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re: Was Saban truly better than Bear?
Posted on 5/23/26 at 2:58 am to prplhze2000
Posted on 5/23/26 at 2:58 am to prplhze2000
Bear gave us “pants down” Pat Dye so I’m a little biased.
“Pants down” refers to his pants being found in Lake Martin with his wallet still in it.
Dye gave us Bo Jackson.
I’ve really enjoyed watching a lot of old Bo highlights lately as well as old hunting videos with him and Dye on YouTube.
Bo has really been making the rounds on various podcasts and the stories are flat out incredible. He was in a hitting slump with the Royals and then proceeded to go to the clubhouse to chug a few beers. He got back and jacked a 500+ ft homer and once the manager found out he chugged the beers, he had him a 12pk iced down in the dugout.
Classic
“Pants down” refers to his pants being found in Lake Martin with his wallet still in it.
Dye gave us Bo Jackson.
I’ve really enjoyed watching a lot of old Bo highlights lately as well as old hunting videos with him and Dye on YouTube.
Bo has really been making the rounds on various podcasts and the stories are flat out incredible. He was in a hitting slump with the Royals and then proceeded to go to the clubhouse to chug a few beers. He got back and jacked a 500+ ft homer and once the manager found out he chugged the beers, he had him a 12pk iced down in the dugout.
Classic
1
Posted on 5/23/26 at 3:19 am to Hussss
quote:
“Pants down” refers to his pants being found in Lake Martin with his wallet still in it.
Pat Dye's pants just entered the conversation.
Posted on 5/23/26 at 6:50 am to prplhze2000
Saban got the benefit of feasting on a weak SEC coaching period. Bryant faced the coaches that now have their names on stadiums or in football lore. I think Bryant played a tougher non conference schedule as well.
Posted on 5/23/26 at 6:56 am to SlingingSnakeStabler
quote:
?
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.
I don't know man...he looked angry when Forrest Gump picked up that black girl's notebook and gave it back to her.
Posted on 5/23/26 at 7:24 am to AHM21
quote:This
As great as the championship seasons are with Saban, I think back to the ones he didn’t win.
When he didn’t win it all at Alabama, it was typically by a frog hair with some pretty unfortunate stuff happening to keep them from the title.
2009 was close as well, as they entered the SECC undefeated and had a 4th quarter lead.
Posted on 5/23/26 at 8:18 am to prplhze2000
quote:
Or did he enjoy an advantage because of a playoff system not available to Bear.
People point out Saban won more national championships than Bear Bryant. However, Saban was able to get into championship games through the BCS and college playoff.
If Bear has the same system, he probably wins the title in 1978 when he got screwed by the polls and in 1966 when he had his best team ever but was screwed by the polls again.
Sort of like how Jimmy Johnson won more Cups than Jeff Gordon because of the Chase whereas under the old system, Gordon wins two more Cups.
Coaching tree wise, Saban and Bear are probably dead even although Saban's acolytes are just now starting to get caught up to Bear's if you don't include Smart.
You are looking at it UPSIDE DOWN.
You have to insert Saban under Bear Bryant's rules and take away titles he never gets a shot at under those rules.
2011, he never gets another shot at LSU
Then one year we do not go to the SEC title game and get in as a 4 seed and beat Georgia. So, instead of 7 he has 5.
I think they are equal, the game was different, more about TOUGHNESS and being in better shape in those 60s & 70s years. Mano a mano.
Posted on 5/23/26 at 8:31 am to prplhze2000
Saban was probably the best recruiter head coach ever in the college game, so that probably made him a bit better all around than Bryant.
Posted on 5/23/26 at 8:45 am to prplhze2000
I think most people would consider Saban the best coach in CFB history prob.
This post was edited on 5/23/26 at 8:46 am
Posted on 5/23/26 at 10:27 am to prplhze2000
quote:
Was Saban truly better than Bear?
Absolutely not.
Bear will remain a mythical figure. A man's man. A leader of men.
Posted on 5/23/26 at 11:37 am to prplhze2000
Two totally different eras.
It's just 100% opinion.
It's just 100% opinion.
Posted on 5/23/26 at 11:52 am to prplhze2000
Saban didn't win MNC's by vote only playing against White people while everyone else (USC, Notre Dame, Michigan, etc.) were playing against Black people.
Posted on 5/23/26 at 11:53 am to prplhze2000
Saban didn't win MNC's by vote only playing against White players while everyone else (USC, Notre Dame, Michigan, etc.) were playing against better Black players.
