Nick Saban has Happy Feet, goes to ‘Bama, no surprise

by James on January 4th, 2007

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Nick Saban has Happy Feet

It had to happen sooner rather than later. Nick the Quick (to leave) Saban had to move on.

He has become the Larry Brown (Former Knicks coach, former Pistons coach, former Pacers coach, former Kansas coach, etc.) of Football.

The MSU Years

My best friend RonB calls him Nick Satan, because of how he bailed at Michigan State University. There was a lot of money talking and everyone assumes it was the money.

Many of my MSU friends are still bitter about Saban. He was an excellent coach, they will admit. He was very… abrasive to everyone around him, they will admit. But, why oh why, did he have to leave?

The inside story shows he received very little love from the President of the University. That all it would have taken was a token raise and a little show of public love to get him to stay. So he moved on to LSU and took the cash.

NFL Football Movie Break Recently saw Happy Feet with the Lord of the Rings Star Elijah Woods and Robin Williams. The movie was awesome with all these penguins singing and dancing. At times it was surreal and truth be known, sometimes more geared for the parents than the kids. (Squibster says - if you have kids, don’t miss this fun movie. Squibster has spoken!)

The LSU Years

The LSU job was a better job in terms of winning. You get all the local recruits. There is no UM, Ohio State, Penn State, or Notre Dame in your back yard taking all the players. And don’t forget, you don’t have those 4 teams on your schedule every year.

Nick complained about that many times. MSU needed to upgrade facilities to even think about competing with those schools. Recently that advice has been taken and the upgrades are almost finished.

At LSU, Nick put it all together and won the National Championship. Still he did not receive the love he craved.

The Nick Saban Coaching Secret

All of us MSU fans caught a glimmer of how he does it.

Nick Saban stood for 2 things, Defense and Intensity.

Nick is so intense that his team takes on his personality. Even at MSU with very little talent he had a remarkable record against top 10 teams. Unfortunately, with the lack of talent, if MSU was playing a weak team and something went wrong like a fumble or something, that same intensity worked against the team.

This meant he had an unremarkable record against pitiful or average teams. He needed talent to make the difference and at LSU he could get it.

the Dolphins

My guess is that Nick thought he could take these same ideals and use them to win at the pro level. Unfortunately, at the Pro level, in the NFL, it is often the General Manager’s ability to get top talent that makes the difference. There is not a lot of difference in talent with most teams (see Detroit Lions for an exception).

Without the talent difference and no top caliber quarterback, Nick was going to struggle to win. Believe me, eventually he would have gotten it done.

The Ghost of Bear Bryant

Alabama came calling.

Nick answered. There are doubters.

Alabama has money. 44 millions a year in ticket sales and donations. My friend RonB says a job with Alabama is a job with the higher donating alumni. They tell you what to do. This ought to be fun, because Nick is more like Nick-tator than someone you can preach to.

My guess is Nick’s wife Terry wanted to move back to the college atmosphere and she will find that in Tuscaloosa. Wayne Huizenga the owner of the Dolphins hinted at that and claimed he was a Saban fan.

Next year the Alabama team should be loaded and a 10 - 2 season is possible. Nick is all about winning and it is winning that brings him to Alabama.

NFL Football Fan Question It does not bother me, but does it bother you when a coach denies he is taking a job and then takes it?

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