When Nick Saban, Alabama’s football coach, decided to replace his offensive coordinator, Lane Kiffin, in the run-up to last season’s national championship game, he had an experienced former head coach ready to step in.

Actually, he had several.

Not including Saban, there were five former top-tier head coaches on the Alabama staff when the postseason began, including three working as so-called analysts in what are (at least officially) noncoaching roles. Saban tapped one of them, the former Washington and Southern California coach Steve Sarkisian, to run the offense in the title game against Clemson. Though Alabama lost, it was not because of the offense, which scored 31 points and did not struggle in unfamiliar hands.

“This isn’t like I flew in on a plane and I just took over this week,” Sarkisian said at the time. “I’ve been here for four months. I’ve worked with Lane hand in hand.”

In fact, Sarkisian’s primary job was not to be Kiffin’s understudy, but to consult with Kiffin and other coaches in a range of areas. But his unusual trajectory was merely the starkest example of the advantage — and the luxury — of having noncoaching advisers in place, ready to step in at a moment’s notice.