Insights To Nick Saban Retiring


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I mean, you've yet to ever prove me wrong, so your insults mean nothing. Defense gave up 30 point, 7 of which came because McCord is awful and gave michigan the ball at our 7. Also, I couldn't care less where they get drafted, we've become accustomed to elite QB play at the college level. Any QB we've from Braxton, JT Barrett, Haskins, Fields, or Stroud would've gotten us the win againstyou last year. Fortunately you faced literally our worst QB in over a decade.

I get that you would kill to have him on your team given your current situation, but that guy was awful. All of his stats were due to Marvin bailing him out. There's a reason guys like Emeka and Fleming had huge down years with him, and clearly a reason why after going 11-1 as a starter at Ohio State, his best option was Syracuse.
There is nothing to prove you wrong about, because all you do is making up excuses, none of which hold any truth at all.

The best part is including Barrett and Braxton in this conversation. Hell, why not throw in Terrell Pryor. Newsflash -- McCord threw for more yards, had a higher completion %, better QB rating and threw less int's than Braxton Miller, JT Barrett, Terrell Pryor. Those QB's won because.......................you had an actual elite defense, with game changers on it. Not the paper tiger you had on defense last year who gave up roughly 38 ppg against the four offenses with a pulse you faced last year. You haven't had a game changer on defense since Chase Young. But hey -- you have all those shiny toys on offense. Defense wins championships, not offense. That's why UM fans love Ryan Day.

I do love listening to all the excuses you've come up with though. It is highly entertaining.
 
More insights:

"All the things I’ve believed in for all these years — 50 years of coaching — no longer exist in college athletics," Saban said when asked by Cruz if the "current chaos" in college sports led to his retirement. "It’s always was about developing players, always been about helping people be more successful in life.

"My wife even said to me — we have all the recruits over on Sunday with their parents for breakfast. She would always meet with the mothers and talk about how she was going to help impact their sons and how they would be well taken care of. She came to me right before I retired and said, ‘Why are we doing this?’ I said, ‘What do you mean?’ She said, ‘All they care about is how much you’re going to pay them. They don’t care about how you’re going to develop them, which is what we’ve always done. So why are you doing this?’

"To me, that was sort of a red alert that we really are creating a circumstance here that is not beneficial to the young people, which is why I always did what I did. My dad did it, I did it. So that’s the reason I always like college athletics more than the NFL because you had the opportunity to develop young people."
 
More insights:

"All the things I’ve believed in for all these years — 50 years of coaching — no longer exist in college athletics," Saban said when asked by Cruz if the "current chaos" in college sports led to his retirement. "It’s always was about developing players, always been about helping people be more successful in life.

"My wife even said to me — we have all the recruits over on Sunday with their parents for breakfast. She would always meet with the mothers and talk about how she was going to help impact their sons and how they would be well taken care of. She came to me right before I retired and said, ‘Why are we doing this?’ I said, ‘What do you mean?’ She said, ‘All they care about is how much you’re going to pay them. They don’t care about how you’re going to develop them, which is what we’ve always done. So why are you doing this?’

"To me, that was sort of a red alert that we really are creating a circumstance here that is not beneficial to the young people, which is why I always did what I did. My dad did it, I did it. So that’s the reason I always like college athletics more than the NFL because you had the opportunity to develop young people."
Doesn't that beg the question, why are you signing those players and destroying the culture that you know wins championships? Why not hold to your own standards and develop talent that is more interested in winning the right way and as a side effect prepares one for the NFL? Hell, he could have gotten many of those same players out of the portal after their motivation is checked. IMHO Kirby adjusted better and this is the one case where Saban couldn't see the forest because of the trees.
 
Doesn't that beg the question, why are you signing those players and destroying the culture that you know wins championships? Why not hold to your own standards and develop talent that is more interested in winning the right way and as a side effect prepares one for the NFL? Hell, he could have gotten many of those same players out of the portal after their motivation is checked. IMHO Kirby adjusted better and this is the one case where Saban couldn't see the forest because of the trees.
I don’t think many of the things you are stating are true.

