Saban Leads, Tide Rolls Toward Title

At his first head coaching stop, Nick Saban captured a MAC Co-Championship. After a stint in the NFL, he helped lead Sparty to its best season in more than 30 years. In his second year at LSU, Saban’s Tigers won their first outright SEC Championship in 15 years - and their first Sugar Bowl in 34. He topped that two years later, adding a bookend SEC title on the way to the 2003 BCS National Championship. 45 years had passed since LSU last stood atop the college football world.

Simply stated, Saban has experience turning programs around, and the evidence in the previous paragraph is only the beginning of the story. From yearbooks to web pages that reference statistical achievements, it’s easy to find sources that catalog Saban’s success.

And if you shell out a few bucks for a trip to Toledo, East Lansing or Baton Rouge, you could even get up close and personal with the trophy cases that house the tangible proof. But there’s no trophy case, no “Wall of Fame”, and no almanac – nothing, really – that can measure the culture shift Saban brings to each program he leads, the influx of athletes that change the playing landscape for years after he leaves.

He preaches discipline, effort and assignment accountability. Through every segment of his teams, speed is the most constant theme. And on Saturdays in the fall, Saban-coached squads would run through a wall for their leader. Because after a week in his grueling practice blender, Saturday feels like a smoothie. Game time simply becomes their release. But Alabama was supposed to be the college test Saban would finally fail.

This wasn’t a middling MAC program struggling to fill a 30,000 seat stadium. In Tuscaloosa, 80,000 folks show up for “A-Day” - the glorified scrimmage at the conclusion of spring ball.

This wasn’t a forgotten Big 10 sorta-almost-super power, appeased annually by lower-rung bowl games and a run at the conference title every fourth year. In Crimson Tide country, they’ve done the former more than 50 times; the latter, 25. And this wasn’t a school without it’s own way of doing things. For better of worse, Alabama remains wholly defined by houndstooth head ornaments - the headgear of choice Bear Bryant donned on the way to six national championships.

But more than rabid fans, a ridiculous history of success and the ghosts of coaching legend past, Saban walked into a program with a disillusioned sense of self. A truth that few could even summon the courage to discuss. A drought Bama ball had scarcely seen since its 1892 inception. A low that saw one scandalous coach get fired before he coached a single game.

A reality Saban refused to accept.

Scholarship limitations and disproportionate expectations be damned, Saban and his reforming Crimson Tide battled through a wild 2007. They started 3-0. They lost four straight, including an embarrassing home defeat against UL-Monroe. They earned a hard-fought Independence Bowl victory that marked just the second winning season in five years.

And then Saban hit the road. He found Junior College gems and kept the No. 1 overall high school player in the country from fleeing the state. The end result? A Top 3 recruiting class.

Over the summer, Saban and his staff transformed a record-setting but maddeningly inconsistent senior QB into a true field general, capable of managing games without committing back-breaking mistakes. And they made sure the heavies in charge of keeping his jersey clean got an attitude adjustment. Led by a trio of prospective All-SEC performers, the offensive line set a season-long tone in Alabama’s Week 1 demolition of Clemson.

An instinctive, hard-hitting defense led by blue chip members of his 2007 class and former walk-ons alike can take matters into their own hands when the offense stalls.

And game-changing special teams units complete the third facet of the nation’s top-ranked team.

The fact that a 400lb. nose tackle has become nearly unblockable, gobbling up opposing ground games for the nation’s No. 5 scoring defense is no surprise. The fact that a true freshman’s body of work is NFL-ready required less than a single collegiate season to verify. That it’s all come together in less than two seasons under Saban is the only shock value.

There are teams that run and pass for more yards or score with greater frequency. There are teams that allow fewer yards or produce greater margins of victory. There are even teams with multiple bronze stiff-arm candidates and more future pros on their respective rosters than the Crimson Tide.

But the simple fact is: Alabama is the most complete team in the country. And Nick Saban is the only coach in America that controls his own destiny.