Alabama Football: Nick Saban made liars of opposing fans and media critics

Alabama Football: In 2007, when Nick Saban was announced as the Crimson Tide coach, it was claimed he would never stay five seasons in Tuscaloosa.

In his career, Alabama Football head coach, Nick Saban has often proved others wrong. Erroneous false claims about Saban being ‘finished’ as the top coach in the nation or being ‘passed’ by other coaches are the ones most remembered. Those claims have been laughably wrong. Being wrong will not put an end to them and at some point, far in the future, they will have some association with reality.

The first negative claims about Nick Saban as the Crimson Tide head coach began even before his introductory Tide press conference. The most repeated claim, made by opposing fans and many in the media was that Saban would exit Tuscaloosa in less than five seasons.

That nonsense claim could not have been more wrong. Nick Saban is hard at work on his 15th Alabama football season. That longevity places Saban at eighth on a list of longest tenures of head coaches at current schools. The list leaders are Kirk Ferentz heading into his 23rd season for the Iowa Hawkeyes and Gary Patterson preparing for his 22nd at TCU.

The others outpacing Saban’s Alabama Football longevity are Kyle Whittingham (18th at Utah), Frank Solich (17th at Ohio), Mike Gundy (17th at Oklahoma State), plus Rick Stockstill and Pat Fitzgerald going into their 16th seasons at Middle Tennessee State and Northwestern.

Joining Saban with 15 years of tenure at current schools are Troy Calhoun at Air Force and Ken Niumatalolo at Navy. Many of the 10 coaches have been pursued by other programs and passed on opportunities to make a move. None of them have been chased as often and as hard as has Nick Saban.

The coaches and the programs that employ them are to be commended. In a sports world often driven by a ‘what have you done lately’ mentality, patience is too often discarded. About a year ago, Bama Hammer recognized Nick Saban for his stick-with-it-ness. Former University of Alabama President, Robert Witt and former AD, Mal Moore get most of the credit for making the Tide job too good for Nick Saban to leave. Others, like Bill Battle and Greg Byrne, deserve credit, and perhaps the person most responsible for Nick Saban being happy in Tuscaloosa, Terry Saban.

Continuity does not assure onfield success. David Cutcliffe, going into his 14th Duke season has won only  45.7 percent of his games. But if the other competitive resources and essential components are in place, coaching consistency aids winning.

Among the group of 14 coaches with longest active tenures (all the coaches discussed above, plus Dabo Swinney, Brian Kelly and David Shaw) half of them have won more than two-thirds of their games. Nick Saban is No. 1 with a Crimson Tide winning record of 88.1 percent.

The flip side of continuity is frequent turnover. Since Saban’s first Crimson Tide season in 2007, Tennessee has had six head coaches, while Auburn and Florida have had four.