Nick Saban’s Best Bowl Games — #1 2002 Sugar Bowl

Considering all of the national championship rings sitting on Nick Saban's dresser, it is a bit surprising that he has only won one BCS bowl that was not a national championship.

With Nick Saban's Alabama team preparing to try and win his second, it is only fitting that the 2002 Sugar Bowl tops our list.

Then the second year head coach of LSU, Saban lead the Tigers to to his first BCS bowl appearance in search of his second bowl win as a head coach. The team was 9-3 heading into a matchup with one-loss Illinois.

LSU jumped out to an 34-7 lead in the first half which was more than sufficient enough for them to flip on the auto-pilot and coast to a 47-34 victory.

This game was a huge milestone for Saban and the one that put him on the national radar. Once a head coach makes and wins a lower tier bowl game, the next step up is to try and make a BCS bowl. With the abundance of teams playing in less than memorable bowl games nowadays, it is one of the only sure-fire ways of getting national exposure. Making a BCS bowl places you among the elite in college football and gains attention from college football fans around the nation, rather than just die hard fans and people who happen to meander across it while channel surfing.

While Saban had some success before the Sugar Bowl, he struggled to push his programs to the next level. But after he won his first, it wasn't long before he went from having moderate success to trophy cases filled with his accomplishments.

A win of this magnitude helps to get the foot in the door with recruits, which is another reason his career rocketed forward. Nick Saban is known as an excellent recruiter. Even though he may have been an impressive spokesperson sitting in a recruits living room, he didn't have anything concrete to point to and say, "This is what you can help us accomplish." After he added the Sugar Bowl win to his resume', he had no trouble convincing the top players in the nation to come and play for him.

That's why this game sits at the top of the list. He will be looking for a similar victory 12 years later when his Crimson Tide team takes on the Oklahoma Sooners.