The Final Stopover: Why Nick Saban Won’t Leave Alabama
By Tony Breland
With another college football season winding down, the rumor mill is once again churning with reports of Nick Saban’s imminent departure from Alabama. Message boards and fan sites have him putting out feelers to Texas, Penn State, various NFL jobs and seemingly everywhere but Hueytown High School.
We’ve heard this refrain before. Saban has been rumored to be leaving Alabama practically since the day he arrived, and media outlets use the rumors as an excuse to trot out the clips of Saban denying he was taking the job in Tuscaloosa. Yet people continue to buy into it, and keep the speculation alive. Fans that leap onto such speculation are either the gullible type, prone to believe everything that appears in print (or on the web), or are pot-stirrers that tout some gnosis that has escaped even the most connected journalists and insiders.
What is an Alabama fan to do, when confronted with the ‘inside source’ that says Saban is all but out the door? It’s really just a matter of pointing out the flaws in logic that lead someone to conclude Saban is taking his ball and going, well, anywhere else.
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Leaving for a better opportunity. Alabama is one of the top jobs in college football. Unparalleled facilities, a rabid fanbase and the ability to contend for championships year in and year out put Alabama among the elite college programs. What’s the compelling reason to make a lateral move, or even a step down? Is Texas going to offer him more money? Is Ohio State going to invest more in a weight room or a stadium expansion? Is Penn State closer to a championship than the Tide?
It’s true that Saban resurrected a moribund Alabama program, but he didn’t invent success at the Capstone. Bill Curry was 26-10 at Alabama, and even overmatched Mike Shula in the heart of Alabama’s probation years, only had one losing season. It’s been said a broomstick could go 8-4 at Alabama, and there’s a lot of truth in that. Nick Saban has hit home runs here, but being at Alabama is like starting off on third base.
Wants a new challenge. One message board has it that Saban is a program builder, not a program sustainer. He prefers to travel, to seek new opportunities to hold his interest. The evidence? This is Saban’s fifth head coaching job; he’s clearly a coaching vagabond.
Have you ever taken a promotion? Better pay, better opportunity to advance? Looking at Saban’s record, it appears that’s exactly what he’s done at each stop. His success allowed him to take on better jobs, eventually winning a national title at LSU. After that, he saw the NFL as the next logical step. That challenge quickly soured for Saban, for even as he had success, he hated having to deal with athletes that were in many cases making more money than he, and who were in many cases uncoachable. He left the NFL to return to college because he realized this was a better fit.
This isn’t Dynasty mode on XBox; this is the real thing. Saban has challenges every day, from recruiting to maintaining the standard he has set at Alabama. His work isn’t done, nor will it ever be. And if he wants a real challenge, perhaps being Alabama’s Athletic Director is one he has in mind.
Wants another crack at the NFL. See the above answer. Saban won in the NFL, bur was unhappy with the coach-athlete relationship, and lacked the opportunity to be a developer of young men. Saban is a teacher and has a heart for young men who have few opportunities outside of athletics. There’s little place for a teacher in a room full of millionaires.
Wants to get out of Alabama. This speaks more to the prejudice of the rumormongers than it does to Saban’s desires. The stereotype of Alabama as a backward, racist state is blatant projection by rivals who need to feel better about themselves.
Nick Saban is from West Virginia, and understands southern culture. He’s a lake rat, and loves being on his boat. And while he doesn’t court the adulation of Tide fans, he doesn’t go to great lengths to shun it, either. In short, Alabama is as good a fit personally for Saban as it is professionally.
We’re sure there are other reasons being put forth, and we’ll hear all of them in the post-season. Maybe you can come up with plenty of reasons Saban will leave. It just doesn’t add up in our view, and while time will tell, our money is on Saban being here well into the future.