1. I believe Saban is correct in that players aren’t worried about developing (they assume the NFL will happen as they are delusional) and ALL are about money. Even their mother’s are only concerned about money.

2. I don’t believe Saban destroyed a culture but I do think the portal and NIL changed the culture of all college football.

3. I think you are correct that Kirby adjusted better but Kirby is still hungry and Saban obviously has weighed what he has accomplished and what he will have to “tolerate” to continue and they didn’t balance. No surprise his “style” didn’t work in the NFL and it won’t work in CFB without changing and he made the decision he didn’t want to. Don’t blame him.

Saban isn’t the only one making these decisions. HCs are bailing on college or in the case of Chip Kelly taking a position job instead so they don’t have to fool with it. The vast majority of these guys are in it to coach football and the other stuff is becoming intolerable. The money is going to attract people without a doubt but burn out is going to be accelerated and guys are going to be looking for outs a lot sooner.
 
1. I believe Saban is correct in that players aren’t worried about developing (they assume the NFL will happen as they are delusional) and ALL are about money. Even their mother’s are only concerned about money.
Oh, I think that is true for a lot of kids' initial reaction to NIL. It does not mean it has to be accepted in the program. He is Nick Saban at Alabama, not Lane Kiffin at Ole Miss that needs NIL cash to recruit at a high level. I am not knocking kids wanting to be paid, and I am not knocking programs that use NIL money to get recruits that used to be out of reach. I just do not believe that teams like Bama, UGA, OSU, and a few others need to be in bidding wars.
2. I don’t believe Saban destroyed a culture but I do think the portal and NIL changed the culture of all college football.
I think Nick could have preserved his team culture by being more selective in recruiting. I get it, he had a brand new tool but you dont need to drag out a torch when a little WD40 will do the job.
3. I think you are correct that Kirby adjusted better but Kirby is still hungry and Saban obviously has weighed what he has accomplished and what he will have to “tolerate” to continue and they didn’t balance. No surprise his “style” didn’t work in the NFL and it won’t work in CFB without changing and he made the decision he didn’t want to. Don’t blame him.
I think that Saban had made more spot-on adjustments to his coaching style and rules changes than any other of the Mt. Rushmore candidates. And he blew one. And he is still the GOAT. But Kirby still found top classes full of folks that are interested in development. Nick could have done the same.
 
Oh, I think that is true for a lot of kids' initial reaction to NIL. It does not mean it has to be accepted in the program. He is Nick Saban at Alabama, not Lane Kiffin at Ole Miss that needs NIL cash to recruit at a high level. I am not knocking kids wanting to be paid, and I am not knocking programs that use NIL money to get recruits that used to be out of reach. I just do not believe that teams like Bama, UGA, OSU, and a few others need to be in bidding wars.

I think Nick could have preserved his team culture by being more selective in recruiting. I get it, he had a brand new tool but you dont need to drag out a torch when a little WD40 will do the job.

I think that Saban had made more spot-on adjustments to his coaching style and rules changes than any other of the Mt. Rushmore candidates. And he blew one. And he is still the GOAT. But Kirby still found top classes full of folks that are interested in development. Nick could have done the same.
Let me put it to you this way our local high school had a 5 star prospect (first one since the late 80s probably) and he signed with Tennessee. Ask why and no hesitation “they offered me the most money”. Kid could have gone to Alabama, Georgia and Ohio State if he had showed interest but his criteria was he wanted to play in the SEC and he wanted to get paid as much as possible to do it.

There are exceptions like Arch Manning and kids that have grown up loving a program and that’s all they want but 98% of your 5 and 4 stars are making business decisions at this point.
 

Saban is a great coach, but I can't take the guy serious. I think he left because the enormous advantages he used to build a dynasty at Alabama have been limited by NIL and the transfer portal, as now he had to outbid other schools for recruits and those backups who could start elsewhere can leave, instead of sitting on the sideline waiting for their turn.

Once Saban came out and said all he wants is a level playing back in 2015 or whenever it was. I stopped taking anything he said serious.

