NIL/Portal and the Demise of Saban

Once upon a time in the recent past a head football coach could make or break your entire future as a player and professional. Picking your college to play was a 4 year commitment and you were stuck with it once you showed up. This empowered the coach and staff to develop you or bury you on the depth chart and essentially end your career. The coach held all the cards and you had to do fear him. this allowed to dictate the culture of the team, what would or would not be tolerated. This allowed a coach to make examples out of people without fear that 20% of the players would just say screw it i'm quitting. They were stuck and they had to bow to the king's wishes.

Fast forward to today with the NIL/Portal empowering players to have significant leverage over their coaches and in some cases programs (high level players). This is not to mention making these college athletes professional paid athletes has been a significant paradigm shift. Gone are the days of the coach having dictatorial power over players. If the player isn't coddled, he can transfer some place where he will be paid more and treated better. Thats the reality of the game now - these are professional immature players who have God complexes and often are highly self centered. The coaches hands are tied by the portal to large extent and the bench or wraith of the coach is no longer feared or significant.

This I believe is the core problem with the team. Sure we have a Bad this or that but in the old days saban would have raged and suspended threated etc people into line. Now hes a soft man trying to now scare off most the team which I would venture by his actions he feels like they need to be coddled or they will transfer.