quote:
Dude what a baby back shortman syndrome Napoleon complex bitch. Good riddance. Dude isn’t a GOAT. He got escorted out at the highest level quickly. He quit on the Dolphins. Once competition became legitimate in college, he quit. And this is the kind of guy who would manipulate players by ragging on them for “quitting.” I just gained an entirely new level of disrespect for Little Nicky.

Dude, you are WAY off base. I may blame Saban for creating (or at least fomenting) the NIL/portal mess we're suffering with, but that doesn't take away anything from his ability as a coach.

I remember the days before Saban was hired away from MSU to LSU. Those were dark days, and when Saban was announced the general reaction was "Huh? Who?". He wasn't the slam-dunk dream hire, and nobody knew (at that time) the type of coach he'd become in the future.

So give the man some credit. He came into a shitshow at LSU and turned them into national champs. Without NIL or Bama-level bagmen. He hired position and assistant coaches that went on to be highly sought after in their own rights. Thanks to Saban, LSU was competitive until the day he left for Miami.

I don't blame him for going to Miami, either. His heart was with the NFL, and he got the opportunity. Hell, if he hadn't passed on Drew Brees he might still be coaching there. Whatever. It didn't work out there, and he went back to college coaching. No harm no foul - yet.

That changed for me when he went to Bama. Again, it was the best college HC job available at that time, but the agony of watching OUR former national-championship coach going over to the Gumps was, to put it mildly, enraging. But that's just the emotional response of a die-hard LSU fan. Logically, it makes sense and I find no fault in his choice.

What I DO take issue with, however, is how he parlayed that opportunity into building one of the biggest pay-for-play schemes in CFB - and thereby ruining the sport for everyone. When he succumbed to the pressure of meeting Gump expectations, it was all too easy for him to use the resources the REC and their bagman network provided him.

So, yeah, that was shady. And for the record I was no Saban fan after that (look it up - I was the first one to call him and his Bama teams "L'il Nicky and the Red Horde").

Shady or not, though, does that mean he isn't the GOAT? Ask yourself this question: would a lesser coach have been able to take all that talent (regardless of how it was, uh, acquired) and build the type of program Bama had for 15 years under him? No. The fact that he had 5-stars lined up like swabbies on shore-leave at a whorehouse doesn't take away from the fact that he built a juggernaut with them.

How many other teams have had a deep roster of uber-talented players, but the coach just couldn't find a way to maximize their potential? Plenty.

So, yes, as much as I despise Bama and hate the way Saban built that program up with REC bagmen, I can still respect the fact that he's one hell of a coach.