NIL and the transfer portal makes CFB about as close to a level playing field as Saban has seen as a coach since he was in the NFL. Don't blame the guy for retiring, but he sounds like a bitter old man complaining right now.
 
More insights:

"All the things I’ve believed in for all these years — 50 years of coaching — no longer exist in college athletics," Saban said when asked by Cruz if the "current chaos" in college sports led to his retirement. "It’s always was about developing players, always been about helping people be more successful in life.

"My wife even said to me — we have all the recruits over on Sunday with their parents for breakfast. She would always meet with the mothers and talk about how she was going to help impact their sons and how they would be well taken care of. She came to me right before I retired and said, ‘Why are we doing this?’ I said, ‘What do you mean?’ She said, ‘All they care about is how much you’re going to pay them. They don’t care about how you’re going to develop them, which is what we’ve always done. So why are you doing this?’

"To me, that was sort of a red alert that we really are creating a circumstance here that is not beneficial to the young people, which is why I always did what I did. My dad did it, I did it. So that’s the reason I always like college athletics more than the NFL because you had the opportunity to develop young people."
Time passes us all by Nicky. You may a wise choice to check it in. Probably should have when NIL/Portal first started.

It hit me when the “everyone gets a trophy” came into existence.
 
NIL and the transfer portal makes CFB about as close to a level playing field as Saban has seen as a coach since he was in the NFL. Don't blame the guy for retiring, but he sounds like a bitter old man complaining right now.
Not sure I agree with that. Adding money really just adds another limitation or barrier for schools to overcome, which is not level. Some schools have more money than others and can load up like never before. With a hurting economy and/or coming from a poor family, a kid that might have been his dream to play for Missouri might feel like he has to take the money that Bama or UGA offer because he may never see money like that again, or to support his family, etc.
 
Not sure I agree with that. Adding money really just adds another limitation or barrier for schools to overcome, which is not level. Some schools have more money than others and can load up like never before. With a hurting economy and/or coming from a poor family, a kid that might have been his dream to play for Missouri might feel like he has to take the money that Bama or UGA offer because he may never see money like that again, or to support his family, etc.
NIL has allowed way more schools to be in the running for high end recruits than before NIL. Tennessee has bought numerous 5 star recruits who they wouldn't have had a shot for before NIL. Miami has bought a ton of top talent, even though it hasn't helped them. Texas A&M bought the greatest recruiting class in CFB history.

Does it help schools with more money? No doubt. But those are the same schools who were getting 95+% of the top recruits before NIL anyways. With NIL -- it spreads them out at least.

I actually hope UM's new coach gets through to our administration and gets on board with NIL or UM will fall behind.
 
Not sure I agree with that. Adding money really just adds another limitation or barrier for schools to overcome, which is not level. Some schools have more money than others and can load up like never before. With a hurting economy and/or coming from a poor family, a kid that might have been his dream to play for Missouri might feel like he has to take the money that Bama or UGA offer because he may never see money like that again, or to support his family, etc.
it limited bama from stockpiling bluechips the way they have.. portal makes it easier to keep players to bounce after a season..old way he was guaranteed to have those kids stay for atleast 2 to 3 years before transferring or grad transferring

the NIL portion is that now it's open to all teams.. he's now having to compete with schools like UT and aggy on that front and they can't go all in, even with his name attached to the program like he did 10 years ago.

he took advantage of the old system, able to hire as many analyst as he wanted, paying players under the table, keeping them for 2 full years before they could realistically transfer.. 3 years before they could grad transfer.. Let's not forget he was the one to make noise on Freeze and Ole Miss too..

Guy now acting like he's trying to save CFB is a joke.. U don't have the guts to adapt and compete with schools that can actually offer the same if not more than what you did behind the scenes MF.. quit acting like u know what's best.. i'm sure you are ready to cry about it on gameday every week this fall
 
Kirby has entered the discussion:


In fact, he thinks young recruits are more focused on NIL when they should be focused on making the NFL.

