College football is a mix of equal parts:
- recruiting
- player development
- in game coaching
Saban mastered all three. It’s what made him the goat.
Heupel has development. He’s easily make lemonade from lemons, NIL has helped in recruiting. He needs to grow as a game manager, he starts great on script, but tends to struggle under late game pressure.
Spurrier was a master at in game coaching. Better than Saban by a lot.
Kirby survives on recruiting. He develops defense fabulously, but struggles developing offense players, especially QBs. His in game coaching is mid, too. He makes a lot of dumb decisions, which is easily overcome by his talent pool.