“I don’t know where all this stuff [about the NFL] comes from. When I say I’m looking for the next challenge, it’s the next challenge here and the next challenge with our team next year here. This is where we want to be and what we’re happy doing.”
-Alabama Head Coach Nick Saban

ESPN’s Chris Low’s article today is a good read, focusing on Nick Saban’s ability to zero in on the next challenge with the pin-point focus of a laser beam.

In it he quotes a couple of legendary coaches (Bobby Bowden and Gene Stallings) who seem to be amazed at Saban’s evolving stature in the folklore of college football history. My favorite from Stallings:

“He’s such an outstanding recruiter, and his players play hard and play smart. It’s even more remarkable what he’s done when you look at all the juniors he’s lost to the pros. Imagine the kind of teams they would have had if all those guys had stayed back and played another year.”

So true, Bebes. Had Ingram, Richardson, McClain, Jones, Dareus, Kirkpatrick and others stayed, we might be talking four in a row right now, with fewer if any losses.

But in the piece Nick Saban reiterates his humor with the media’s insistance to create a story that isn’t there.

“It’s to the point now that anything you say about this, nobody believes. So it’s almost like, ‘What the hell?'”

Nick Saban, despite the prayers, wishes, and voo-doo doll hexes from Tide haters everywhere, is not leaving Alabama. Also from the story…

“Alabama quarterback AJ McCarron, in his own way, offers the best insight on why Saban isn’t planning to go anywhere.

‘I always mess with him,’ McCarron quipped. ‘Mrs. Terry [Saban’s wife] is happy here, so …

‘And she runs that family.'”

So as Saban prepares the Tide for it’s first repeat national championship since 1978 & 1979, and college football’s only triplicate championship in four years since Notre Dame did it back in the 1940’s, if you hate Alabama, the nightmare may not be over just yet.

He is on his way to signing the top class in America…again…while seeing several Tiders off to the NFL’s first round.

In fact, bank on it.


(Follow ITK on Twitter for Bama news, commentary and smack.)

15 thoughts on “Nick Saban says he’s ready for the next challenge”

  1. Glad to read about all this about Coach, but my nerves are on edge about Lacy. I do wish him the best in his next step in life, however, I hopes he will come back for his senior year. He can only get better with time RTR!

  2. But don’t you remember? Everything Saban says is a lie?

    That is, everything that people don’t want to believe is a lie. If he says he’s not leaving Alabama, he’s definitely leaving Alabama. Because he can’t be trusted. Because he left the Miami Dolphins.

    Please.

    I hate people who say that. I don’t understand all the Miami Dolphins fans who hate Saban for leaving…when he had a terrible record. Who hates a bad coach for leaving the team you love? It’s not like Saban promised Miami a championship.

    But Saban did promise a championship. Only it was at the Capstone.

    And he delivered.

    Then he delivered again.

    And he’s about to deliver for a third time in four years.

    “But if the Browns offer Saban $10 million a year he’ll have to leave Alabama.”

    That’s funny. I don’t see Saban spending much of his money like someone who cares about making and flaunting it, and he’s already the highest-paid coach in college football (and still relentlessly underpaid). Sure, he has a nice lake house in Tuscaloosa, and another house in Georgia, but he’s got the kind of money to buy helicopters and drop Ferraris filled with panda bears from 10,000 feet just to see what colors they end up with when they hit the ground. He could make more money on a TV show, for example. I don’t understand the money argument because he already has it.

    So what doesn’t he have? Success in the NFL.

    But is that something he really cares about? I don’t think so. At least not from the things he says about sculpting boys into men, contrasted with what he said about the egos and inattentiveness of the players in the NFL who already have money and are playing for money, not success (revenue and success don’t necesarily go hand-in-hand in the NFL, see Cam Newton commercials and endorsements without even making the playoffs, or Mark Sanchez, etc).

    Of course, he could just be lying about what he really likes to do and what defines success for him. After all, he’s a hypocrite, right?

