38 | SEE A DIFFERENT GAME 06/21/2010

Sporting News Conversation:

Nick Saban

Any week now, a statue of Nick Saban will be unveiled outside Bryant-Denny Stadium, immortalizing him among the

four other national championship coaches at Alabama, including the uniquely shadow-casting Paul “Bear” Bryant. This will invite jokes: Who has more fun, Saban the man or Saban the monument? Or just maybe: That looks nothing like Nick Saban—he’s smiling!

This is no joke: If there’s a successor to John Wooden as America’s greatest college coach, it may be Saban—who has won national titles at two schools, Alabama last season and LSU in 2003, separating himself

from everyone else in the football business since the 1930s.

If that seems like a stretch—if Bob Knight, Mike Krzyzewski, Joe Paterno or even Urban Meyer leaps to mind before Saban—it could be in part because the 58-year-old West Virginia native is truly beloved only in Tuscaloosa. Many still see the stoic Saban as a job-hopping mercenary who infamously said with the Miami Dolphins in 2006, “I’m not going to be the Alabama coach.”

On the day Wooden died, Saban discussed his reputation, his coaching philosophy and his chances at a third title with Sporting News’ Steve Greenberg.

College football’s hottest coach knows he’s also the sport’s greatest villain, so he’s setting the record straight about his public persona, the SEC soap opera and his exit from Miami

Maybe someday people will have a

better understanding of

who I am

Photos by Bob Leverone / SN

SN0621p038.indd 38 6/11/10 2:57:35 PM

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For Greg McElroy, Alabama senior quarterback:What do you tell recruits about what it’s really like to play for Nick Saban?

“I say that Coach Saban might appear on the exterior to be really tough and demanding, but internally, behind closed doors, he’s very approachable, very in touch with his players. He will genuinely care for anyone who puts a uniform on for him, for as long as he’s alive. And when you get done, he’ll be there for you not just as a reference on your resume but as someone who truly wants to help however he can, whether you have a chance to keep playing football or not.”

— Steve Greenberg SABA

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SN: Being branded a liar after you left the Dolphins in 2007—such a harsh word, but it was used widely—how did that affect you? And does it continue to in any way?

SABAN: Well, honesty and integrity is an important part of our character, my character. Those are words that we use all the time. I think that in my effort to protect our team at Miami—because I had not talked to Alabama and did not talk to them until the season ended—I expressed that (character is important) to (Alabama) through my agent and said it was up to them whether they wanted to wait and that I would not make any promises. I would talk to them then, (and) I would only reassess my circumstances and our situation as a family at the end of the year. But I kept getting asked about this over and over and over, and in trying to defuse the interest and leave the focus on our team at Miami (long pause) … I had a responsibility and obligation to the players on that team, the coaches on the staff, and I didn’t want that to be the focus of attention. So would I manage it differently? Absolutely. I would still have the same integrity for our team, but I just would not answer any questions relative to Alabama.

But I also feel like as a professional, you should have the opportunity—just like LeBron James does or anybody else—to make a decision about what’s best for your future and your family. And it may not be something that everybody agrees with, especially the fans of Cleveland or the fans of Miami. But you learn about yourself when you do things. As a family, we learned a lot about ourselves. … I only feel badly that we did not stay there and finish the job, but at the same time we’re very, very happy to be in a situation like we’re in at Alabama. And happy because I really feel deep down that I learned that I really am a college coach. We just make a bigger impact in college on the young people that we deal with, and that was something that I missed and wanted to be a part of again. But I do apologize for any professional mishandling that might have occurred.

SN: That’s one side of it: your claim then that you wouldn’t leave the Dolphins for Alabama and your apology now for having done so. But were you also taken aback—perhaps offended—by the extent to which you were vilified?

SABAN: I really don’t choose to criticize others. I would rather take responsibility for my

own self-determination. And when things like that happen, I sort of look within. I try to think, How did you contribute to this? How could you have managed this better so that this is not the circumstance? Now, is that totally avoidable in this day and age of the media and the interest in college football? Probably not. But I still choose—professionally—to try to manage it that way.

SN: Pete Carroll eventually felt it necessary to return to the NFL because he’d won everything in college. Do you think that will happen to you?

SABAN: You know, with all that we’ve been through and all that we’ve done … I think we’re really satisfied having the opportunity to be in that kind of university-spirit, community setting that we’re in right now. I think at this stage we’re more interested in happiness and feeling self-fulfilled with how we affect the community, give back to the community, help the players and the program, than really thinking about doing something different professionally.

