College FB coaching openings

Don't get me wrong: I do think Terry, Nick's wife, was miserable in Miami. The two of them enjoy college towns, where they are king, more than they did Miami, where the Dolphins aren't the only major league show in town. They like being royalty the way you are in a place like Tuscaloosa. Nick would deny that, and he probably has less of that in him than Terry does, but it's true.

Anyway, I'm not planning on making this my thesis or anything. I'll just be surprised (and paying for someone's meal at a favorite restaurant) if Saban's still coaching the Tide in the 2012 season.

 

I agree that the football coach in the SEC is king, but it's like being king in Africa with a military junta laying in wait.

 

Bingo.

 

I think the real test for Saban's desire to stay there will come when people start questioning him — "he's no Coach Bryant..."

And it's Bama, and the SEC is usually tough (maybe not so much this season), so you know people will start questioning him at some point.

 

When he got the job, I told the others on the beat and some of the Bama writers Saban wouldn't do as well there as he did at LSU: Two SEC championships (2-for-2 in SEC Championship Games), one national championship, 48 victories in five seasons.

I got a few looks like I had a third eye.

That's my story, and I'm sticking to it. And if that comes to pass, if he doesn't do as well at Alabama as he did at LSU, that quote Hammer Pants posted will be ringing and singing off many lips in Tuscaloosa and the rest of the state.

If I'm wrong, and if he's there longer than five years, I'll man up and admit I was wrong.

 

You're wrong about what colleges could pay that. I can think of a few SEC and Big Ten schools that could.

 

You might be right about Saban's success over the "long haul" at Bama. Next year, they'll be breaking in a new quarterback and 3/5 of the offensive line (I think). If he wins the title this year, an 8-5 season next year won't be so bad, but if he loses to Florida, 8-5 will start a riot next year. The 2010 team could be as good as this year's, though, so who knows.

 

The 2010 team might be better than this one and not sniff Atlanta. This is a year in which most of the other SEC teams did worse than in 2007 or changed coaches -- or both -- so Alabama picked a good time to catch everyone by surprise.

 

This is pretty much exactly how I feel.

 

Lalich may very well start. Just keep him the fuck away from the local pot dealers, that's all.

 

And whether or not he excels out West is irrelevant to the discussion about UVa. You simply cannot afford to miss on one of your big stud recruits at that school, not when you're trying to compete with Tech.

 

Tru dat. But during my time in the commonwealth Virginia football was pretty much completely irrelevant and Jimmy Sharpe made sure VPI's was too.