On Saturday w/ Mike Regan – Oops, All Saban
Greetings and thank you to everybody who took the time to click on this article to read my thoughts on the latest headlines in college football. If you’re a regular, welcome back. If this is your first time, what the hell took you so long? On Saturday is the greatest weekly college football column on the entire internet, get with the times.
I would like to start today by giving a big congratulations to Jim Harbaugh and The Michigan Wolverines for their CFP National Championship victory over Washington this past Monday. The Wolverines had another elite defensive performance that shut down one of the best offenses in the nation. They were in complete control of the game for the full 60 minutes. It was a game that proved what many knew, and some refused to accept all year. Michigan was the best team in the country.
After Harbaugh stood on the mountaintop and hoisted the trophy, I began thinking about what I would write about this week. I planned on doing a detailed review of the title game, talking about notable transfer moves, and reviewing the coaching carousel that took place over the past month. Then all that got scrapped on Wednesday when my phone buzzed as I sat at The O’Hare airport in Chicago waiting to board a plane. It was a notification with the breaking news that a certain legendary coach was retiring.
Unless you live under a rock like my boy Patrick Star, you know what coach I’m talking about. As I began to piece together my thoughts and jot down talking points, I quickly realized it would be the sole topic I could cover this week. So, my sincere apologies to JJ McCarthy and the Wolverines I present to you On Saturday: Oops! All Nick Saban Edition.
The Career of Nick Saban
All due respect to legends such as Bear Bryant, Bobby Bowden, and Joe Paterno, but the greatest college football coach of all time retired last week. The GOAT I’m referring to is Nick Saban, and no, I’m not just saying that because Saban and I have a very similar definition of what counts as a healthy breakfast.
At age 72, everyone realized Saban retiring was something that would happen in the near future. Yet still, when the news broke this past Wednesday, it sent shockwaves through the sports world and it honestly felt surreal. The idea of college football without Nick Saban just feels weird. Few figures in the sport loomed as large as him. Prior to the sensation that is Coach Prime, Saban was probably the one college coach that people who don’t heavily follow the sport could name. His impact was game-changing. He made Alabama football a program that you could best describe as an elite and a consistent, well-oiled machine. No scandals. No terrible seasons. With Saban at the helm Crimson Tides fans simply did not worry as to how each year would unfold. As he closes the book on his career he leaves behind a legacy that will leave fingerprints on the game, even as time moves on without him standing on the sidelines.
Saban’s first year as a head coach was at Toledo back in 1990 (there’s a fun fact for your next round of bar trivia). He finished his 28-year career with a 297-71-1 record. He won 80 percent of his games and 61% of his bowl games. After his lone season at Toledo, and his five-year run coaching Michigan State, Saban headed to the SEC taking the HC job at LSU in 2000. In 2003, his fourth year with the Tigers, Saban reached the pinnacle of college football for the first time when he led LSU to their first National Title since 1958. Two years later, he was coaching the Miami Dolphins. After a short stint in the NFL from 2005-2006, he returned to the college ranks, becoming Head Coach of the Alabama Crimson Tide. It would be here that the legend of Nick Saban was built.
Saban led the Tide for 17 years and finished with a record of 206-29. An untouchable win percentage of 87%. In his first year at Alabama in 2007, the team went 7-6. It was a transition year, as Saban worked to transform the program into his vision. After that, his team never won less than 11 games in a season. In that time, The Crimson Tide went 16-7 in bowl games as Saban won six more national championships to bring his career total to seven.
With that brief history lesson out of the way, we have to talk about how Saban changed the game. The consistent level of success he generated led to other college football programs desperately trying to replicate the Saban Secret Sauce (™). Proving that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, they began trying to build their teams based on the blueprint Saban created. He came back to college football with a playbook of defensive schemes that stymied even the most lethal of offenses and controlled games. All of a sudden every SEC team was adjusting to run a defense like Bama. Starting in 2008, Saban’s defense finished top ten in the points allowed per game for a whole decade. In the nine-year stretch from ‘09-’17, they were top five, including four seasons at number one. Even in his last five years, as the defensive-heavy SEC began to see more high-powered offenses, Saban’s defense’s worst finish in a season was 17th in 2021. However, for the sake of context, that lowly 17th-ranked D only allowed 20.6 points a game.
