re: ESPN Article: Now We Know Why Saban Retired...

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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.

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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.

Yep, Saban quit as he knew modern NIL football had passed him by. He no longer held an advantage in recruiting. I imagine he didnt want to damage his history as THE GOAT. So he quit before Bama football slide too far.

I dont blame him one bit for it. I would say to Hell with It, too. Especially with all these 5 stars that care nothing about your school
All about showing me the money....

Gonna be interesting to see what coaches in the long run can develop the right culture and avoid the shitheads purely seeking annual NIL deals, no matter the school.

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Bryant hasn't coached in over 40 years, yet he started this.

Also, you're old AF.

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Old? Okay, that's fair. But that doesn't mean I'm wrong. It just means I have the perspective to make a statement I'm confident in.

What do you have, youngster, to refute me?

Oh, and GET OFF MY LAWN!

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So did Saban pay players at LSU like you say he did at Alabama? It was a pretty dramatic turnaround for LSU football. And if so, did Les Miles suddenly stop when he arrived?

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I won't claim to know the inner workings of LSU football operations, but I highly doubt they were buying players under him. LSU just wanted a coach to haul them out of a decade-long period of suckage and build a respectable team again. I don't think anyone expected him to build a national championship team as fast as he did (or with the somewhat limited resources he had, compared to Bama at that time).


And, as for Miles, I don't think it mattered whether or not he WAS paying players, since after he won his natty he decided to steal the Delorean and go back in time to old-school Michigan offenses.

Remember when I asked if anyone knew about coaches with exceptionally talented rosters that couldn't maximize them?

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That coach cheats... but not when he was our coach. Back then he didn't cheat.

My evidence is absolutely nothing.

*LSU fans on Nick Saban*

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I didn't say that Nick didn't pay players at LSU. I said I didn't think he did, given where the LSU football program was when he was hired.

That, and the fact that the Saban hired away from MSU wasn't the same Saban that coached at Bama. When he was hired, nobody I knew or heard of would have thought "Oh, damn, if we just buy a bunch of blue-chip players for this stupendous coach we'll be in good shape!"

Nope. When he was hired, Saban wasn't viewed as the GOAT he would become. And my personal opinion is that he didn't have the resume to justify LSU sinking that type of money into shady recruiting, just so they could get good players to play for a relatively unknown coach (at that time).

Two completely different things.

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I dont blame him one bit for it. I would say to Hell with It, too. Especially with all these 5 stars that care nothing about your school
All about showing me the money....

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Don't fool yourself into believing that. Even before NIL, 5-stars at Bama were still about "showing me the money".

There were SO many blue-chippers that were dedicated to/committed to another school - sometimes for years - who suddenly flipped to Bama at the last minute instead of signing with the school they'd committed to. Do you think most of them did that because they "cared about the school" (in this case, Bama over whatever school they were previously committed to)?

Not likely, IMO. The difference between then and now is that most other schools at that time weren't as blatant or egregious about their bagman network as Bama, so the "Pay Me!" attitude wasn't as in your face. Now, anybody can buy a player, so it's a free-market free for all and players aren't shy about driving up the bidding wars.

I don’t blame Saban one bit. He has done it all with nothing left to prove. I wouldn’t want to deal with these entitled players either

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And my personal opinion is that he didn't have the resume to justify LSU sinking that type of money into shady recruiting

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I didn't say that Nick didn't pay players at LSU. I said I didn't think he did, given where the LSU football program was when he was hired.

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NIL removed some of Bama’s advantages. Plain and simple. I’m not a fan of NIL, but we all know that Bama players were getting paid before and got away with it more than many other programs.

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