re: Official Coaching Search Thread: The Search Is Over

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I don't think one Nick Saban gives a shite what the Bama fanbase believes

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The overreaction to this past staff to the point that the characteristics of the 18 class are championed (coaches first, recruiters fricking last...) is among the dumbest takes I've seen from bama fans post NCG.

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Can somebody pull the plug on A Lite and Dinosaur on the Rant?

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A blowout? national championship? loss? to? Clemson may not? have been the biggest shock Nick? Saban got? last week. Four?? days later in Tuscaloosa, Alabama was about to have its regular morning football staff meeting when Saban noticed someone was missing. “Hey, where’s Dan?” Saban asked staffers, according to people with knowledge of the meeting, in reference to Dan Enos, the Tide’s quarterbacks coach who had just been promoted to become Alabama’s new offensive coordinator... Saban was counting on Enos as Alabama would again have to navigate a staggering amount of staff turnover, even by Saban standards.

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That same day Enos’ name had surfaced as a candidate for offensive coordinator openings at Georgia and Miami. But at Alabama, Enos was getting handed the keys to the most explosive collection of skill talent the Tide has ever had: the phenom quarterback and Heisman Trophy runner-up Tua Tagovailoa, two five-star running backs and a quartet of blazing fast wideouts that led the country in big plays by a wide margin. However, there was no sign of Enos when the staff meeting was about to start.
“Where the F#$% is Dan?!?” Several of the staffers knew the answer to their boss’ question. Word had already spread that the 50-year-old Enos was headed to Miami to become offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach under Manny Diaz. No one in the room wanted to be the one to break that news to Saban, even though Miami was primed to announce it in a couple hours. One staffer scrambled to check if Enos was in his office. It was empty, save for a pencil on the desk. Maybe he’d already moved into Locksley’s old office, but that one was empty too.

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But when Alabama lost Clemson last week in a fashion unlike any Saban-coached Crimson Tide team, the defense under the first-year coordinator Lupoi took plenty of the blame... No one seemed to remember that Alabama began the season with only three returning starters on defense, that it had lost its top six DBs to the NFL, its top pass rusher Terrell Lewis to injury and its top cover man Diggs at midseason. It was a group that had to face four of the top seven offenses in the FBS — two more than Alabama faced in the previous three years combined.

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One of the O-line coaches on Saban’s wish list, people familiar with the matter say, was Jeff Stoutland, Alabama’s line coach in 2011 and 2012. Stoutland, now on the Philadelphia Eagles staff, loves Saban but not the schedule that comes with returning to Alabama and becoming a college coach again, according to a person with knowledge of the situation. The reality is there is more of a grind coaching at the college level than in the NFL, which does not tie its coaches to recruiting 52 weeks of the year.

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In reality, there are three kinds of staff departures in Sabanland. The first is getting a bigger job. Of those 10 future head coaches, Kiffin, Smart, Pruitt, McElwain and Locksley all left to run their own shop. Gattis would fit in this category as well, because he gets the chance to call plays for Michigan.
The second type seems to be unique to Alabama, where some assistants leave for seemingly lateral or lesser jobs. Several of those are coaches who get nudged out or are encouraged to find other jobs. And Saban is well-connected and respected enough to help facilitate interview opportunities. In addition, having Alabama on a résumé and being exposed to Saban’s “Process” makes assistants a lot more marketable. A few of those 10 former assistants who later landed head coaches jobs fit in this spot.

The third type seems to be a much less common situation: An assistant decides life — and his career — is better served elsewhere, which apparently was the case for Dan Enos.