Keep in mind, all those rankings I just listed, were across the entire FBS and their 133 teams. Saban was also never one to be left behind, he always adjusted. As offense in the SEC ramped up, so did his. For five years from ‘18-’22 The Tide were one of the top five scoring offenses in the nation.
The Nick Saban effect extended beyond what happened on the fields. It’s undeniable that for teams to perform at an elite level keep themselves in the healthiest shape possible. Saban and The University of Alabama invested to achieve that. Nutritionists, top-tier physical therapists, state of the art training facilities accompanied by a team of strength and conditioning coaches. In 2018 the University opened a dining facility for their athletes that features a lot more than just places for players to eat. Inside the building, Crimson Tide athletes have access to a performance nutrition staff with registered dieticians, performance chefs, nutrition education, and most importantly, a smoothie bar.
25,000 sq ft
— Alabama Football (@AlabamaFTBL) June 27, 2018
Fuel Center & Smoothie Bar
5 Performance Chefs & 4 Dietitians
Uptstairs Patio Dining Overlooking Practice Fields
50+ HD TVs
Our new Sports & Nutrition Facility Open Soon#FueledByBama #RollTide pic.twitter.com/MHpL39BjOQ
It showed other programs how investing some of the money they haul in from football back into their team gives them the tools and support to be the best players they can be. Having top-of-the-line facilities and amenities is also a big help when it comes to recruiting. If I were a five-star college prospect, the second someone said smoothie bar, I’d immediately sign my letter of intent.
Saban also exploited market inefficiencies by building a coaching staff unlike anything we had seen at the time, and I’m not just talking about assistant coaches. Saban was among the first coaches to bring people in as offensive and defensive analysts. If you comb through Saban’s staff throughout the years, you would be surprised by some of the names that were established and experienced coaches before joining the Tide. They did it all for the chance to work with Saban and be a part of the success that is Alabama Football. Last season Ken Wisenhunt, who coached in the NFL for 23 years (eight as a head coach), joined the team as “The Assistant to the Head Coach”. I don’t know if that means getting him coffee, fanning him off during hot summer practices, or actually helping with game preparation.
If Saban felt someone could help, he would find a way to add them to his army of polo’s seen on the sidelines every Saturday during the season. He used every possible job label he could find to do so. Need to find another spot on the staff to fit in another former player or coach? Just enroll them into a class at Alabama and boom, they are now working with the team as a grad assistant.
In many cases, schools attempted to get some of Nick Saban’s magic by bringing on anybody who worked for him to coach their team. Athletic Directors cherry-picked former Saban staff members in a way that’s similar to how NFL teams would hire anybody who worked for Bill Belichick, even if some of those hires have gone poorly over the years. When he retired everyone felt it would be unlikely that his replacement would come from inside because of the coaching turnover that went on at Alabama over the year. For many, working with Nick Saban served as career rehab.
In 2015, problems in USC head coach Steve Sarkisian’s personal life led to a very publicized and controversial firing. Sark joined Bama as an offensive analyst the following season. The team went 14-1 and made the CFP National Championship. A month later, in February of 2017, Sarkisian was hired to be the Offensive Coordinator of the Atlanta Falcons and later became head coach of The Texas Longhorns, the biggest program in the Big 12.
I realize that my last statement probably enraged Oklahoma Sooner fans, but call me when your team has its own TV network.
Lane Kiffin joined Nick Saban’s staff as OC in 2014. Here’s a quick recap of how things were going for him prior to that:
He was fired from his job as HC of the Oakland Raiders in 2008 after going 5-15.
Next year he became the HC of the Tennessee Volunteers. The team went 7-6 in his first season.
That year he also told a future Super Bowl winner he would pumping gas for the rest of his life if he committed to South Carolina, committed 12 NCAA violations, and capped it off by leaving The Volunteers after one season to take the HC job at USC.
The Tennessee students did not take it well.
Kiffin failed to meet the high expectations that come with the job of being USC’s head coach and was infamously fired on the tarmac after the team returned from losing 62-41 to Arizona State.