"It’s a great sell to the kids that will listen to it. There is a lot of them that want to ask about NIL. They don’t want to ask about what your NFL players have done. I think it’s much more important how you develop players than how much NIL you can give them," Smart explained when talking about the current state of NIL, according to On3.com.
 
Kirby has entered the discussion:


In fact, he thinks young recruits are more focused on NIL when they should be focused on making the NFL.

"It’s a great sell to the kids that will listen to it. There is a lot of them that want to ask about NIL. They don’t want to ask about what your NFL players have done. I think it’s much more important how you develop players than how much NIL you can give them," Smart explained when talking about the current state of NIL, according to On3.com.
or..

since it's an open market, kids know what their worth are now...
 
Kirby has entered the discussion:


In fact, he thinks young recruits are more focused on NIL when they should be focused on making the NFL.

"It’s a great sell to the kids that will listen to it. There is a lot of them that want to ask about NIL. They don’t want to ask about what your NFL players have done. I think it’s much more important how you develop players than how much NIL you can give them," Smart explained when talking about the current state of NIL, according to On3.com.
This is beginning to remind me of stock show auction payouts. Some are led to believe that you will get stock show rates at regular auctions when you get into the livestock business. It ain't happening.

$1 million steer
 
or..

since it's an open market, kids know what their worth are now...
Do they though? Look at what TAMU did a few years back. Brought in a number 1 class by buying players. What did that equate to on field? It didnt speak to what they spent being worth it, if you want to sum it up in a neat little sentence. Did this speak to coaching, players mentality of overinflated self worth, or what? Now Jumbo's(not a misspelling) poor coaching played an immense part in this, but those players have not panned out to be world beaters themselves. Kids dont know what they are worth, they imagine possibilities of what they are worth, but sometimes the reality falls short. I have seen many a Five star player ejected by numerous teams due to attitude problems, poor habits on and off field, and so on. Sometimes the hype is as good as a player will ever be, and the reality is far less than billed.

When you have great coaches speaking on how this is not good for the game, we as sports fans should shut up and listen. Its not making for a level playing field as those with resources will be the winners, and those who dont have them, will be the losers. And the real loser is the kid who asks for a ton of money, and Middle Iowa technical school ponies up a shit ton of money for the kid, and he wastes a year on a losing team because he was monumentally stupid and signed with a school who blew its whole NIL collective on one player. Yes he gets to transfer, but he is likely going to be behind other players in development because he went after the money.
 
When you have great coaches speaking on how this is not good for the game, we as sports fans should shut up and listen
When those same coaches have also came out saying they just want 'a level playing field' in college football, it is hard to take them serious.

The head coaches speaking out are the same coaches who benefited more than any other programs when NIL wasn't around. Those same coaches aren't worried about the kids, they are worried about themselves. They usually come out with statements like this when they lose out on a player because of NIL -- OAM outbid Georgia for Caleb Downs, so they come out with these statements.

There are small truths to what these coaches are saying for the statements are without a doubt self serving, as these coaches are being paid millions to win games and championships.
 
When those same coaches have also came out saying they just want 'a level playing field' in college football, it is hard to take them serious.

The head coaches speaking out are the same coaches who benefited more than any other programs when NIL wasn't around. Those same coaches aren't worried about the kids, they are worried about themselves. They usually come out with statements like this when they lose out on a player because of NIL -- OAM outbid Georgia for Caleb Downs, so they come out with these statements.

There are small truths to what these coaches are saying for the statements are without a doubt self serving, as these coaches are being paid millions to win games and championships.
I would be in agreement with you aside from one small fact. Bama was one one good play away from playing for a title last season, with a team many thought should not have been in the playoffs at all. Kirby had one of the top teams in the country as well, and will again this year. Just because the rich schools(and you are not noticing these are the top money schools still outbidding teams) can outbid the lower tier schools will not make this any more of a level playing field than before. Actually quite the opposite, it will allow one or two well endowed(no pun intended) universities to stock up on top tier players simply on the basis of most money and ability to find other investors to assist in pulling in top players.

