I graduated from LSU almost 20 years ago. When the LSU Tigers won the the BCS National Championship in 2004 (they have two trophies now to USC’s one), Nick Saban could have commanded 100,000 LSU fans to match on Washington and take the Capitol and we would have done it. He still had demigod status when he left to coach the Miami Dolphins, even though football fans all over South Louisiana knew it would end in tears. But when he announced he was leaving that failure behind and going to Alabama to coach, LSU fans decided as a whole that there was something very, very wrong with Nick Saban.

I’m not one of the people who will throw logic and reason just because a carpetbagger came down from Michigan and betrayed my Tigers, after stating unequivocally on many occasions that he would not be leaving to coach pro. I feel he deserves some applause for bringing LSU back from a miserable run in the 90’s. I also refuse to hate him just because he is scummy enough to coach in Tuscaloosa. Everybody has faults. Saban is just one of those people who are prone to becoming a traitor.

But to answer your original question, Saban recognizes great potential in young men when he sees it. There is a huge difference between recruiting for a college team and putting together a team in the NFL. In college recruiting it’s easier to spot talent, and far easier to get the player signed to your team than it is in the NFL. College players don’t usually have a history of injuries, as do so many of the NFL players, and injuries can easily ruin a professional team.

College aged men are still developing. The coach’s workout regimen and practice doctrines can make or break a talented collegiate athlete. Whereas in the NFL (even the relatively few players the team acquires in the draft) the players have already been turned into the athletes they are, by different coaches and coaching staffs. In college the athletes can be developed according to what the coach thinks is best relative to the position he wants them to play. There is no such developmental phase in professional football.

That’s one of the things I find most exciting about NCAA football. The players aren’t well known when they start, even most if the highly recruited high school players. They have a clean slate upon which to create their own legacy. In the NFL the players already (usually) have a legacy, even if it’s only colleges. They have egos. They have agents selling their talents. The atmosphere is so commercial and contrived.

I like to think that college football is superior to professional football in just about every way. The athletes have there whole lives ahead of them. They get to play on television, often for the first time in their lives. They are filled with the thrill of the incredible spectacle, tens of thousands of cheering fans in the stadium and millions of viewers at home. In the NFL it’s all about money. Everything about the NFL just boils down to dollars and cents.

I think Saban is so good at what he does because he loves the sport for the thrill of the spectacle. When team politics and commercialization dictate what teams can and can’t do, Saban has his hands tied. That is especially true of drafting and trading. Having said all that, Saban is still a vile traitor.

I hope I answered your question with my opinion somewhere in this rant.

Can you say 0-fer? In related news, randiego showed up again.

Hey, I’m here every day. Weekends are a busy time for me!

Can someone tell me why I can’t have Denver/KC on TV? All I have is Green Bay/Tampa on TV, and Bengals/Browns on radio.

ZZZZZZZZZZZ…

The argument that college football is superior to the pros seems kinda silly to me. My two cents is that Saban and Spurrier succeed in college but not in the NFL because it’s an easier league. The range of talent between the top players and less-skilled is a much wider gap. Spurrier tried to be a 9-5 coach in DC like he was at FLA and got his ass handed to him.

Brad Smith, ladies and gentlemen! A 17-yard run.

headed to a backcountry bbq to watch the game.

I’m a guy that NEVER takes the Chargers to cover a large spread. They are simply a team that regularly plays down to opponents, especially at home.

Having said that, I’m looking for them to cover -8 today.

if the Lions can’t lose this week,

who says the lions can’t lose this week ???

I heard the lions are havin a bake sale wednesday, and I got Cub Scout Troop 114 to win

I had to spot the lions two cake and a dozen dinner rolls, but I got $500 on the cubbies

hey, randiego, you didn’t wanna see the san diego – oakland game

15 – 0, traitors

I hate the traitors

it makes me SICK to enjoy sayin that

(wink)

I really haven’t followed Saban closely. From what I’ve read, his high intensity, booming vocal style of coaching on the field and in the locker room was a problem for some of the outspoken Dolphins who expressed their dislike for him after his departure.

I think it may have gone beyond like and dislike to a matter of respect: They didn’t feel as though they had his respect and so when he left with time left on his Dolphins contract, they let him have it in the press. Although the owner didn’t judge him, players and fans found his persistent reassurances about staying in Miami, and then the departure for Alabama, to be a sign of his faulted character.

Beyond the influence a head coach has on a team’s winning ways – through player personnel, skills practice, and X’s and O’s – Saban seems to relate to college kids better than some professional players, maybe in recruiting but definitely on the field and in locker room instruction.

Belicick created a culture of driving for perfection, being supremely prepared, and making plays. The organization has internalized that approach. Veterans and first string players help coach new comers about expectations. Saban may not have taken that kind of organizational approach in Miami and so stood out as a singularly demanding and unworthy leader. A leader must recognize his or her own faults if he or she hopes to be followed in spite of them.

The Dolphins were 9-7 Saban’s first year and finished second to the 12-4-0 Patriots. The next year they lost three more finishing 6-10. He was Defensive Coordinator with Head coach Bill Belicick, and together they couldn’t win.

I think when you get to Coach in the Pros, gameday is like leaning over the craps table, watching the dice roll out, play by play – interested, involved, but kind of detached from it all.

Guys like Saban, and Spurrier, otoh, are full-on Animals – Beasts – that have to be held back and calmed into civility, or they might just run out onto the field to dispute every single spot of the ball, like Billy Martin arguing balls and strikes.

As far as prognostications go – Mercury must be in retrograde – it was a weekend of unpredictable results! For instance, the Gators got out-smashmouthed by Ole Miss – dammit! With Fulmer’s job possibly on the line, Tennessee called the Darwin Audible and fumbled the hand-off to Lose – D’oh!

And, congrats, to the Thundering Brontos for running over the laying down Badgers.

“Who could have known…”