Saban leaves Dolphins to coach Alabama

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=2718488

So Saban took the job. Somewhat disappointed. Actually I am. Ah well, I thought the situation was great for him in Miami but I wish him the best nontheless and hope he doesnt live to regret his decision.

Meh, if he stayed with the Dolphins, they won't be a threat to anyone else in the division. At least in college he'll have guys who play for love of the game rather than $50 million dollars.

Dolphins werent bad last year and if not for some untimely injuries theyd have been more competitive ths year as well. They still have a mean defense and if the guys on offense were healthy next year theyd be a strong contender come playoff time. I thought his situation was good as well as many other apparently. There were also coaches out there telling him not to go and that it would be a decision he'd regret but ah well. I wonder how long he'll stay there considering he seems to cant settle in any one location.

edit:

NFL not the ultimate goal for coaches anymore



ATLANTA -- In this capital of the New South, there is an age-old bias that the Southeastern Conference plays the toughest brand of football in the universe.

With apologies to all those SEC loyalists, inarguably the most passionate fans anywhere, there is at least one league that is more highly competitive and exponentially more daunting.

The NFL.

Think about this: Steve Spurrier and Nick Saban won eight SEC championships between them. Each exited the NFL after only two seasons, with a cumulative record of 27-37, and not so much as a wild-card playoff berth between them. Beaten up in the NFL, they beat a hasty retreat back to the oh-so-fierce SEC, where life is, apparently, infinitely less trying.

So did Saban and Spurrier suddenly become poor coaches when they made the jump from the college to the professional ranks? Some might suggest that Spurrier, with a gimmick-based offense and penchant for working on his putting as much as his passing game, was overmatched. But Saban knew the NFL ropes, understood the rigors inherent to the job and essentially ran NFL-type programs at Michigan State and LSU.

If he couldn't succeed in his return to the NFL -- Saban had been the defensive coordinator in Cleveland, remained close friends with coaching savant Bill Belichick and kept abreast of the evolution of the league -- one wonders what college coach can.

The NFL landscape suddenly is littered with former college coaches who couldn't cut it in the league. Saban, Spurrier, Butch Davis, Mike Riley, Dennis Erickson. People talk all the time about the difficulty of consistently winning in the NFL. Those guys discovered firsthand just how tough it is. Certainly the NFL successes of Jimmy Johnson, Dick Vermeil and Barry Switzer are rare.

Rare, too, now might be the opportunities afforded college coaches wanting to make the leap from the campus to the professional game. Any owner seeking to make a coaching change is likely to take a look at what Wayne Huizenga just experienced with the Dolphins and add a "college coaches need not apply" caveat to his want ad.

Their impressive résumés aside, Wednesday was probably not a good day for coaches such as Oklahoma's Bob Stoops, Louisville's Bobby Petrino and Rutgers' Greg Schiano, all rumored as potential candidates for NFL vacancies. Even coaches such as Kirk Ferentz (Iowa), Pete Carroll (Southern California) and Charlie Weis (Notre Dame), who are usually at the top of every wish list, might be viewed through a different prism now by NFL owners.

And those same coaches might regard the NFL differently now, too, given Saban's departure.

It used to be that coaching in the NFL was the Holy Grail, the ultimate goal, the fervent aspiration of every man who ever strung a whistle around his neck and led a team through grass drills. But the landscape has changed dramatically at the college level in a lot of areas: compensation, lifestyle, control issues. And a notion that once would have been considered absurd -- that some men actually consider college jobs more desirable than NFL positions now -- is hardly far-fetched.

Fact is, two years ago, when Huizenga was courting a new coach, cooling his heels on a tarmac in Baton Rouge, La., while Saban deliberated his future, Saban cautioned him that there might come a day when he chose to return to the college ranks. That's notable because a lot of talking heads expended considerable hot air on Wednesday criticizing Saban for leaving Huizenga high and dry. But there was nothing in Saban's five-year, $22.5 million contract with the Dolphins to preclude him from doing so.

Money talks, of course, and it always will. An eight-year contract at $32 million fully guaranteed, and with the ability to earn an additional $700,000-$800,000 annually in bowl and national title incentives, which ESPN.com has reported as Saban's deal at Alabama, doesn't just talk. It screams.

In terms of guaranteed money, that's nearly $20 million more than Saban would have banked had he stayed with the Dolphins.

Colleges could always offer coaching candidates more in terms of a more benign lifestyle, shorter hours, a less grinding existence, tenure, security and organizational control. Now that college programs can be so competitive financially, there won't be so many coaches casting covetous glances at the NFL.

And now that guys such as Saban and Spurrier have demonstrated their preferences and bolted the NFL after only two seasons, league owners aren't going to be so covetous of college candidates, either.