After three years of running the offense for Nick Saban, Kiffin became the head coach at FAU and led their team to three successful seasons. After that, he got another chance to coach a major football program when he took what is his current job as head coach at Ole Miss in 2020
The now-former Crimson Tide head coach managed to stay on top of college football because he continually adapted to it. Over the past few years, we’ve seen the landscape change through things like NIL and The transfer portal. When questioned about such topics and their effects on the game, he’s been willing to give his thoughts, even if he wasn’t completely in favor of it. What made him successful was that after he said his piece on the matter, he used these new ways to build a roster to the best of his ability to make his team as strong as it could be. It would be a disservice to the University, the team, and the fans to not use these tools. It’s adapt or die in college football, and you can’t afford to fall behind while the other top programs around you move forward. What sense would it make to take a pride-induced moral stand and refuse to change when it will end up being a detriment to your football program? *cough* Dabo Swinney *cough*
The Retirement of Nick Saban
An aspect of Nick Saban’s retirement that stood out to me was the timing of it. He could’ve let on that retirement was a possibility after the team’s OT loss to Michigan in the Rose Bowl, but that would’ve taken away from Michigan’s moment and would’ve taken away a somber moment to appreciate all his team had done. He could’ve announced it in the week leading up to the National Title game, but that would’ve overshadowed the biggest college football game of the year. A week that should be spent talking about the teams and their players who worked so hard to make their school one of the last two standing. He even waited for another two days after the title game, making Michigan’s championship victory the talk of Tuesday, before he took over the headlines on Wednesday. Whether it was intentional or not, it was a class act.
Over his time at Alabama, it was well-known that Saban could be hard on the staff and his players. Everyone has seen those moments on the sideline where he would lose his cool for a moment or the way he would stand shaking his head in exasperation after an offensive lineman committed a false start. The important part though was how much people respected him. Go find a story where a former Alabama player talks bad about Saban. I can’t find any. Former QB turned sports broadcast Danny Knell mentioned something important when talking about Saban on the Cover 3 Podcast, while he could be tough on people, he never made it personal. He never crossed that line and went too far. If he was coming down on a player or member of his staff, it was all about business. It was all to make his team the best they could be. It was something that led to people not losing respect for him and the Crimson Tide ship staying steady all these years.
That word, respect, found its way into my mind as I began analyzing some of Nick Saban’s recent comments. At his press conference after the Rose Bowl, Saban talked about how proud he was of this team, pointing out how far they came this year and what they accomplished. He told reporters that when he addressed his players after the loss and said, “this is one of the most amazing seasons in the history of Alabama football.”
Another comment that stuck out to many was when, once again in talking about the team, he said, “I just wish I could’ve done more as a coach to help them be successful.”
A couple of days after his retirement announcement, Saban sat down with ESPN’s Rece Davis for an exclusive interview about his decision. When asked about the reasoning for his decision he mentioned how the grind of the season was “grueling.” In a similar vein to his post-Rose Bowl comments, he reiterated that he felt he could’ve done better this year. A big factor in his mind was the question of whether he could still do things the way he wanted to do them. Was he still able to reach the high standard he set for himself throughout the year?
Nick Saban said it became harder when recruiting players and hiring staff members to give them the commitment that he would still be around for the next few years. When connecting the dots between his words, his decision to retire became clear. In his own words, his goal has always been “…to help make people successful in life.” A big part of the job for anybody in Nick Saban’s position looking to achieve that goal is the relationship and mutual respect between the players and the head coach. Throughout his career, Nick Saban could be tough on guys, but it came from his motivation to push them to be the best they could be. He asked that everybody involved, whether a player or staff member, give everything they had. In return, Saban would give them everything he had. Once he felt like he couldn’t keep up his end, it was time to step away.
The Replacement for Nick Saban
Immediately after Nick Saban announced his retirement, reports began coming out with the name of who Alabama was targeting to be their 28th head football coach. In classic college football fashion, most of the names were coaches currently under contract at other schools.
One of the first mentioned was Oregon HC Dan Lanning, however within 24 hours Lanning announced he had no intention of leaving Oregon. Another name floated out was Florida State’s Mike Norvell. With the way FSU was left out of the playoff and the ACC’s strength as a conference on the decline, it seemed plausible Norvell would leave. Instead, the interest from Bama became leverage and Norvell inked an eight-year, 80-million-dollar extension with FSU.
