re: Nick Saban named SEC Coach of the Year; other award winners also announced

quote:

---

With no insult intended to Saban, who is the greatest coach of our time, I might have gone with Drinkwitz. I think he did a lot with a little at Missouri. But that loss at State probably torpedoed that idea.

---

I get where you are coming from and I was really impressed with the job Drink did this year. Gives me optimism for the future. As you say though, tough to win when you go out with a thud.

It also comes down to how you define a coaching job worthy of COY.

If you define it as putting the most dominant team on the field that year, there's no need to even discuss it. No one could argue against Saban. But he's playing with more 5 and 4 stars than anybody else. True, he recruited those guys and recruiting is a large part (maybe the largest part) of a successful college coach. He's built such a dynasty that very likely for the rest of his career he'll have 5 stars begging to come. What he really deserves is a lifetime achievement award.

Someone mentioned that this isn't the most improved award. Maybe they should have an award that recognizes moving a moribund program forward. It can't be an easy thing to do!

Bottom line, I have no argument with Saban winning. It appears that it does go to (one of) the most dominant programs each year. You'd have to go back to the 2010 Spurrier year to find a winner with a sub-.700 record. Heck, even Pinkel had an 11-3 season when he won.