re: Was Saban truly better than Bear?

The Bear.

The games he won while playing shorter seasons is a huge feat.

The Bear would have won a title at Kentucky and A&M if he stayed.

Saban benefited from most of the rest of the conference having morons as coaches. After Meyer left, Richt was the best by far. Fla, Tennessee, Auburn, & LSU had idiots. Saban left Miles a great program & he won awhile but got fired. EdO won one & that was about it.

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Arkansas destroyed Oklahoma 31-6.

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None of the New Year's Bowls that mattered were close
#1 Texas L 10-38 to #5 Notre Dame
#2 Oklahoma L 6-38 to #6 Arkansas
#3 Alabama W 35-6 over #9 Ohio State
#4 Michigan L 20-27 to #13 Washington

Texas was the only undefeated team to enter the day. Had they won, 1977 Texas would be remembered as one of the greatest teams ever. They already had wins over the pre-bowl #2, #6 & #17 (@TAMU), having given Oklahoma (13-6) and Arkansas (13-9) their only losses.

Of Bama, ND, and Arkansas, Bama was the only one who was playing a team with two losses (tOSU had lost to Michigan 6-14 and to Oklahoma 28-29). While it's arguable, IMHO the best win of the day is Notre Dame's, as Bama's essentially equivalently dominant win (29pts vs 28pts) was over a weaker team (at least in resume, as tOSU had not beaten a team that ended up ranked in the Top 20).

Was that really enough to have ND jump over Bama? I think there is a reasonable case for that, similar to the case for Miami in 83: They beat a team that would otherwise be on the list of top 10 teams ever.

Arkansas needed the win they got in addition to an Ohio State win and a close win by ND over Texas. They got neither.

Man, there were some juicy matchups in those years.

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Back to the OP question: I think Saban has a slight edge over Bryant, but I've seen video of Bryant explaining teamwork and his concepts on that front were way ahead of other coaches of his day. I have a lot of respect for how good each was. It's just that Saban didn't have a lull like Bryant's 1967-1970.

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The Bear would have won a title at Kentucky and A&M if he stayed.

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Coach Bryant did win one at Kentucky in 1950, so he and Saban are actually even in the # of NC's.

I give the edge to Bryant in terms for the social issues that were going on at the time and the fact that he was at a huge disadvantage in terms of catching up after other areas of the country integrated.

However, Saban's time included way more parity than Bryant's time Saban had to pay way tougher schedules and had to win playoffs instead of just one bowl game.

So off the field... I think Bryant is better for what he dealt with. On the field... Saban was better.

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2016 - had the lead against Clemson with two minutes left (prevented a three peat)

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Is that the one where Clemson ran the pick play for the TD pass?

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You convinced me.

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The difference between the two... one likely had a white robe, hood and attended meetings that sometimes took place around a bonfire, the other didn't.

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The difference between the two... one likely had a white robe, hood and attended meetings that sometimes took place around a bonfire, the other didn't.

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Governer John McKeithen, who was LSU's top recruiter and would drive recruits around town in his white Cadillac, was elected as a staunch segregationist, and had deep ties to the Klan while also never missing a home game is who you are talking about.



Bryant, on the other hand, did everything in his limited power to integrate as soon as possible at several different schools while facing the powerful forces of history.

Bryant agreed to play an integrated Penn State in '59, which almost cost him his job as soon as he got it.

He did the thing with purposely scheduling So. Cal when he knew they would get dominated and it worked just as he had wished.

Years before the first black player was to come to Alabama, he and Pat Dye heavily recruited several black players but none would come because they didn't want to be the only black player on the team.

Before Alabama was officially integrated, there had been several other black players that joined the team during spring practice but never made the cut for various reasons and were let go, perhaps having nothing to do with race. Who knows for sure about that? But Bryant allowed them to try, anyway, even if deep down he and they knew it wouldn't come to reality.

Bryant tried multiple times to integrate at Kentucky and was quickly shut down by President Herman Donovan. Even then, and throughout his career until he finally did achieve integration at Alabama, he referred many black players that he wasn't allowed to recruit to Northern teams, who placed them on their teams, to help the young men in any way he could.

Bryant has a verified quote saying that he wanted to be the Branch Rickey of college football, the man who integrated baseball. That's something a Klanner would lose his membership over.

A&M officials continually prevented him from integrating. One told him that their team would be the last to integrate in the Southwest Conference and Bryant told him that A&M's teams would also be last in rankings.

Throughout his long, long, career, not a single black person that played for him at Alabama ever had a negative word to say about him and he formed dear friendships with many, Sly Croom being one.

So, your fig mouth was just probably hunting for a dick to suck and unable to immediately find one, came here to run your dick sucker to get some attention instead. Right?

You’re right….the State of Florida wouldn’t have such a great resurgence in the late 70s-90s without that cocaine money. Funny how that ran dry. Titles in Florida started with Miami and Howard Schnellenberger. A Bear Bryant disciple. And a great coach.

At the end of the day Bryant was the greatest coach. But he didn’t have the recruiting system or information that Saban had. But he had less rules. The only difference between the two really was health and longevity. Bear was sick for a few years. Saban is in his 70s drinking V8s and bragging on Kiffin.

Mark it down. We won’t see their likes again. Horribly impoverished work machines. The kind of machines that money doesn’t change. They just pushed beyond 99.99999% of peoples capabilities.