Posted on 5/23/26 at 11:58 am to AHM21
quote:
As great as the championship seasons are with Saban, I think back to the ones he didn’t win.
I still think the 2010 team was one of his most talented teams. Can’t believe that team lost three games.
Posted on 5/23/26 at 12:24 pm to Tigahtildeath
quote:
Saban got the benefit of feasting on a weak SEC coaching period. Bryant faced the coaches that now have their names on stadiums or in football lore.
This is fairly revisionist. Saban in his time at LSU and Alabama coached against the likes of Steve Spurrier, Philip Fulmer, and Urban Meyer. Les Miles was also a pretty good foil for him in his early years at Alabama. Gene Chizik and Ed Orgeron also won national championships while Saban was in Tuscaloosa.
From a head coaching perspective, the SEC was pretty weak in the 1970s when Bryant was at the peak of his power.
Posted on 5/23/26 at 3:00 pm to mizzoubuckeyeiowa
quote:
Saban didn't win MNC's by vote only playing against White people while everyone else (USC, Notre Dame, Michigan, etc.) were playing against Black people.
What you meant to say if your brain wasn't retarded was that Bryant won 3 NC's with a non-integrated team and he also won 3 NC's with an integrated team against other integrated teams.
Teams like USC may have had one or two black players on their roster any given year from 1920 through the mid 1960's, some years none.
So. Cal itself was not fully integrated to any extent where black players were actually allowed to regularly play to any great extent and make a difference in game outcomes until McKay finally started adding them in meaningful numbers in the mid 1960's.
Get out of here with your fanciful "good vs. evil" claptrap racial fantasies about the good USA vs. The Evil South.
Integration was still very much a work in progress for 100% of the nation's college football teams in the early 1960's.
The South lagged behind by a decade or so in full integration and Alabama was no great anomaly whatsoever at the time.
Much of the outrage today, like your smug statement, is revisionist history rebuilt for a story-line that fits a narrative.
Real life is always more complicated and nuanced than fairy-tale recreations by dullards with no mature ability to understand complex situations and must dumb things down to be able to understand.
Posted on 5/23/26 at 3:01 pm to RollTide1987
People bitch about how Bear took advantage of the lack of scholarships limits but the other teams could have done the same thing too. He just plain outrecruited them and would have done so if there were limits.
Posted on 5/23/26 at 3:06 pm to prplhze2000
Just two entirely different worlds to me. And they were both the best of their time. But I was born and Bear just got there and I had 25 years. I thought he always was and always would be. But it got very ugly and I suffered dearly. So Sabin always gets my vote because I felt what he did for us. And it was glorious.
Posted on 5/23/26 at 3:09 pm to Bamatime
quote:
But I was born and Bear just got there and I had 25 years. I thought he always was and always would be. But it got very ugly and I suffered dearly. So Sabin always gets my vote because I felt what he did for us. And it was glorious.
Are you drunk
Posted on 5/23/26 at 3:11 pm to Bamatime
quote:
Just two entirely different worlds to me. And they were both the best of their time. But I was born and Bear just got there and I had 25 years. I thought he always was and always would be. But it got very ugly and I suffered dearly. So Sabin always gets my vote because I felt what he did for us. And it was glorious.
Just in case you aren't aware of Alabama's historical up's and downs, it was a lot worse for Bama before Bryant arrived than it was for Bama before Saban arrived.
Posted on 5/23/26 at 3:20 pm to RollTide1987
quote:
This is fairly revisionist. Saban in his time at LSU and Alabama coached against the likes of Steve Spurrier, Philip Fulmer, and Urban Meyer. Les Miles was also a pretty good foil for him in his early years at Alabama. Gene Chizik and Ed Orgeron also won national championships while Saban was in Tuscaloosa.
From a head coaching perspective, the SEC was pretty weak in the 1970s when Bryant was at the peak of his power.
I don't know about revisionist...
But back in Bear's day you just lined up and beat people. It was a simpler, more primitive game.
Saban coached in an era that had hugely complicated offenses and highly skilled position players on most every team. And the talent was spread around to a greater degree compared to the Bryant era. Particularly compared to the 1960s. The 1970s were way closer to modern football than were the '60s for several reasons. Integration being one of them, two platoon football specialization being another.
Basically we had one platoon football until 1964... and it took the rest of that decade for coaches to get out of that mentality.
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