It's always hard to find interesting things to write about during the off-season. I think we all know that. But I took a turn for the dark the last time I wrote when I talked about Baylor and all their issues. It made me sad. So I've decided that I'm not going to elaborate on Baylor anymore for this week's post, and I'm not going to talk about Ole Miss and all their issues, even though I probably should, instead I'm going to talk about things that make me happy. Well at the very least make my Alabama fan readers happy. Yes. That's right. We're going to talk about Nick Saban.
Everyone knows Nick. Good ol' Nick, Nicky Satan, and all those other nicknames that people give him. He's easily one of the most interesting men in college football at the moment and possibly for the last five or so years. He's this small, fiery man who dislikes stupid questions and doesn't seem to know that winning is a time to compliment your team instead of dissecting what they did wrong. He didn't do so well in the NFL and took the Alabama job only after insisting that he wouldn't take it. And oh yeah did I mention he's won 5 National Championships, four at Alabama and one at LSU which makes him only the second head coach to ever win a SEC Championship at more than one SEC school. Want to know who the other one was? Paul "Bear" Bryant. He's also one of only two FBS head coaches who have won National Championships at two different schools, the other is Urban Meyer. Yep. Nick Saban is that guy.
To be fair Alabama really needed someone to make them feel good about themselves. It had been a while for them. They had struggled in the years before with all the stuff that happened after the Mike Dubose era. In case you're wondering what happened I'll sum it up for you: paying players is bad kids. Don't do it if you coach football. Even though Dubose claimed he didn't know, that really didn't matter to the NCAA. They gave them harsh penalties including a two-year bowl ban, a loss of 21 scholarships over 3 years, and five years of probation, that was the closest that the NCAA came to handing down the death penalty in the years since SMU (this was before USC and Penn State). That's a lot of years and a lot of issues. So anyway then there was Dennis Franchione, who let's face it was never going to stick around for long, Mike Price who lasted for as long as the drinks and hotel visits that got him into trouble, and poor Mike Shula. He really did try. Honestly. But it wasn't quite enough for Alabama. They were on a losing streak to Auburn and it was hurting. It was then that Nick Saban was mentioned. At the time he was the head coach of the Miami Dolphins and not doing as well as one would expect. And Alabama came calling, and Nick Saban answered. Really what happened next was nothing short of a miracle. Seriously this whole thing has it's own Wikipedia page. I'm not kidding it's here. What happened to Alabama after Nick Saban took over is so important that it has a page of it's own.
And honestly I think we can all agree that it has been pretty much amazing. I mean look at all he's accomplished. Alabama is a perennial powerhouse every single year. I mean sure, there are years where they don't look like they're going to do as well, and they may even lose a game, but yet they always end up in the talk for the Championship and sometimes even end up in and win. Alabama is such a good team that even when they're not playing up to expectations they're still better than the teams that are at the top of their game. Of course sometimes they lose: See Ohio State and Clemson. But even then they're still Alabama. I think that Nick Saban is the main cause of all the great things that Alabama has done. If it weren't for him they'd still be stuck in this endless cycle of cheating coach, Texas A&M traitor coach, gross coach, and well he tried coach. On and on and on again.
I guess the main thing I want to talk about with Nick Saban is his future. As of this off-season he has been approached by six, yes six, NFL teams with coaching vacancies. According to AL.com, "The San Francisco 49ers, Los Angeles Rams, Denver Broncos, San Diego Chargers, Jacksonville Jaguars and Buffalo Bills all had NFL head coaching openings this offseason. And every single one of them reached out to Alabama coach Nick Saban to gauge his interest."
Then according to the report they published from Bleacher Report's Mike Freeman, "A league source told me that every NFL team with a coaching opening contacted Alabama's Nick Saban. All were emphatically told 'no thanks.' I'm not certain whether Saban told them directly. It could have been Saban's agent or some intermediary."
So basically the NFL is begging Nick Saban to return. But let's be real here. Why in the world would he leave Alabama? Let's look at the facts. He's 65 years old, in the last years of his coaching career more than likely. He makes over 6 almost 7 million dollars a year coaching at Alabama, he lives well, seems to really like Tuscaloosa (they certainly love him there). Why would he forfeit all that to start from the ground up at an NFL team that he may or may not succeed at? I mean it would be sort of like Brett Favre coming back for another year as some random team's quarterback and saying, "I really think I can make this work for me now." It just doesn't make sense to do so, in either of those situations.
No, Nick Saban has stated before that he's happy where he is. In an interview with CBS Sports he said, "It's certainly flattering that somebody would have interest, but at this station in life, from a family standpoint, from a personal standpoint, we're excited about the challenges we have in trying to continue to have a successful program at Alabama, and we haven't entertained any other opportunities outside the opportunities we have at Alabama."
That was recently. Like December 2016 recently. Even though Saban has certainly fudged the truth about leaving before, "I guess I have to say it, I'm not going to be the Alabama head coach", but at this point I don't think he's fudging the truth. At his age, and with the success he has and continues to have year after year why should he even think about leaving?
People keep calling Alabama under Nick Saban a dynasty because they win all the time and are seemingly unbeatable most years. But what makes Alabama a dynasty isn't that they win all the time, it's the fact that they are contenders every single year. Even teams at their best can't do from year to year what Alabama consistently does. It's been incredible to watch, and I look forward to seeing what happens with Nick Saban in the future.
Until next time college football fans, and dad.