SN: In that case, how easy is it for you to accept that you took one on the chin in the NFL and won’t allow yourself the chance to fight back?

SABAN: I think we made the (Dolphins) organization better. We went the first year from 4-12, previous to me being there, to 9-7. We had an opportunity to get a quarterback in Drew Brees or Daunte Culpepper and probably missed out on the physical well-being of those two players; we took the guy that we felt was more healthy, and he wasn’t healthy. No disrespect to him; he did the best he could, Daunte Culpepper. Drew Brees didn’t have

any problems and ended up having a great career. Had that been different, I think we’d have made our team a lot better. We didn’t have a quarterback

the second year, and it affected our ability to be successful. But we

made improvements as a team; we made improvements on defense. So I don’t really feel like I took one on the chin. I don’t really feel like we failed.

JUST ONE QUESTION

You won’t get Saban to call his 15-17 record in two

NFL seasons a failure.

SN0621p042.indd 44 6/11/10 3:00:37 PM

For Phil Savage, Alabama football broadcaster, former Cleveland Browns G.M. and defensive assistant under Browns coordinator Nick Saban (1991-93):

What changes have you seen in Nick Saban as a coach over the years?“He’s still very intense and very demanding of his players, but I think he’s made improvements

in every area, particularly off the field: academics, strength and conditioning, recruiting, public relations, speaking to alumni groups, interacting with media and fans. He has answers to virtually every question that can come up for a head coach. Alabama is getting the fully developed Nick Saban. He’s an incredible football coach—I think the best in the country.”

— Steve Greenberg

42 | SEE A DIFFERENT GAME 06/21/2010

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SN: Not long after his 98th birthday, John Wooden sat for an SN Conversation. What do you think of his approach—the Pyramid of Success —and do you also have a guiding philosophy?

SABAN: It’s kind of ironic that you would ask about him. I’ve never been asked about John Wooden before. The very first book I ever read about coaching was (one of John Wooden’s books) about the Pyramid of Success. I think there are a lot of similarities. John Wooden’s whole approach was sort of process-oriented, kind of like what we talk about: Control what you can control, and do the things that you need to do to be as good as you can be. That’s always the philosophy that we’ve tried to take, but that book had a tremendous impact on me early in my coaching career.

SN: You’re creeping up on 60. Is it too soon to ask how long you want to coach?

SABAN: I don’t really think I’m 58. I don’t feel 58. I still play noontime basketball in the wintertime. When I go on the tubes with the kids, I feel like I’m 14 or 15. I’ve still got to have the fastest jet ski that anybody makes. I guess I have thought a little bit about: How well can you take care of yourself? How long are you going to be healthy enough to do it? You know, that kind of stuff. Hopefully, it’ll be for a long time. My mom’s 77—she just had a hole in one last week. … What scares me the most is: What do you do when you retire? I can’t sit still now. So I don’t know why I’d think that I could sit still then. I need something to do.

SN: Alabama has gone two years without a regular-season SEC loss. Will you be surprised if this team makes it three?

SABAN: Well, I think we don’t look at it in those terms. We take it one game at a time, one play at a time, try to develop the team in terms of what we feel we need to do to help them reach their full potential individually and collectively. I don’t think there’s any magic here. I don’t think that we’re going to have any more success because of the success we had a year ago. But I also feel that because we had success last year, that doesn’t mean we can’t have success again this year. I think it’s really up to the individuals on the team, their commitment to what they want to do and how well we can put that team together and make it a cohesive team. And, you know, you’ve got to be a little bit lucky sometimes, too, that you don’t get the wrong guys hurt at the wrong time for the wrong games.

Saban isn’t ready to retire to the golf course quite yet. Coaching fuels his need to stay busy.

JUST ONE QUESTION

SN: Is replacing nine defensive starters going to be harder or easier than an offensive overhaul would’ve been?

SABAN: I think that both have their challenges. We had a very experienced group, and I think we have some pretty good players to take some of these guys’ places. But what they don’t have is the knowledge and experience that the other guys had through the games that they played. How will that affect their ability to (avoid) mental errors and play winning football on a consistent basis? You have to just sort of let it grow and develop. We probably will have a defensive team that’ll get better as the year goes on.

SN: Some are saying Mark Ingram isn’t even the best running back on the Alabama roster. What’s your response to all the Trent Richardson love?

