Head-coaching attire certainly doesn’t go unnoticed, but gone are the days of college football coaches in plaid jackets, neckties and houndstooth hats.
Still, it doesn’t mean icons like Nick Saban can’t make a statement on the sidelines with what they choose to wear as they coach their way to national championships.
Most coaches keep it simple with standard fare, simply needing a polo and jacket with the logo on it as they go about their gameday.
Saban typically sports a short-sleeved collared Nike shirt featuring a variation of the trademarked script A and swoosh, atop his obligatory pleated khaki pants and white Nike sneakers.
But in each of his 16 seasons as head coach at Alabama, Saban has never worn the same design twice. We’ve seen variations each year incorporating stripes and other flourishes also worn by his coaching staff. And yes, once fans see Saban in his new gear they almost immediately follow suit.
Regardless, we’ve enjoyed watching the evolution of Saban’s gameday polo, so of course we’re going to rank all 16 below.
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Nick Saban's 2007 home and away gameday shirts. (Eric Schultz, Chip English / AL.com)
16. 2007
Stumbled out of the gate, but we can’t expect perfection during year one. These inaugural gameday polos, featuring a busy triangular pattern running from the armpit up to the shoulder, went 7-6 and earned a trip to the Independence Bowl of shirts, much like the team did. But you have to start somewhere.
Nick Saban's gameday attire during the 2008 Alabama football season. Mark Almond / The Birmingham News)
15. 2008
Don’t worry, the picks do not all coincide consecutively as Saban’s tenure progresses. We saw slight improvement over the first batch, but this baggy number with the sleeves extending past the elbow loses points for all the fabric it wastes. What do you call a golf shirt hovering between short and long-sleeve anyway?
Nick Saban's 2010 gameday shirt could not escape the pointy motif of his early looks. (Mark Almond / The Birmingham News, Joe Hermitt / pennlive.com)
14. 2010
What’s with this pointy pattern on all these early gameday fits? This one even travels over the back arms and across the back/shoulder blades. After a 3-loss 2010 season, this motif would finally disappear, as Nike brought more classic designs to Saban and his staff.
Nick Saban's 2013 shirt had a classic front, but the large print "Alabama" across the back did it no favors. (Mark Almond, Vasha Hunt / AL.com)
13. 2013
They almost nailed it with this straightforward design, simply pairing the script A and Nike swoosh with the solid shirt color, but they slapped “ALABAMA” in large font across the back, like they had to brand it extra. The logo and colors are all you need. We know they mean Alabama? We shouldn’t have to remind the world when we turn around.
Nick Saban's 2009 shirt was the first he wore as a national champion, so we can't dock it too much. (Mark Almond / The Birmingham News)
12. 2009
The most agreeable of the sharp-edged attire was Saban’s first he wore coaching a national championship team in Tuscaloosa, so we can’t put it any lower. It looked even better stained by red fruit punch after a violent Gatorade bath that nearly knocked the head coach out before he could hoist the BCS crystal ball.
Nick Saban's 2017 shirt witnessed history in Atlanta when Tua Tagovailoa found DeVonta Smith for a walk-off touchdown. (Vasha Hunt)
11. 2017
A sharp collared Alabama shirt, for sure, and any Tide fan would rock it without hesitation. And at first glance, it appears identical to others he wore before and after, the key difference being the script A on the left breast being stitched-on. That comes down to a matter of personal preference, and now you know where we stand.
Nick Saban's 2022 look seemed identical to the one from just a season prior, but there are minor differences. (Vasha Hunt , Rodolfo Gonzalez / The Associated Press)
10. 2022
His latest look appears identical to the shirts he wore just one season ago, but the thin stripes are much more pronounced, making the 2022 version a bit louder and, thus, the lesser of the two. Still highly wearable, though.
Nick Saban's gameday shirt during the 2016 Alabama football season incorporated multiple colors, all of them Tide-appropriate. (Vasha Hunt)
9. 2016
A different look incorporating more colors than just crimson and white, all of them Tide-appropriate, earns this points for creativity. We dig the lines across the breast under the script A and swoosh, but they would actually upgrade the idea a few seasons later.
Nick Saban's 2018 look almost resembles a soccer jersey, does it not? (Ben Flanagan / AL.com, Michael Woods / The Associated Press)
8. 2018
Maybe we still have World Cup on the brain, but Saban’s look this season bears a striking resemblance to a soccer jersey pattern, does it not? We like the look, including the rearranged placement of the Nike swoosh under the word “Alabama” instead of the script A, making this an all-around deviation from all we’ve known up to this point.
Nick Saban's 2014 shirt is as classic as it gets. (Vasha Hunt)
7. 2014
A totally safe, classic design you could wear during any era from this point on. No frills, just the script A and swoosh in their regular spots, rotating crimson and white. Some might call this boring, what every virtual coach avatar wears on EA Sports’ NCAA Football video games, but much like Alabama’s actual football uniforms, we call it traditional.
Nick Saban's gameday polo during the 2020 season was sharp, mark or no mask. (University of Alabama; L.G. Patterson / The Associated Press)
6. 2020
A minor improvement on the 2016 design only because the line across the breast runs straight without the hump. During a tumultuous year of uncertainty, Saban and the Tide delivered a national championship and one of the best gameday polos.
Nick Saban's 2012 shirt belongs on anyone's top five. (Mark Almond / The Birmingham News)
5. 2012
The top five is unimpeachable, starting with this smart look punctuated by the contrasting collar and matching thick, straight line running down the side under the armpit. Arguably Saban’s most dominant Alabama team, they deserved a similarly intimidating polo. All business.
The 2019 edition of Nick Saban's gameday shirts brought a revolutionary feature: A pocket. (Laura Chramer; Richard Shiro / The Associated Press)
4. 2019
It might look exactly like the 2014 and 2017 models, but peer closely for a revolutionary feature that sets it apart: A pocket under the script A. You go from coach to business class at an instant with that addition. A disappointing season, sure, but an elegant shirt to wear and endure.
Nick Saban's 2021 gameday shirt looks like a previous version with much fainter stripes around the body. (Vasha Hunt, The Associated Press; University of Alabama)
3. 2021
A drastically superior design to the one that immediately followed, if just for the much fainter lines around the body. A subtle fix to a shirt that would make an excellent gift to any die-hard fan wanting something for the golf course or their own gameday polo to match their favorite coach.
Nick Saban coached a team to a national title the season he wore this shirt, in 2015. (Vasha Hunt)
2. 2015
The black collar over the crimson shirt with the white script A and Nike swoosh is a winner. The white home game polo looks as clean as the road unis, with the thick crimson stripe running from the collar down the back, but the away design did not have to go this hard. No one here wants anything as obnoxious as a stadium blackout, but hints of black go perfectly with crimson, especially this gameday shirt that deserved more than just a few looks during the 2015 national championship campaign. We only saw Saban wear it twice (at Texas A&M and Mississippi State), but several players wore it during press conferences.
Nick Saban's 2011 gameday polo stands out among the rest thanks to the thick line over the shoulders and upper arms. (Mark Almond / The Birmingham News)
1. 2011
We can see a polar opposite reaction to “the stripe” edition of Saban’s gameday attire. Fittingly, though, this feels like a throwback to the glory years of the 1970s, an uncomplicated but emphatic blue, er, crimson-collar statement for Saban’s historically dominant defense that anchored his second national championship team. Thinking back on all of his gameday shirts from memory, this stands out the clearest. The stripe = joyless murderball.