Len Pasquarelli is a senior writer at ESPN.com.

Saban only lied when his lips were moving



PARADISE VALLEY, Ariz. -- With Nick Saban en route to a coronation in Tuscaloosa, it's officially time to change the vocabulary used to describe college coaches.

"Integrity" is out. "Character" is out. "Teacher" is out. "Leader of men" is out.

"Liar" is in.

They're not going to tell the truth to us, but we can tell the truth about them. It's this: They'll say anything to get recruits on campus, and they'll say anything to get media members off their backs when angling for a different job. And the panting attempts by school administrators, fans, other coaches and many media members to portray them as men of superior moral fiber needs to stop.

They're coaches, that's all. That makes them part of a pack of lying liars who only lie when their lips are moving -- and Saban's lips have moved most recently.

The Miami Dolphins coach denied being interested in or a candidate for the job at Alabama so many times we all lost count. But we weren't naïve enough to believe him -- and Wednesday proved why. He's fundamentally unbelievable.

So it's time to rename the American Football Coaches Association the Liar's Club. I understand that I'm tarring a lot of good men -- and even a few honest ones -- with a broad brush, but that's Saban's gift to his profession.

Of course, he's simply following a proud tradition of dissembling coaches.

Butch Davis wasn't leaving the Miami Hurricanes for the Cleveland Browns -- until he did.

Tommy Tuberville told Mississippi fans the only way he'd leave the school was "in a pine box" -- before leaving for Auburn days later.

Louisville's Bobby Petrino denied a meeting with Auburn that had indeed taken place. The next year he signed a contract extension and said, "This is the place I want to be." He interviewed with LSU within a week of that statement.

Dennis Franchione convinced his players to stay at Alabama after enduring NCAA sanctions -- then fled himself for Texas A&M after two years on the job.

Saban is the latest and perhaps greatest example, if only because he took such umbrage at being asked about the Alabama job that he wasn't interested in (until he was). It required an impressive reservoir of gall to refute angrily questions designed to learn the truth, as if they were unfair attacks on the coach's piety.

Last week Saban said, "I'm not going to be the Alabama coach."

This week, when the topic didn't go away -- because, clearly, it shouldn't have -- he got snippy.

"I'm not talking about any of that stuff," he said. "And I'd appreciate the courtesy of it not being asked."

If you could put a subtitle on that it would read: "My gosh, people, I'm trying to avoid the subject. How dare you not play along with me? Just because I've been lying my eyeballs out, I won't let you paint me into a corner. So it's time to make you all look like jerks for badgering me. Bad manners, all of you!"

The thing is, we've seen it so often that we've become almost immune to this bizarre mating dance of obfuscation and denial. Colleges won't say which coaches they're after, and coaches won't admit to being interested. Universities like using the Latin word "veritas" in mottos and such, but they aren't wedded to the word when it comes to pursuing athletic coaches.

Obviously, telling the truth potentially can create some sticky situations. But this would be my suggested sample comment for a coach being sought for a job other than the one he now has:

"Although I love the position I currently hold, I am a candidate for job X. I will not discuss it further until there is something tangible, be it an interview or an offer, to discuss. Goodbye."

It beats rampant, jaded dishonesty. Especially from college coaches who love to talk about all the valuable life lessons they're imparting to America's impressionable young rush ends, blindside tackles and cover corners.

The real job description at most places isn't terribly heavy on life lessons. It goes roughly like this: Must win, must win some more, must beat archrival, must recruit like a maniac, must put fannies in seats. The secondary clause: Must not get caught committing NCAA violations, must try to avoid a complete and obvious subversion of the university's academic principles.

Winning games is why Alabama wanted Nick Saban, and winning games is why Nick Saban wanted to go back to college coaching. That's as far as the "great fit" goes. You'll probably hear a lot about how Saban loves college towns and college life and coaching young guys, but this is why he wanted to go back to campus: His record at LSU was 48-16, and his record at Miami was 15-17.

Don't look a single step beyond that. Because if you do, you'll see Alabama's contribution to the higher education mission: a reported $32 million contract for a football coach who spent the last month-plus lying like a rug about having any interest in coming to their school.

Yet they won't be able to introduce Nick Saban in Tuscaloosa simply as the best winner money can buy. The hyperbole will go far beyond that, until he is inevitably hailed as a "man of great character."

I'll simply hail him as the richest member of the Liar's Club.

Pat Forde is a senior writer for ESPN.com. He can be reached at ESPN4D@aol.com.

Meh, if he stayed with the Dolphins, they won't be a threat to anyone else in the division. At least in college he'll have guys who play for love of the game rather than $50 million dollars.

Huh? When those guys become pros do they all of a sudden stop loving the game and start caring only about the money?