Caleb Downs is a prime example. He is a top tier player, and Tosu opened its pocket books for that one, then Sayin got wind Tosu was willing to deal and they forked out even more cash for him. This is not leveling the playing field, its opening a free market for players to shop themselves as a show pony without thoughts on the actual development of these kids for the next level. Some will be fine. Downs is a Natural, but what about the 5 star who has upside, and an attitude. Isaiah bond is a good example of this. Kid was a 5 star coming to Alabama. Got to Alabama and had a couple of good catches in a spring game and everyone was all abuzz about him. His career at Alabama was marred by ignorance on his part, attitude, and poor work ethic. He was a good receiver his first year, but his second season he apparently had some internal issues going on and barely saw plying time, and was usually rotated in. Attitude was what I heard. He is a head case, and naturally he followed Sark to Texas, because Sark liked the kid. I didnt hear if he played last season or not and could not find any stats on him. I am sure he got paid well also, but his career has not panned out like his hype said it should. My sources on him said he reads his news clippings and get the big head and becomes hard to work with, because he thinks he knows whats best. So buyers beware is a tale that will be told often if this sort of pay for play continues. Just my thoughts on this.
 
Do they though? Look at what TAMU did a few years back. Brought in a number 1 class by buying players. What did that equate to on field? It didnt speak to what they spent being worth it, if you want to sum it up in a neat little sentence. Did this speak to coaching, players mentality of overinflated self worth, or what? Now Jumbo's(not a misspelling) poor coaching played an immense part in this, but those players have not panned out to be world beaters themselves. Kids dont know what they are worth, they imagine possibilities of what they are worth, but sometimes the reality falls short. I have seen many a Five star player ejected by numerous teams due to attitude problems, poor habits on and off field, and so on. Sometimes the hype is as good as a player will ever be, and the reality is far less than billed.

When you have great coaches speaking on how this is not good for the game, we as sports fans should shut up and listen. Its not making for a level playing field as those with resources will be the winners, and those who dont have them, will be the losers. And the real loser is the kid who asks for a ton of money, and Middle Iowa technical school ponies up a shit ton of money for the kid, and he wastes a year on a losing team because he was monumentally stupid and signed with a school who blew its whole NIL collective on one player. Yes he gets to transfer, but he is likely going to be behind other players in development because he went after the money.
sure they brought in players, problem was Jimbo only cared about bringing the highest rated class possible.. overlooking red flags that players had just for their rankings..

But you are making a point here.. you can't just buy to buy, staffs have to do culture evals if that player is worth bringing in.. Would Saban still have brought in agiya Hall or whatever..again? That can still coexist with players now getting their value.. not done in under the table handshakes with their uncle or street agent family member. Every school can now show that player and his family a number that he could possibly make.
 
sure they brought in players, problem was Jimbo only cared about bringing the highest rated class possible.. overlooking red flags that players had just for their rankings..

But you are making a point here.. you can't just buy to buy, staffs have to do culture evals if that player is worth bringing in.. Would Saban still have brought in agiya Hall or whatever..again? That can still coexist with players now getting their value.. not done in under the table handshakes with their uncle or street agent family member. Every school can now show that player and his family a number that he could possibly make.
Not every school. Only the ones that can afford them. You claim it levels the playing field. Top schools like the majors that have big names, will have major collectives. Smaller schools will only have enough to maybe land one, maybe two mid tier players, or one top name player, if they are going to spend on players in positions of need that they desperately need. You might see a top flight receiver go to a group of 5 team, but he will be nestled among normal group of 5 talent. He will look like a standout, but when his team doesnt win like he wants, he will shop his wares to team B in a power 5. Now this kid comes in, where he was once a star among space dust, and he is nestled in a galaxy of stars and his star doesnt shine as brightly. At some point, these kids will see this for what it is, and not sign with the smaller schools, because yet again, the rich get richer and the scraps are left for the middle and lower class. What you are describing when you claim it will level the field is sort of a trickle down theory of economics. Its not going to trickle down, and all boats wont rise, only the more sound boats will rise, the rest will still be bailing water as they always have.
 
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