Christopher Walsh - Nick Saban vs. College Football: The Case for College Footballs Greatest Coach

To my spouse and to those of coaches everywhere, for everything they have to put up with

Contents

Part I

Part II

Part III

Part IV

Foreword by Tony Barnhart

On January 1, 2007, I was in Jacksonville, Florida, working the Gator Bowl for CBS Sports with my colleagues Tim Brando and Spencer Tillman. During our pregame show, the subject turned to Nick Saban who, it appeared, was ready to leave the Miami Dolphins and become the next head coach at the University of Alabama.

Various media reports said that Alabama was willing to give Saban an unprecedented college football contract of eight years at $4 million per year. So the natural topic for us to discuss was whether or not any college football coach was worth that kind of money.

At some point in the broadcast I said that if it happened, if Nick Saban did go to Tuscaloosa, someday Alabama would look back and realize they had gotten a bargain.

Two days later Saban told Dolphins owner Wayne Huizenga that he was going to Alabama. Today, after winning three national championships and coming painfully close to two others, Nick Saban is making more than $7 million per season. Alabama fans, alumni, and administration all know that they are still getting a bargain.

With keen insight that comes from years of being inside the Alabama program, Christopher Walsh tells us why Saban is such a bargain in this book.

Alabamas need for a rock star as head coach and Sabans need for a different kind of challenge was nothing less than a harmonic convergence. But the complete story of Sabans hire in 2007 goes back more than three decades.

Since the death of the iconic Paul W. Bear Bryant in January 1983, Alabama fans had been waiting for the next savior of the program, the next authoritative figure and singularly powerful voice who would return Alabama to its rightful place as one of the superpowers of the college football universe.

During the 25 years under Bryant (195882) Alabama didnt just win 232 games, 13 SEC championships, and six national championships. Bryant, by the sheer force of his personality, controlled a lot of what happened in college football during his era. He had the power to pick his own bowl game and, more important, to pick the opponent that would put his team in the best position to win the national championship. The other coaches and the other bowl representatives knew they could not lock in their matchups until Coach Bryant had made his decision.

Having that kind of power for 25 years was heady stuff to the Alabama faithful, and when Bryant was gone, they wanted it back as quickly as possible. There were moments when Alabama came close:

Bill Curry, a Georgia Tech man, got the Crimson Tide to No. 2 in 1989 but lost 3020 at Auburn in Alabamas first-ever trip to Jordan-Hare Stadium. Curry went 102 that year but was forced out.

Gene Stallings won 70 games in seven years as Alabamas head coach (199096). In that run was the 1992 national championship. But he left after a 103 record in 1996.

Alabama won an SEC championship in 1999, but thenhead coach Mike DuBose was embroiled in a scandal (extramarital affair) and was out after a 38 season in 2000.

Dennis Franchione stayed two years and then left due to NCAA sanctions for rules violations committed by the previous staff. Former Crimson Tide quarterback Mike Shula stayed four years with only one winning season (102 in 2005).

So understand that Alabama didnt just want Nick Saban after the 2006 season (67), it had to have him. By that point the football program had pretty much been in the wilderness for almost a quarter century.

Saban had been on the job about two months when I went to Tuscaloosa to see him in March 2007. He knew there was much work to do because, for a long timetoo long, in factAlabamas people had been talking about winning national championships but not really putting in the work necessary to do it.

I came away from that meeting with two points that Saban wanted to make:

First, it was in this meeting that he made me aware of the Process, something youll read a lot about in Chris book. The Process, simply put, is a series of steps taken every day in order to improve and work toward a goal. The focus is not on the goal itself. The focus is on the tiny building blocks of work that ultimately move an individual in a positive direction toward the goal. In order for the program to be successful, everybody has to buy into the Process.

Secondand this was even more importantSaban had made it his No. 1 goal that from that point forward Alabama football would speak with only one voice. And that would be his.

Bear Bryants death in 1983 created a power vacuum in the football program at the University of Alabama. And, like any great football power, Alabama had a lot of people who wanted to rush in and fill that void. There were a lot of voices speaking for the program. Many of them were well intentioned, but in the 24 years since Bryants passing, it didnt appear like one person was in control. That all changed when Saban arrived in Tuscaloosa like the conquering hero he eventually turned out to be.

Less than a month later, on April 21, 2007, I had all the proof I needed that Saban would fulfill his vision and the hopes and dreams of the Alabama faithful. It was Sabans first spring game, and school officials decided to throw open the gates to Bryant-Denny Stadium and not charge admission.

I was there to write a column for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution on the reaction and feelings of the fans. The excitement level was off the charts. And this was only April!

After I took my seat in the press box, I watched while the fans kept coming, and coming, and coming into the stadium. Soon school officials announced that Bryant-Denny, which held 92,138, was full and that the fire marshals had ordered the gates closed for safety reasons.

It was only the beginning.

So enjoy this story that my friend Chris Walsh has prepared for you. If youre an Alabama fan, it is a piece of history to be savored with the realization that, as all great dynasties do, the Saban era will someday come to an end. Enjoy the ride while it is happening, and just be grateful that you were here to experience it.

Tony Barnhart

CBS Sports

Introduction

Although theres really no such thing as a college football off-season anymore, its become one of Nick Sabans annual rituals, between National Signing Day and the start of spring practices.

Thats when he holds court, so to speak, on a semiregular basis with what he calls the NBAwhich in this case stands for the Noontime Basketball Association.

Its an intense pickup game that the football staffers participate in on the University of Alabama campus, and Saban goes from being coach to commissioner. He picks the players, the teams, and even the person who will guard him in the game (and sometimes how well). They dont keep stats, and no one films a thing. There are only two guys in the organization who are shorter, Saban once explained with a smile. Every now and again I call a foul on myself.

Yes, to borrow a line from Mel Brooks, Its good to be the king, and in college football theres absolutely no doubt about who reigns.

Saban won his fourth national championship at the end of the 2012 season, each coming within one 10-year span during which Saban also spent two seasons in the National Football League. By the end of the 2013 regular season, oddsmakers had made the Crimson Tide the favorite in 53 consecutive games, dating all the way back to the 2009 Southeastern Conference Championship Game against Florida. To put a little perspective on that, Saban won a total of 48 games the entire time he was at LSU, when the Tigers tallied their first national championship since 1958, two SEC titles, two SEC Western Division crowns, and three bowl wins (two in the Sugar Bowl).