Semi OT: Nick Saban on the challenges of coaching in the modern day era of CFB
Saban is absolutely a whiny-kitty-baby-whiner (1 dollar to anyone who gets that reference), but he always intersperses his whining with a couple nuggets of information we wouldn't know otherwise.
Bruce Almighty. Have you ever heard of googling something. You owe me a dollar
Dollar retracted for being snarky and rude. Also cheating. :PPPPPPP (that's me giving you the raspberry)
Side note: it’s absolutely incredible to me that google can take that string “whiny-kitty-baby-whiner” and the first thing that pops up is the video of it with a title saying none of that. Wtf.
Immediate thought (before watching the video): Poor bastard
I think our best bet is 4 mini bamas in the south. Let them fight over the same 50 recruits and then rotating texas a and m teams hoarding talent then falling flat on their face.
Now that he's not the only one blatantly paying players, and said players can now easily and smoothly and penalty-free transfer to other schools, he's lost his greatest competitive advantage.
He's also a great coach (and much less of a degenerate human being than Urban). One doesn't win 7 national championships strictly based on recruiting or Texas would actually be good in the last 50 years.
i listen to his podcast when I run. but I skipped what I assume was a prime time suck-off/fest last week. I'm on the fence about listening to this one....
Have a bulldog to comfort you Nick.
I’d bet you would get many of the same responses from the majority of college coaches. It’s bad at all levels. The minute a kid gets any good at a lesser school he will be off to greener pastures for more money and so much for kids earning their spot in the starting rotation. NIL and the transfer portal are going to shorten a lot of coaches careers. You couldn’t convince me that they didn’t play a role in both Belien and Hutch stepping away.
MeLLLLLLL from East Lansing on the line and he begs to differ that the transfer portal hurts careers. Actually has a pretty compelling anecdote to back up his claim.
He is also tempering the bama fans expectations. The past 15 years of dominance is not happening in this environment, which hopefully is good sign of things to come.
It may go against the history of college football, but it's unrealistic to qualify it as simply "bad". Bad for whom? It's bad to my sensibilities but it certainly isn't bad for the players to have the same flexibility and financial traction as the coaches and executives. There is no sport in the world that generates the kind of money as college football, in which the players are essentially un-unionized indentured servants. The amateur model made some sense before the money got out of control. But these fatcats kept making more and more money, worsening the game with more commercials, more games, selling jerseys and player likenesses, and giving zero back to the players.
Nothing better than watching the old man grovel. It's like he's stumping in Iowa to win a primary. Folks this is what happens when you lose your systemic advantage over everybody. Quick, let's check in to see how Alabama and Clemson have done since NIL came into play...
I could tell you some stories about Ole Saban, but him practically begging to the media is fun to watch.
Tell some stories, please.
He tried competing on a level playing field. It's called the NFL. Then he came running home to the NCAA.
Saban got real fidgety when the word "parity" came up.
Lots of great college coaches have failed in the NFL. With Saban, I think it's less about the parity and more about that isn't a player's coach who can successfully motivate professional adults. He's a Bobby Knight kind of coach, who needs total, unchallengeable control. Some coaches are like that and it makes them a poor fit for the professional ranks. Saban was a pretty good coach at MSU, and it's not like he was doing it with top-flight rosters. I don't like the guy, but he's a great coach, in more than just recruiting.
I guess being King of Alabama ain’t what it used to be.
Would you like some cheese with that whine, Nick?
Every Saban interview since it became clear Kirby Smart was turning Georgia into the new Alabama, even while Alabama was still winning championships, has been the same: "I lack the colossal and unfair advantages I used to have, and this bothers me."
I learned water is wet. A card counter has been found out by the house and must adjust. What do you mean everybody can now give tricked out SUV's to prospects? Training camps everybody can attend? In SEC country...?
The Prom Queen soiled her dress getting out of the Limo and couldn't attend the dance and is indignant.
As a current resident of Alabama for 35 years and familiar with SEC football - specifically Alabama and Auburn I can confirm…….
Nick Saban is a outstanding top tier coach who has kicked ass almost since he arrived in T Town. He isn’t a whiner at all. He is a blunt and straightforward guy who has zero issues ripping the media his coaches or players asses for poor performance and making poor decisions and stupid questions.He is a no nonsense guy. I think he’s awesome. He isn’t the warm and fuzzy constant coach speak guy Harbaugh is.
