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

BUCK FAMMER; GO IRISH!

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!

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

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?