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The meticulous way Saban runs the Alabama program has become well known in football circles. It’s the grind of all grinds. After the Tide lost to Clemson on Jan. 7, the team spent the entire next day traveling back cross-country from California and didn’t arrive home until late Jan. 8. The staff had to be in for a 9 a.m. meeting the following day. One coach with knowledge of the schedule reasoned that in Saban’s mind that was giving everyone a little break because he didn’t schedule it for 90 minutes earlier.
One ex-Alabama assistant said Saban’s reputation is almost so notorious that he found working for him was not anywhere as rough as he heard it was going to be. But added that the 67-year-old head coach “lacks a real personal relationship with the people he works with. It just feels like a business relationship.” Another former Tide assistant said he thinks coaches have a much better relationship with Saban after they’ve worked at Alabama than when they are there.

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Videos of Saban ripping assistants during games have gone viral, but some former Tide staffers say it’s more the day-to-day existence that wears on them.
“You can deal with getting ripped on the sidelines because that’s emotion during the game,” says one former Alabama coach. “That’s way easier to deal with. That’s a couple of times a year. It’s just the non-stop for no reason stuff. When you’re there, then you realize how bullshite it is because it’s like scheduled. Like he’s going to bitch about the same shite on Sept. 6, or on the third day of camp, that he does every single year. It’s like it’s in his notes. So you realize that it’s not really just something that came up.”

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In the eyes of many around the sport, that level of achievement in the face of the coaching turnover is one of the most impressive aspects of the Alabama program. “It’s one thing to have the unheard of success he’s having with the number of championships, but to be able to do it with new coaches each year is unbelievable, because I know for us at Clemson, the stability that we have is part of our success and I think it would be very difficult with a lot of turnover,” Clemson co-offensive coordinator Jeff Scott said. “Probably one of the biggest accomplishments in my opinion that Coach Saban has had is keeping that high level of success even with coaches leaving for other opportunities.”

That fact also wows one of Saban’s former assistants. “He turns over six assistants and still plays in the national title game. He thrives and does his best in what everybody else would perceive as chaos. His ability to function within that is phenomenal. I think the world of the guy,” the assistant said.

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Another former Saban assistant said a lot of that falls under the process and structure that Saban has created in his own inner circle in Tuscaloosa. “It doesn’t rely as much on assistant coaches because it is so structured,” the coach said. “He’s got two huge factors in (strength coach Scott) Cochran and (Director of Sports Medicine) Jeff Allen that are the good cops. The players aren’t as miserable as the coaches because of those guys. They only deal with Saban a little bit. When you’re a coach, you deal with him all day. When you’re a player, you deal with Cochran and Jeff way more than you deal with Saban.

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For as much as there’s been a sky is falling perception from some corners, it should be pointed out that two people familiar with the workings of the Alabama coaching staff had predicted before the Orange Bowl win against Oklahoma that there would be another huge wave of staff turnover coming this offseason, a wave that also includes two other on-field assistants who also are expected to move on this off-season. The only real surprise was Enos, and perhaps Key, who in addition to working at his alma mater also is now coaching with one of his best friends, Collins.

Almost every person contacted for this story agreed that anyone who thinks the Tide is vulnerable in the wake of this turnover, from bringing in six new assistants last off-season to what could be as many as seven new assistants this off-season, coupled with the fact Saban is coming off his most lop-sided defeat at Alabama, is going to be very disappointed.

“Some people are going to start to count Coach out, like they always do, that there’s too much turnover and this is the first time he’s ever gotten blown out at Alabama, and every time they say that, that the dynasty is over, he proves them wrong,” Kiffin said. “And he’ll probably prove them all wrong again. His systems are so in place that they can deal with assistant coach turnover better than anywhere in America. He’s in his 10th, 11th year of the program and has his structure so nailed down that it can handle change and adversity better than anywhere else.”

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Clayton Hall III @clayton_hall3

Rumblings that Jimmy Lake could be the next @AlabamaFTBL defensive coordinator. Would be HUGE loss for the Huskies. Not only on the field but Lake is a stud recruiter. Huskies better break the bank to keep him. Interesting news for sure. Would be a brilliant hire for Bama.

3:56 PM · Jan 17, 2019

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