    Tell that to the crystal footballs.

    Saban’s kind of success doesn’t come from simply wanting to be rich. The wealth is a side-effect, and it’s inescapable when you’re that effective at meeting such high goals.

    For me, the bottom line is the “next challenge” has been in the SEC for the past decade or so, but I see the nature of college football beginning to resemble the same style of success. Notre Dame recruited defensive players from SEC states with offers from SEC teams, among others, but they have their best defense in two decades—-and now they have their best and most successful team in just as long. Stanford has a great defense and is an outstanding team, and beat Oregon explicitly because of their defense. Stanford?! Kansas State has an incredible defense, and now everyone who didn’t know there was a “Kansas State” now knows. Clemson is building strong defenses, and they’re the only team in the country scheduling two SEC teams every single year (this year they get three if you include their bowl with LSU in Atlanta). All the dynamic teams are being beaten by teams with fundamental-strong defenses.

    And nobody is doing that better than Saban at Alabama. The trend of college football right now isn’t dynamic hurry-up offenses and spread options, at least not when it comes to success against “the next big challenge.” It’s defense. And it’s always improving both at Alabama and at Alabama’s competition. With two new competitive schools added to the SEC and an upcoming playoff system, there’s absolutely still plenty of challenge left in college football for a coach like Nick Saban.

    So don’t hold your breath about Saban leaving. And stop calling him a hypocrite. Roll Tide.

    #rantingtoomuch?

    1. “…but he’s got the kind of money to buy helicopters and drop Ferraris filled with panda bears from 10,000 feet just to see what colors they end up with when they hit the ground.”

      Conduit, one of the many reasons you’ve become one of my favorites here.

  3. Again, Conduit – this is why I look for your handle in the comments section. You have taken a fairly complex concept and boiled it down to the basics. It’s what every Alabama opponent fears – Saban just likes college football, and he likes the way it’s done at Alabama, and he’s never leaving.

  4. per saban…i love it here because the fans here are obsessed about football as i am….on lsu radio people always saying what an azzhole saban was because all he ever wanted to talk about was football

  5. Why don’t people get that our asshole coach didn’t fit in perfectly at lsu or the Miami dolphins but he fits in perfectly with us?

    I love the way Saban is obsessed with football and talks down to everyone. He’s a winner and winners get to do whatever the hell they want!

  6. When are you bammers going to get your head out of your butts and realize he is leaving on a jet plane to Cleveland next year? He has already talked to Charlie Weiss of Kansas and Kevin Steele in becoming his coordinators. He doesn’t want to stick around and see the Gus Bus run up 40+ points on something he can’t stop on defense (see AU2010, Utah, and TA&). You’ll see
    NotreDame 45, bammer 10

    1. @auburnelementarygrad – Keep dreaming, my friend. Saban will still be coaching at Alabama when the Gus Bus has left the plains and headed off back to the high school ranks to run the trickerooski offense against little boys.
      And Charlie Weiss and Kevin Steele? Surely you can do better than that – I know Saban can.

  7. Auburn Grad, I think your the one with your head stuck up your butt so far the dung in there has corrupted your brain. And you Aubies are begging Saban to leave because you know as long as he is at UA Auburn doesn’t have a chance. See tubby and chizik for examples, Also Cam was a fluke.

  8. Dear Auburn Grad- LOL!!!! You are full of it. When you say Charlie Weiss,I hope you were winking at the same time.45-10. LOL!! That will be the score in next years Iron Bowl.And ‘Bama will have the 45.RTR

  9. If you Aubies are so confident Saban will be leaving, how about you put your money where your mouth is? Anyone want to bet me that Saban won’t leave Bama for the Browns? I think they are just shooting their mouth off and I won’t get any actual takers. But if I do, it will be the easiest money I ever made.

    1. Totally off-topic.

      But I’d still like to hear your response after reading the article itself.

  10. What is that notorious liar Izzy Gould saying about all this? I can’t believe some of you folks were ever nice to this lying Yankee scumbag.

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