Lesson in the Picture Leaders Produce Leaders

There is a powerful lesson in this picture—and it reaches far beyond football.

This image highlights Nick Saban, widely regarded as one of the greatest college football head coaches of all time. During his tenure at the Alabama Crimson Tide, Saban built a dominant program that not only won championships but also produced an extraordinary coaching tree.

The coaches pictured beneath him are former assistants who trained under Saban and later became successful head coaches themselves:

• Dan Lanning – Head Coach, Oregon Ducks

• Mario Cristobal – Head Coach, Miami Hurricanes

• Curt Cignetti – Head Coach, Indiana Hoosiers

• Lane Kiffin – Head Coach, Ole Miss Rebels

The message of the image:

At the time of the picture these coaches remaining in the College Football Playoff once served as an assistant under Nick Saban—illustrating how true leadership doesn’t just win games, it develops leaders who go on to build greatness of their own.

1. Great leaders don’t hoard influence — they multiply it

At one time, they were assistants, learning under a master.

Now they are leaders shaping their own legacies.

• If your leadership never produces leaders, it’s incomplete.

• True greatness is not measured by how long people stay under you, but by how well they stand without you.

Ask yourself:

• Who am I intentionally developing?

• Who will be stronger because they walked with me?

2. Submission is often the classroom before promotion

They weren’t “less than” when they were assistants — they were in preparation.

• Don’t despise seasons where you are learning, serving, or supporting someone else’s vision.

• Those seasons are often God’s training ground for your own assignment.

• Promotion rarely skips preparation.

3. Legacy is proven when others surpass you

The greatest compliment to a mentor is not loyalty—it’s fruitfulness.

• If you feel threatened when people you taught start excelling, you’re still leading from insecurity.

• Secure leaders celebrate when those they poured into go further, faster, and higher.

• Legacy isn’t being remembered. Legacy is being reproduced.

4. Your ceiling becomes someone else’s floor

What once took decades to build becomes the starting point for the next generation.

• Live in a way that shortens someone else’s struggle.

• Teach what you learned the hard way so others don’t have to bleed the same lessons.

• Your obedience today can become someone else’s advantage tomorrow.

Final takeaway

• One man’s discipline became many men’s destiny.

• One leader’s standards became a culture.

• One season of mentoring created generations of excellence.

The real question is this:

When your season shifts…

Who will still be standing because you prepared them?

That’s the lesson in the picture.

LoveUmorethanUknow Pastor Stephän Kirby