SABAN: I think that’s just all speculation. We’re just really fortunate that we have two really good running backs on our team. They complement each other extremely well, they compete well, and they have a tremendous amount of respect for each other, and I think they both make the other better because of the competition that they create for each other. And they like each other. But, you know, Mark is outstanding in terms of his production and performance a year ago. We’re just hoping we can put him in the position where he can have the same type of year, and hopefully Trent will continue to grow and develop and make a greater impact to our team this year.

‘WHAT SCARES ME THE MOST IS: WHAT DO YOU DO WHEN YOU RETIRE? I CAN’T SIT STILL NOW. SO I DON’T KNOW WHY I’D THINK THAT I COULD SIT STILL THEN.’

SN: Ingram is the reigning Heisman Trophy winner, though. Aren’t some of the media members who are saying Richardson is better just trying to be provocative?

SABAN: Whether it’s unfair or not, my advice to Mark Ingram is: If you ever have a failing, that’s what everyone is going to say. You need to anticipate that’s what’s going to happen and not be affected by if it happens—because there’s going to be a time when you fumble or you don’t make a good run or you have a bad game. You’re not going to be infallible. There’s no such thing as a perfect player. We just want you to play as well as you can play, have the best year you can and don’t be affected by that.

SN: SEC football coaches have been the stars of a real soap opera in recent years. Has that been good or bad for the league?

SABAN: At our SEC meetings (in early June in Destin, Fla.) I was thinking Houston Nutt has been through 12 of these and I’ve been through eight over 10 years , and there’s been a lot of personalities to come and go. I don’t think this (soap opera) is something that goes with the league because of the quality of the league. Sometimes it goes with the personalities that are in the league, and we’ve had some unique personalities and they’ve created some of that. And I don’t think it’s hurtful in any way to the league, but our focus is always on the quality of the league—because even though we may have some of these personalities, we’ve also got some great coaches, great programs, great schools that have tremendous tradition, and that’s why this league is what it is.

SN0621p042.indd 42 6/11/10 3:00:31 PM

For Lee Roy Jordan, who starred for legendary Alabama coach Bear Bryant and is a member of the Dallas Cowboys’ Ring of Honor:

Where would you rank Nick Saban on the all-time list of Alabama coaches?“I think he belongs at the top with Coach Bryant as well as coach (Gene) Stallings. Coach Saban

is the most organized coach I’ve ever seen. He has an unbelievable work ethic. His whole system of planning and working is the best I’ve seen. Also, his message to players as far as preparing them for the rest of their lives—as pro football players or not—is the best I’ve seen. I’m sitting in the audience, so to speak, as an older person, and I’m inspired by him.”

— Steve Greenberg

46 | SEE A DIFFERENT GAME 06/21/2010

Saban appreciates the advantage Alabama’s massive fan base gives the Crimson Tide.

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SN: As the head coach of an elite program where the fans fill the stadium for a spring game and it’s headline news when a kicker tweaks an ankle, how do you find time for yourself and your family? And when you do, are you truly able to unplug?

SABAN: First of all, we have a tremendous respect for the tradition that we have at the University of Alabama and the great fan support that we have here. That positive energy and attitude has contributed to the turnaround and the success that we’ve had here. I mean, for the first spring game (in 2007) to have 92,000 people sent a tremendous message to a lot of people—recruits, coaches, opponents—that, “They have something pretty strong there. It could be something that we’ll have to deal with in the future.” … At the same time, it’s important that if you’re going to do a good job at anything, you find a little balance. And I’ve got a great wife, Terry—a great coaching wife—who invests a tremendous amount of time and makes some personal sacrifices to make all this work because being a college coach is sort of a way of life, not really a job. But we’ve also found time to have a lake house and spend time there, spend time with the family, do other things, take off a little bit when you get a chance. So I don’t feel like I’m being cheated in any way in terms of quality of life.

SN: A lot of people are fascinated by your face: by its seeming sternness, by the times you smile but it doesn’t look like you really mean it. Are people always trying to figure you out?

SABAN: You know, I oftentimes feel like maybe the public persona is a little different from the real person because I’m really pretty happy, pretty easygoing. But I’ll also take some responsibility for that, too. Especially when I first became the head coach at Michigan State (in 1995), I probably was a little more anxious, a little uneasy, especially with the media. And that intensity has always been there—the perfectionist, the passion for a standard of excellence. But I think that got a little misconstrued into the personality because of the anxieties that I had being a young coach. Through the years I’ve mellowed a lot from that standpoint. … I’ll just continue to try to do everything in a first-class manner and have compassion for other people and try to help the young people in our program be successful and try not to disrespect anybody in any way, and maybe someday people will have a better understanding of who I am.

