What's everyone's take on Saban

Submitted by coachdad on

being called the greatest coach of all time. Like Alabama or not, I think it is hard to argue with his success. Winning 4 out of the past 7 NC's with the competitiveness of college football right now is pretty impressive. I don't like the oversigning and the grey-shirting that he employs in recruiting, but damn the man can coach. Hopefully Harbaugh is just getting started and someday will catch up.

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asquared

January 12th, 2016 at 9:40 AM ^

As much as I hate him, he may be the best of all time. I think working in the SEC with their wink at NCAA rules helped him get started, but Alabama is beyond needing that to bring in the recruits he does.

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xtramelanin

January 12th, 2016 at 12:48 PM ^

years ago still calls him 'nick satan'.   says he is as ruthless as it gets.   not surprised and that is certainly one way to attain 'success', but a high price to pay.  

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Trebor

January 12th, 2016 at 9:51 AM ^

I don't think this argument is about whether or not he's a good NFL coach, but rather is he the best college coach. Being successful at the NFL level does not guarantee success at the college level. Bill Walsh, for all his success with the 49ers, was only 34-24-1 over 5 seasons at Stanford, including 3-7-1 in his last season.

Right now, as much as I love what Harbaugh is doing, you cannot possibly argue that he's a better college coach than Saban. Check back in 8 years, maybe, but Saban has 5 titles now in 20 years of college coaching, all since 2003.

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Jon06

January 12th, 2016 at 10:10 AM ^

I don't think being successful at the NFL level guarantees success at the college level. But I do think that coaches who have success at both levels are, all else equal, better than coaches who have success at only one level.

Harbaugh has had a hell of a lot of success at both levels, and it seems pretty clear that he had more success at Stanford than Saban did at MSU. So if Harbaugh can win some rings at Michigan in the rest of his career, which I think he can, then there'll be a real argument, and the NFL stuff will be relevant to it.

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Space Coyote

January 12th, 2016 at 10:18 AM ^

He finished 9-7 his first season, a year after they finished 4-12. They were quite close to making the playoffs, despite a stretch of 9 games in which they went 3-7, due in part because they finished with a 6 game winning streak.

Then his GM moves really started kicking in. He signed Daunte Culpepper instead of future HOF Drew Brees. Saban ended up rolling with Joey Harrington and Cleo Lemon for most of the season. That's the headline mistake as a GM made. All the draft picks essentially were busts. Still, Saban won 5 of 6 games midway through the season before really going up against it. He finished 6-10, with a crappy team, and still managed to field one of the best defenses in the NFL. He even shut out a Tom Brady led New England team.

Saban would go to Alabama after that, and Miami would finish the next season 1-15. So Saban went 15-17, but was bookended by teams that went 5-27.

I'm still convinced Saban could be a very successful NFL coach as well. The problem is, he doesn't have the ultimate control he wants or needs. Saban is a control freak, the kind of control you can only have in college. But just because he sucked as a GM in Miami, doesn't mean Saban was terrible in the NFL coach. Saban was solid in the NFL asa coach, but he picked a terrible situation to put himself in.

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DoubleB

January 12th, 2016 at 10:59 AM ^

The teams right before and after him were awful. Made the key mistake with Culpepper over Brees. 

I think he'd be great in the pros as well. He's not the only guy who's made mistakes the first time as a pro coach (and most of those were personnel based unrelated to coaching). That Belichick guy certainly comes to mind.

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Tater

January 12th, 2016 at 12:06 PM ^

Saban is a very good coach.  Even a great coach.  But he is not the GOAT.  He benefits from a booster base that buys him every player he wants.  I thought he was out-coached last night, but Bama just had too many great athletes stepping in and making plays at the right time.  

It was like watching Michigan basketball get beaten by UK a few years ago.  No matter what Clemson did, one of Bama's highly-paid professionals was there to make a great play.  

If Saban is the GOAT, why did he suck in the NFL, where talent is a lot more equal?

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goblue1213

January 12th, 2016 at 10:31 AM ^

An all-time great is an all-time great in any era. You don't think Yost would have been smart enough to coach the modern game? These arguments irritate me. If you took Bane Ruth out of the 20's and had him grow up in this era, with this training, and this equipment, are you saying he still wouldn't have been one of the top 5 players in history? People say that someone like Jim Brown would be affected because it's a different league then when he played. He would have grown up in this era, being taught the game the modern way. All-All-time greats are all-time regardless.

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canzior

January 12th, 2016 at 12:55 PM ^

Babe Ruth played against fishermen and warehouse workers, and all caucasian players.  It is a very legitimate argument to suggest that he wouldn't have been as good against other full-time professional baseball players.  You think Ruth could hit 714 home runs on today's MLB pitchers? Seriously? 

Even Joe Montana has said he couldn't compete at the same level if he played today because offenses AND defenses are much more complex than when he played.  (Also, salary caps - the Dallas and SF teams of the 90's wouldn't happen today)  

Being great in your era doesn't make you automatically great in any era.  Similarly, there are Academy award winners who won because of a down year for movies.  You're assuming the someone who was revolutionary in 1925 would be equally revolutionary in 2015?  Or that a physical specimen from 1955 would stand out as much as one from today?  

In the 60's NFL offensive linemen were on average 6'3 250.  http://www.businessinsider.com/nfl-50s-tim-tebow-would-have-been-an-offensive-lineman-2011-10?op=1

Today that's an average TE or an undersized DE.  There is nothing wrong with the game being better, faster, and smarter than it was, and it doesn't take anythign away from former greats if they couldn't compete today.

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goblue1213

January 12th, 2016 at 4:22 PM ^

If you took Joe Montana out of the 80's and put him on a team today, yes he would struggle. That wasn't my point. If you took Joe Montana and brought him up through high school and college now he would still be a top-flight player. Yes in the 60s there was a different body type playing. But if you took those guys out of that time frame and brought them up through the system in these days, they would be completely different. Babe Ruth retired with 714 homeruns. It wasn't until the 60's until another player got into the 600s! Regardless of the decade/era that a player was in, if they were an ALL-TIME GREAT they would be able to compete and dominate in any era. Because they would come up through the system with all the advantages/disadvantages of that era.

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814 East U

January 12th, 2016 at 9:44 AM ^

I'm no Seth and I'd like to know about Saban's scheme. Does he "out coach" people or does Saban simply have just way more talent than everyone?

I'd tend to think it is both, which makes him who he is. However, I still think coaches like Meyer and Harbaugh may be considered better Xs and Os coaches. Hard to argue with Saban's resume because it is great.

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DoubleB

January 12th, 2016 at 11:18 AM ^

"I still think coaches like Meyer and Harbaugh may be considered better Xs and Os coaches."

Just a stunning statement of ignorance. 

First off he's a defensive coach and has done as much if not more to advance that side of the ball schematically than Meyer and Harbaugh have on offense.

In a QB driven era of college football he has won national championships despite not having great QBs.

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