The Crimson Tide were also reportedly targeting former Alabama wide receiver and longtime Clemson HC Dabo Swinney. The Swinney talk died down quickly after it was revealed that his contract with Clemson included a clause that stated he would have to pay 150% of his buyout if he chose to coach Alabama. Though I’m not sure how much that actually factored into the situation. If Bama really wants someone as coach they have the kind of money to pay a high price to get it done. Dabo Swinney also seems to have his roots planted deep at Clemson with nothing that alludes to ever wanting to leave the school by his own decision.
In the end, it was announced this past Friday that Washington head coach Kalen Deboer had signed a deal to fill the vacant position of head coach for the Crimson Tide. Whether or not he was the school’s first choice, they still managed to reel in a big fish.
Deboer’s career record at the collegiate level, which includes four years at The University of Sioux Falls in NAIA is 104-12. However, it was what he’s done over the past two seasons that got him to Tuscaloosa. Deboar went 25-3 coaching the Huskies where this year he led them to an undefeated regular season, won the final Pac 12 conference title, and beat Texas in the first round of the CFP before losing to Michigan in the national title game. The signing reminds us of the only danger for a college program when it becomes successful, the possibility that a bigger program may come for your head coach. It may seem callous or turncoat to some, but it’s commonplace at the collegiate level.
Passing up the chance to be the head coach somewhere at the level of Alabama means accepting the fact you may never get the opportunity again. It’s a job position that isn’t available very often. Some coaches who excel at one school see a program like Bama as one that’s on a different level and has the tools to get them closer to winning a national title. It’s the reason Brian Kelly left Notre Dame for LSU. Kelly took the Irish as high as they could go and hit a ceiling they could not break through. Meanwhile, at LSU he would be dealing with easier academic requirements for athletes and recruiting advantages that could help him build a championship team. There’s also the simple factor of the almighty dollar. However, it’s tough to say that weighed heavily in Deboer’s decision. While he was set to make 4.2 million next season as head coach for the Huskies, according to Yahoo Sports Ross Dellenger, Washington had been negotiating a new deal that would’ve paid Deboer nine million per year.
When it comes to the X’s and O’s, along with his ability as a head coach, Alabama is getting a proven commodity in Deboer. It will be interesting to see how he handles going from a more polished and experienced QB like Penix to a more raw physically gifted signal caller like Jalen Milroe. Despite having a roster of highly ranked recruits, The Crimson Tide’s offense performance was up and down in 2023, but if there’s anyone who can get the most out of Alabama’s offense it’s Debeor, who is bringing Washington OC Ryan Grubb with him to Tuscaloosa. The arrival of Grubb means OC Tommy Ress, who was also a reported finalist for the job, will not be returning.
The big question mark surrounding Deboer is whether or not he can recruit like Nick Saban. Washington was 59th and 29th in 247sports overall composite rankings in his two years at Washington. The Huskies were 30th on the list in 2024 at the time of their now-former head coach’s departure. The optimistic spin is that Deboer will fare better at recruiting by having a better staff and better access to the top recruits in SEC territory. The first priority in the coming weeks will be filling out his staff and locking down any top players who began to consider leaving after Nick Saban’s retirement. In the short time since the Saban announcement, Bama has had two five-star recruits de-commit and lost wide receiver Isiah Bond to the transfer portal. Bond has since committed to Texas, who will be joining Alabama in the SEC next season.
Wait… did I say Isaiah Bond? Sorry, now I’m contractually obligated to post this highlight in my column for the third time.
TOUCHDOWN ALABAMA ON 4TH AND A MILE!
— CBS Sports (@CBSSports) November 26, 2023
UNREAL! pic.twitter.com/rX5XPRsuzV
I’m a big fan of Kalen Deboer and Ryan Grubb. Throughout the season I’ve typed many words raving about The Huskies offense led by Michael Penix Jr. I’m intrigued and excited to see their version of the Crimson Tide. However, the expectations set upon Deboer in Tuscaloosa will be much higher, and the leash will be much shorter than it was at Washington. Not only that, he willingly decided to be the first coach to follow up Nick F’n Saban, a man who won the school so many titles that you could go to lunch at Chick-fil-A all week and wear a different one every day.
Go 9-3 in a season and you’ll be considered a bust by the Crimson Tide Faithful. You’re going to be compared to a borderline unachievable bar. You can’t deny the crazy amount of confidence and moxy Deboer must have to take that challenge under his own volition.
