A coaching staff is only as good as the sum of its parts.

Why do you think Dabo Swinney has managed sustained success at Clemson and Nick Saban, despite heavy turnover, just keeps winning? Both of college football's top head coaches are expert talent evaluators when it comes to leading on the sideline and recruiting trail and few programs handle their business better than the Tigers and Crimson Tide.

Saban's coaching tree continues to grow, much of the reason you won't see an Alabama assistant in this ranking — most of them are head coaches now including 2018 Broyles Award winner Mike Locksley after a record-setting season leading Tua Tagovailoa and the high-octane Crimson Tide offense.

Pete Golding, 35, is next in line to scale the coaching ranks as Alabama's defensive coordinator, but first, let's take a look at 10 assistants nationally with an established pedigree of success, instrumental in leading their respective units at elite programs.

This list of college football's current Top 10 assistants is highly-subjective and includes a variety of factors including overall success relative to age, recruiting prowess, respect level among coaching peers and likelihood they'll become a future head coach: