11 years ago today, Nicholas Lou Saban accepted the offer to be Alabama's 27th head coach

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At some point Tuesday, Moore also talked to Sexton. According to an article by ESPN’s Mark Schlabach, their conversation went like this:

“Jimmy, we’ve been talking about this for a month,” Moore said. “He won’t even meet with me. We’ve got to make this happen.”

“Mal, just be patient with him,” Sexton said. “You’ve got to hang in there. Do not get on that plane and go back to Tuscaloosa.”

“Don’t worry,” Moore said. “I’m taking this plane to Cuba if Nick Saban isn’t on it.”

But something within him, something fierce, a seed of determination that was planted long ago in Dozier, Ala., that sprouted as a backup quarterback under Bear Bryant, that blossomed as an assistant coach and grew to full stature as an athletic director, kept him there that day. Instead of returning from the front lines with his tail between his legs, the old soldier made one last run.

Finally, after waiting outside the gates of Oz for nearly two days, Terry Saban buzzed him in. Mal, the frosty-haired, seasoned recruiter, put on his best sell as he and Terry chatted over lunch. “I like to think that she and I hit it off that day,” Mal wrote in Crimson Heart. “At least that’s the way I remember it.”

But Nick Saban was nowhere to be found. Terry informed Mal over lunch that her husband was at the Dolphins’ office, conducting his annual year-end meeting with the players. Terry invited Mal back for dinner later that night.

That afternoon, Saban phoned his wife to tell her that he was staying with the Dolphins. But after Terry insisted that he at least meet with Mal, Saban finally relented.

That Tuesday night — Day 36 — the Sabans gathered in their living room with Mal Moore. Bundling his decades of recruiting savvy into one terrific recruiting spiel, Mal convinced Nick Saban to leave his superlative gig with the Dolphins and come to Alabama.

And although the exact details of that conversation will never be revealed, Terry Saban provided a bit of insight to the personal qualities and potent words of Moore that signaled the tipping point.

"It was Mal Moore's soft approach, fatherly advice, sweet Southern charm ... 'I'm here for you ... come back home ... back to where you belong ... you are a college coach ... we need each other ...' His siren songs were in my ears and I made sure Nick heard them. The three of us stood in our living room in tears, acknowledging that our hearts were still in college and that there was not a number that Wayne could throw out to us that would make us reconsider what was the best thing for our family, not double, not triple. It was never about that."

And while there will always be regrets for not having finished the way we like to, we could not turn our backs on Coach Moore and the opportunity he presented to us that may never come along again, the challenge we both loved, to turn around a college program rich in tradition and history, to get back to our roots where we both fit more comfortably, and to do it with a great fan base and a father-like figure in Mal Moore, who understood the challenges of building a program and was willing to give Nick what he needed within the structure to make it work. Mal trusted Nick that he had the rest of what it took to make it happen ... the work ethic, the football knowledge, the solid base of values on which to build a program without cutting corners."
-Terry Saban

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