RIckJohnJames

I have many Alabama friends who are big fans and boosters and even they thought your goose was cooked that day. I remeber telling one of them you’d never be back.

Lucky for you the Dolphins fired Saban, and you had an athletic director who had big cajones and a sharp tongue.

We laughed about that several times as your team ran roughshod over mine. I actually was not even being a prick when I said to him, “I do not think Alabama will ever be Alabama again.” Man between my moronic statement and Neal MCReady’s famous article people could not have been more wrong.

Yes they do have many top tier recruits. This is not the late 70’s and early 80’s when Howard S. was able to rope off the area in and around Miami. Coaches from every school are there picking off kids left and right.

But what is more detrimental to Florida is the fact schools can now buy recruits on the open market after whomever you hire does the work of making them decent college players.

LSU and Florida value high school recruiting, Kiffin does not. He was the youngest coach in NFL history. He runs the Ole Miss program like an NFL team and does not, IMO, want to bother taking freshman talent to sophomore and so on. At LSU there is a premium on HS recruiting which typically yields at least one or two years of lull when other teams just buy already proven players. At LSU kiffin will have to recruit, and develop talent and live in a crime ridden city.

In Gainesville he will need to do the same. Also in a much worse place to live than Oxford. I wonder sometimes how many of you have actually been or know anything about how nice of a town Oxford is.

I also wonder how a sane man making 12 or 13 mill which is supposedly already offered for life would jump to move to a worse place to live for possibly a 2 to 4 year gig with high pressure and make a few short term extra mill instead of owning a town and earning 10 times as much in the long run.

His ex wife lives next door. His son quarterbacks the high schools football team, and his daughter (in case you did not watch the ESPN documentary) and her friends are the ones that produced a movie to show him how much closer the family was able to get there (why he did not go to Auburn). His father’s last moments with him were spent there.

After dealing with what was an obvious tough divorce and familial separation normally adult men start to wonder what is more valuable…. Being a father or being a coach that may have a 5% chance better at a NC.

Just look at Nick Saban’s recent comments, who also in the documentary was listed among Pete Carroll as the coaches that most influenced him.

Blue Bloods are no longer Blue Bloods when the University is able to pay the same and give the coach unquestioned support to hit the NIL portal. I believe it was something like schools that were once average coaching jobs are now destination jobs and schools that were once destinations are now average due to alumni support and the ability of a coach to make his own choices.

Florida is a great job but they are Alabama before Saban told the old boosters you have no more control, and LSU is a top job but he has familial considerations and no one in their right mind thinks Baton Rouge is a better place to raise a family over Oxford.

The only reason he may leave is because his ex wife lives next door and she can take the kids. Plus Ole Miss fans will still treat them well (one of the only times in life being respectful and decent can bite you in the a$$).