Yet both are great coaches.
Those who dislike him because he opposed satellite camps and believes he pays players are the Whiney Team. The ignorance displayed by a portion of our fan base regarding Alabama is comical.
That being said. Michigan remains my favorite team. I grew up in A2 in the 70’s.I worked at the Big House in 1975 selling hot dogs and cokes. I didn’t sell on OSU day. A friend and I snuck into the press box and stood 10 feet away from Keith Jackson broadcasting the game.
I snuck into the Big House the summer before 9th grade with 7 friends and played 4 on 4 touch football on the Astro Turf full field. Didn’t last long 100yards is a lot of running 4 on 4.
I played High School football at Huron with Geoff Schembechler and know Matt. My girlfriend baby sat for Michigan coaches on Saturday nights after home games.
Maize and Blue are in my blood. But this hate for Saban is just pathetic. Those who spew it are the real whiners.
Every successful non-Michigan coach gets ripped on here (and CFB forums in general). It's the nature of fandom.
That being said, your defense is just a little too ardent. Sure sounds like no matter what you did in the 70s you've gone a bit native down in 'Bama.
His posts read like an SEC/Bama fan no matter how much he tries to tell you otherwise. Its ok to be a Bama fan and much of what he says rings true(ish) but Im guessing there isnt an ardent Harbaugh supporter on a Bama board singing his praises. Saban is a beast but he got there in ways that would make cheeseburgers and stretching look like childs play. We recruited like Bama football for one season at our university (Fab 5) and we got absolutely nuked. I wont ever believe averaging number 1.5 in the recruiting standings just became a thing through hard work alone. He made plenty of deals with the devil to secure a decade plus of recruiting dominance. GTFO if you think Bama baseball is dirty and the football program is clean.
Those who dislike him because he opposed satellite camps
While i agree with most of the things he said in the interview, what is the defense of Saban's opposition to satellite camps?
Saban may be the greatest college coach of alltime, the greatest at letting boosters and donors build him a dynasty.
It's called the John Wooden model.
As for as I'm concerned, he can shut up about anything involving players and money. He left MSU, LSU, and the Dolphins for better opportunities. I'm sure he doesn't run Bama like a corporation and never over-signed and gave players a firm handshake. Saban has been and always will be a control freak, and empowering the players is his worst nightmare.
Saban = Trump = Day. Born on 3rd base, and thinks he hit a triple.
IIRC, Saban said nothing about a parking lot full of Chargers and Challengers when it was to his advantage. Suddenly, the first is (believe it or not) a bit more balanced so other teams can actually attract talent - and, he would like it to be more fair.
The BCS, if memory serves me well, gave Bama a second bite of the apple in a rematch against LSU. Bama lost to LSU at home in the regular season - and, the replay benefitted Bama immensely. But, there’s never a mention of that.
SEC- Michigan shouldnt get a rematch losing last second on the road to number 2. Rematches shouldnt be a thing.
Also SEC- Bama should totally have a shot at a rematch, makes sense.
We have been taking it from the SEC and the SEnCaa for years.
See: history of college football.
Where modern day = all schools being able to go full Oprah on the performance cars
Think I remember reading a few years back as Saban approached 70, that only Bowden at FSU won a championship after that milestone. At this point Saban would be the oldest.
Not quite sure how this happened, but I feel like it's appropriate.
I watched with a skeptical eye, and I don't want to like Saban, but I think he's right about just about everything he said in that interview.
While the old system may have been too one-way in favor of the coaches/programs/schools, everything has been reversed to an extent that it's going to be good for a few top teenage athletes and the football (and presumably basketball) programs with big donors (and the professional leagues, who get a risk-free look at raw talent); but it's not going to be good for everyone else. It'll be bad for lesser programs; it'll be bad for (especially male) athletes in non-revenue sports. In the long-run, it won't be good for fans or other students.
For players and coaches it's going to further disincentivize attention to schoolwork and long-range personal development, as everything will be focused on attracting and poaching free agents, and moving on to the next.
(I think he hinted at a solution: collective bargaining with a better sense of reciprocity).