Which college football coaches make your Mount Rushmore? Saban is easy … but who

An Until Saturday listener submitted a voicemail for the podcast last week simply asking: Who would be on your Mount Rushmore of college football coaches?

Talk about an impossible task. How could anyone whittle down a list from more than a century of greatness to only four people?

David Ubben and Ari Wasserman tried anyway. Our answers are written out here. For full context, you can also listen to us and Mitch Light tackle this question on the latest edition of Until Saturday, which published Friday morning wherever you consume podcasts.

There are multiple ways to answer a question this big. Who is the greatest? Who won the most? Who is the best? Who epitomizes the sport to you individually?

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Here’s who we picked — and our differing criteria:

Ari Wasserman’s list

My approach to the Mount Rushmore prompt was to create a list that I personally identify with. To me, just picking the coaches who won the most games or had the best winning percentage is boring. Anyone can do that. But who were the people that I’ve admired or helped shaped the reason the sport has become my life?

Like with most things I write, there will be some backlash, and I’m fully prepared for it. Just know that I went into this with the mission of personalizing it and I’d encourage you all to do it that way, too.

1. Nick Saban: I don’t care how funky you want to get with this list, Saban has to be on it. Outside of what Bill Belichick did with the New England Patriots — winning six Super Bowls in a league full of teams with relatively equal talent — there is no coach I admire more. I can list off the win totals and the national championships Saban won or the countless other mind-blowing stats. But Saban is bigger than that. He won during one of the most competitive eras of college football, and he did so by evolving and influencing the sport every step of the way. He’s the epitome of what college football coaching should represent. (Note: Bear Bryant didn’t make my list because I didn’t want two Alabama coaches, though he’s unquestionably worthy.)

2. Pete Carroll: Some may take exception to Carroll making the list because you could make the case he’s more known for what he’s done in the NFL than college football. But I was a West Coast kid and USC’s dynasty under Carroll coincided with my early teens. I can’t picture college football without Carroll’s Trojans. Yes, they won multiple national championships and were dominant on the field. But those USC teams were also so freaking cool. It wasn’t just that they won; it was how they won and with whom they won. Matt Leinart, Reggie Bush and the countless other names will forever be ingrained in my college football fandom. The open practices, the California culture, all of it. In a sport predominately dominated by southern teams, Carroll is the face of West…