban has won six national championships and has a record of 183-25. He has coached the Crimson Tide’s four Heisman Trophy winners — Mark Ingram, Derrick Henry, Devonta Smith, Bryce Young — and has won eight SEC championships. Since the beginning of his tenure, Saban has produced 41 first-round NFL draft picks, including at least one in each of the last 14 years.  

Saban, a nine-time National Coach of the Year, enters his 16th season as the head coach of Alabama with his sights set on another incredible season. He is widely regarded as the top college football coach ever and one of the best coaches in the history of sports all together. 

2. Patrick Murphy (Softball)

Murphy has been at the forefront of the Alabama softball program since it began in 1997. After being named head coach in 1998, Murphy has taken the Crimson Tide to the top of the college softball world. Alabama is a consistently highly-ranked program and has the best environment in the country at Rhoads Stadium. 

Murphy led the 2012 team to the program’s sole national championship, but the Crimson Tide has appeared in 13 Women’s College World Series. Under Murphy, Alabama has won six SEC regular season championships and five SEC Tournament championships. Year in and year out, Murphy has the Crimson Tide program as a threat to win another national championship. 

3. Nate Oats (Men’s Basketball)

Unlike the first two, Oats has not been at the University of Alabama for 15-plus years. However, Oats has made an instant impact on the men’s basketball program.  

After his first season in 2019-20 was cut short due to COVID-19, Oats made a huge splash the following year. In 2020-21, the Crimson Tide went 26-7 and won both the SEC regular season championship as well as the SEC Tournament championship. Entering the 2021 NCAA Tournament as a 2-seed, Alabama made it all the way to the Sweet 16.  

In 2021-22, the Crimson Tide once again made the NCAA Tournament as a 5-seed, and defeated the likes of No. 3 Gonzaga, No. 14 Houston, No. 14 Tennessee, No. 13 LSU and No. 4 Baylor.  

Oats, a relentless recruiter, has brought in waves of national talent since arriving, and has sent six players to NBA organizations: Kira Lewis Jr., Herbert Jones, Joshua Primo, JD Davison, Keon Ellis and Jaden Shackelford. 

4. Jay Seawell (Men’s Golf)

Seawell’s men’s golf team struggled immensely in 2021-22, but there’s no doubt about the success the program has had in the past.  

Seawell led the program to back-to-back national championships in 2013 and 2014. Seawell was inducted into the Golf Coaches Association of America Hall of Fame in 2016 and remains atop one of the strongest men’s golf programs in the country. Seawell coached six golfers that are currently on the PGA Tour: Justin Thomas, Davis Riley, Bud Cauley, Lee Hodges, Trey Mullinax and Michael Thompson. 

5. Mic Potter (Women’s Golf)

Potter led the women’s golf program to a national championship in 2012. In his 17 seasons in Tuscaloosa, Potter has won National Coach of the Year honors from the Women’s Golf Coaches Association twice.  

He has sent several women to the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) over the years: Kathleen Ekey, Jenny Suh, Brooke Pancake Jennifer Kirby, Cheyenne Knight, Lauren Stephenson, Kristen Gillman, Emma Talley and Janie Jackson. 

6. Jenny Mainz (Women’s Tennis)

Mainz has one of the most impressive resumes on the list. She is the longest tenured coach at the University of Alabama, as she has been leading the women’s tennis program for 26 years. In that span, she won the ITA National Coach of the Year in 2013, the 2014 SEC Team Championship and two doubles national championships in 2014 and 2015. She has coached 11 All-Americans in the last nine years. 

7. Dan Waters (Track and Field/Cross Country)

Waters is responsible for bringing the men’s and women’s track and field and cross-country teams together to create one unified team in 2011.  

The Crimson Tide men captured the program’s first USTFCCCA Program of the Year recognition in 2018. The honor is presented to the cross country and track & field program with the best joint finishes at the NCAA cross country (14th), indoor (9th) and outdoor (5th) championships.  

The Alabama women finished a program-best third in the USTFCCCA Program of the Year rankings in 2021 after finishing 8th in cross country, 16th indoors and 4th outdoors. 

8. Kristy Curry (Women’s Basketball)

Curry has been at the helm of the Alabama women’s basketball program since 2013, and she has led an incredible turnaround. Before her arrival, the Crimson Tide were an afterthought in the sport. Now they are a respectable program, especially in the past two seasons.  

In 2020-21, Curry led the team to the second round of the NCAA Tournament. It was the first time since 1999 that Alabama women’s basketball was selected into the NCAA Tournament.  

In 2021-22, the Crimson Tide won 20 games and advanced to the quarterfinals of the WNIT. It marked the third time in the last six seasons that Curry has guided Alabama to a 20-plus win season, while she is the only coach to lead a Crimson Tide women’s basketball team to a 20-plus win season in the last two decades. 

9. Brad Bohannon (Baseball)

Bohannon has served as the head coach of the baseball team for five seasons. After not making the SEC Tournament since 2016, Alabama has appeared in back-to-back tournaments in 2021 and 2022. The Crimson Tide made it to the quarterfinals in both seasons. Alabama made an NCAA Tournament appearance in 2021, its first since 2014. 

10. George Husack (Men’s Tennis)

Since taking the reins of the program in 2012, Husack has made Alabama an NCAA Tournament regular.  

Husack has a potential star in the making in Filip Planinsek, who highlighted the Crimson Tide during the 2022 season. The freshman earned ITA Rookie of the Year honors after finishing the season as the second-highest ranked freshman in the country at No. 27. Planinsek’s performance on the court landed him SEC Freshman of the Year honors, the first honoree in program history. 

11. Glenn Putyrae (Rowing)

Putyrae has been the head coach of the Alabama rowing team for four years. Putyrae was named the Big 12 Coach of the Year in 2018, a first-time honor for the Crimson Tide since joining the conference as an affiliate member in 2015, and he guided Alabama to its first ever appearance at the NCAA Championships in 2021. 

12. Wes Hart (Soccer)

Hart will begin his eighth year in Tuscaloosa in August 2022. In 2021, Hart led the program to its most successful season in history, recording its first ever NCAA Tournament win in a victory over Clemson in the first round. The Crimson Tide finished the year with its best conference winning percentage since 1998 that highlighted upset wins over No. 24 LSU and No. 19 Auburn. 

13. Margo Geer (Swimming and Diving)

Geer just wrapped up her first season as head coach in 2021-22. Making an impact early, Geer led the Crimson Tide women to their highest national finish in program history and the men to their eighth-consecutive top-15 NCAA finish. Geer began her time with the Crimson Tide as a volunteer coach and became a full-time member of the staff after she retired from professional swimming in early 2021. 

14. Ashley Johnston (Gymnastics)

Johnston is the newest coach at Alabama, as she was named the leader of the Crimson Tide gymnastics program on May 23.  

Johnston takes over Alabama’s gymnastics program following four years at Auburn, where she finished her tenure as associate head coach. She helped lead the Tigers to a fourth-place national finish last season, their highest in program history. Named the 2019 WGCA Central Region Assistant coach of the Year in her first season with Auburn, Johnston started her collegiate coaching career as an assistant at Illinois during the 2018 season. Johnston was a 10-time All-American in her time as a college gymnast at Alabama. 

15. Rashinda Reed (Volleyball)

Reed, like Johnston, has yet to coach a game as the head coach of the volleyball team. She spent the last five seasons as an assistant at Illinois, seeing the Fighting Illini make four NCAA Tournament appearances. Reed is the first Black female head coach of the Crimson Tide volleyball program. She looks to improve a team that went just 10-20 a year ago.