quote:

I don't doubt Saban loves what he does as much as any coach, but if you don't think money drives him, I don't know what to tell you. If money wasn't that important to him, he would still be the coach at Michigan State. Joe Paterno was a coach that wasn't concerned with money. His salary was just over a million a year upon his retirement. Saban has been one of the top 5 paid coaches in football since 2000.

I didn't say he doesn't like money. He clearly does. But making more money doesn't appear to be his primary motivation in how he approaches his profession. It seems clear that he truly loves coaching, and if he has a situation where he's comfortable and happy, there's no reason to suppose he's going to leave it for more money when he's already making cash hand-over-fist at his current job. As I said in another comment, if he's coaching at Vandy (for, say, $1.5 million a year) then taking that offer makes sense. If he's coaching at a school that's even more decorated than Texas, and doing it for $7 million+ a year, then it makes sense for him to consider all the other factors before racing headlong into that extra 3 million or so a year. Would you leave a job you love and earned $7 million a year for a similar job that you may hate for $10 million a year? Only you can answer that, but, for my part, I wouldn't, so I have no problem believing Saban wouldn't. I'd be rich as frick either way, so I'd take being happy too.