Alabama Football: SEC West filled with reality show, starring characters

As a spinoff to the next college football season, Alabama football coach, Nick Saban and other SEC coaches will star in a new ‘SEC Coaches Reality Show.’

Alabama football coach, Nick Saban is a media star. He has mostly gained that distinction by becoming the best college football coach, ever. Yet, as informative as Nick is, he is not all that entertaining in mainstream media. He is earnest, thoughtful and more than anything, measured. There is almost always a purpose behind Saban’s words.

The exception to Saban’s carefully crafted public utterances is his sometimes rants during Alabama media sessions. Even many of the rants are contrived,  packaging points Nick wants to make, for all to hear.

In contrast to Saban, the SEC West coaching lineup is now filled with some colorful characters. Guys who choose a freestyle approach in public communication. The two guys who most embody looseness of message are Mike Leach and Lane Kiffin. Kiffin has matured somewhat since he was the Alabama football, Offensive Coordinator. Lane is still unabashedly blunt. Talking recently about the legitimacy of the CFB Playoff if some Power Five schools do not have full schedules, he said,

"To me, there’s college football, then there’s the SEC plus a few teams — Clemson and Ohio State."

That’s careful Lane, offending others but strategically, none from the SEC.

Leach never moves from an honest quirkiness that makes him terminally weird. Verbal jousting between the two Mississippi coaches will treat college football audiences.

The SEC coaching cadre lost one of its all-time great quipsters when Steve Spurrier retired. If only Arkansas had coaxed him out of retirement instead of hiring Sam Pittman.

A suggested spinoff (from the actual, 2020 football season), is the ‘SEC West Coaches Reality Show.’ As they say in the biz, that is a ‘working title.’ A more sizzling appellation will be needed.

The show will feature the interplay among Leach, Kiffin, Jimbo Fisher and Ed Orgeron. Mike and Lane will be the stars. Nick Saban will have a supporting role, absent of idle drama but full of wise perspective. Gus Malzahn and Sam Pittman will be bit players, not up to any scene-stealing performances.

How will it play out? Like most reality shows, it will be orchestrated. The coaches, having chosen their public personas long ago, will play to their strengths, verbally battling each other. Lane will often be blunt and needling, sometimes disrespectful and always close to being incendiary. At times he is brash to a fault. One example is when he accused Urban Meyer of cheating and boldly added,

"We are gonna sing ‘Rocky Top’ all night long in The Swamp."

Mike Leach will be irreverent and both calculatingly and naturally bizarre. There is no predicting what Mike Leach will say. One example is when he chided his Texas Tech players for paying attention to the “opinions of their fat little girlfriends.” Leach is almost the antithesis of a college football coach. Everyone knows Alabama football coach, Nick Saban was born to coach. Leach could have followed other careers. He did not play college football and earned three academic degrees, one from Pepperdine Law School before getting into coaching.

Jimbo Fisher and Ed Orgeron will have strong supporting roles in the ‘SEC Coaches Reality Show.’ But their onscreen minutes will be limited. Fisher’s rapid-fire, staccato way of talking will be edited into short spurts, allowing viewers time to absorb. Coach O will definitely bring a strong dose of machismo, balanced with good humor and possibly tinged with bellicosity. The problem is viewers will not understand half of Coach O’s words.

To keep from alienating the Auburn and Arkansas faithful, Gus Malzahn and Sam Pittman will have minor roles. Both will be in, way over their heads.

At least, not in this post, there is no intended derision of any SEC coach. If this fanciful idea of an ‘SEC West Coaches Reality Show’ ever happened, it would be ‘must-watch’ viewing.