SN: What’s it like to have fans and media—most of them strangers—trying essentially to psychoanalyze you?

SABAN: When I was a young coach, I used to read the paper all the time. The talking heads of the world would have opinions about who should be the kicker or who should be the quarterback or whatever, and that affected me. I decided that kind of thing should not affect me. I have to insulate myself some kind of way from these external factors because they pay me to make decisions on what’s best for our team. Believe in it, have a conviction to it and make it work. No disrespect to anybody, but I just don’t want them to affect who I am and what we do.

SN: What’s the best part of being head coach at Alabama?

SABAN: Coaching the players. I mean, there’s no doubt. Being on the field. And I still do it; I spend a lot of time coaching the secondary, coaching a lot of defensive players. Coaching is teaching. Teaching is

the ability to inspire learning. So to be able to engage with players, to inspire them, to be able to influence them, to impact how well they can do something, that’s the part that I like the best.

SN: What’s bigger: Alabama-Auburn in November or Alabama-Florida in December?

SABAN: Well, every game that we play has a lot on the line, especially if it’s an SEC game. They always have a lot of implications. Tennessee is a great rivalry for us; Auburn is a great rivalry for us. But the game itself, the consequence of the game relative to the SEC and the SEC championship, is equally important. When it comes to bragging rights, the Auburn game is a big game for our fans and supporters because it’s an in-state rivalry. Florida has become a little bit of a target in terms of everybody would love to have the opportunity to beat them. So I don’t know how I could (say) which one is more important than the other.

JUST ONE QUESTION

SN0621p042.indd 46 6/11/10 4:14:23 PM

the front seven (despite the relative inexperience) and can control the tempo by keeping offenses one-dimensional.

3. The power of the SEC. No team looks invincible , and a one-loss SEC champion will likely

find a way into the BCS title game on reputation alone. The fact the league has won four straight national championships will be key for the Tide should the BCS race come down to a beauty pageant.

— Matt Hayes

Having won national titles at LSU and Alabama, Saban’s formula is

simple: “If you have champions on your team, you have a chance to

win a championship.”

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1. Nick Saban. The best coach in the game will simply not allow the Tide to break mentally when there’s so much at stake. Saban has four recruiting classes locked in at Tuscaloosa, and that means everyone is on board with the World According to Nick .

2. It’s old school. The Tide can grind away with a powerful, dynamic running game led by Mark Ingram and Trent Richardson. On the other side of the ball, Alabama is physical and deep along

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SN: It seems a more P.R.-minded Alabama coach might have to pretend sometimes that the Auburn game is bigger than all the others—no matter what.

SABAN: But I think it is bigger for the fans.

SN: But not for you?SABAN: If it is for the fans, it is for me, all right? It’s

just hard for me to—and it’s no disrespect to Auburn, but it’s important that everyone in the program thinks that every game we play is important. Any time you have a natural rivalry, I just think there’s always going to be a heightened awareness and everybody’s going to think that game is the most important. But from a competitive standpoint, they’re all really important.

SN: You’ve won two national titles now. You say there’s no magic. Is there a blueprint?

SABAN: I don’t think there’s any question about it. This is probably a book in itself, to talk about all the things we feel. It’s in our mission statement to try to help the players be successful as people, students, football players, and we try to help them launch their careers when they leave.

You have to define the expectation for everybody in the organization, whether it’s a player or a coach or someone in the strength and conditioning program, administrative staff, whatever it is, so that they can do their job and be accountable to that. And all these things take a tremendous amount of work. Not just hard work relative to what you think it is —it’s the work that it takes to dominate the competition relative to what they do because everybody works hard. … It’s not what you did last year, it’s not about what you’re going to do the next time; it’s being the best every opportunity that you get. And having that kind of pride in performance is really critical to having champions on your team. And if you have champions on your team, you have a chance to win a championship.

SN’S PRESEASON TOP 10 WHY WE’RE PICKING ALABAMA TO REPEAT

Mark Ingram Trent Richardson

1. ALABAMA

2. OHIO STATE

3. BOISE STATE

4. MIAMI

5. FLORIDA

6. TCU

7. NEBRASKA

8. WISCONSIN

9. TEXAS

10. OKLAHOMA

Sporting News will rank the Division I-A teams from 1-120 in the next issue.

SN0621p042.indd 47 6/11/10 3:00:55 PM