Articles: Nick Saban

[Merlin]

http://www.espn.com/nfl/columns/story?id=1953234&columnist=pasquarelli_len

LSU coach decides NFL can't wait
Dec 26, 2004

• Len Pasquarelli

After three days of emotional deliberations, personal and professional discussions with family members and close associates which tore Nick Saban in two directions, the Miami Dolphins have a new head coach.

Saban decided Saturday to leave his comfort zone at LSU, a university for which he has great respect and fondness, and accept the task of rebuilding the Dolphins organization. The decision came after long Thursday and Friday sessions at his home in Baton Rouge, where he weighed his future with his wife, Terry, and his agent, Jimmy Sexton.


"We've never ever taken over successful programs," said Saban,
who announced his decision, after apprising university officials and his players of it, at an evening news conference in Orlando on Saturday. "We've taken challenges that were difficult, worked hard and had an effect in a positive way. That's one of the reasons I feel I can be successful in this
challenge."

The contract will be for five years and is worth $4.5 million-$5 million annually. It will also provide Saban with near-absolute control over football-related decisions and allow him to help reshape the organization following a disastrous 2004 season.

He will take over in Miami after coaching LSU in its bowl game on Jan. 1. The Tigers, who won their final six games this season to finish at 9-2, will face Iowa in the Capital One Bowl in Orlando.

The following day, the
Dolphins conclude their worst season since the 1960s, and their
first losing season since 1988.

Saban on Wednesday was formally offered the Dolphins job and told Dolphins and school officials he might need a day or two to come to a decision. Clearly, he wanted a resolution before Christmas, when his team was scheduled to leave for its bowl game, but could not meet his original timetable because of his strong feelings for LSU.

Sexton spent much of Wednesday meeting in Fort Lauderdale with Dolphins owner Wayne Huizenga discussing contract parameters. The two made what one source termed "significant progress" toward a deal, but an agreement wasn't struck. There remained some details to be hammered out and, more important, Saban needed time to examine the offer and review his own priorities. Sexton then hunkered down with Saban for nearly three days to discuss the options.

On Friday morning, Huizenga flew to Baton Rouge for another round of meetings. He had hoped to bring Saban back to Miami with him on his private plane, but the coach reiterated that he needed more time.

At no time, sources said, did LSU attempt to significantly augment Saban's contract. Two sources said that, at the outset of the process with Miami, school officials told Saban and Sexton how far they could go financially. There was never a formal counteroffer in an attempt to keep him in Baton Rouge.

There are likely to be dramatic changes now in the Dolphins organization.

Miami will hire a new team president to replace the much-respected Eddie Jones, who will retire in March, and the hiring of Saban could also end the tenure of general manager Rick Spielman, who has been a part of the search for the successor to Dave Wannstedt. It is anticipated that Saban would want to bring aboard his own general manager or personnel director to head the scouting department.

"We most certainly want to have success in an organization that
has been rich in tradition and success in the past," Saban said.
"[We're] going to work extremely hard to try to restore that
success."

One of the deal-breakers 11 months ago, when Saban rejected the Chicago Bearshead coach job, was that he was not offered control over some staffing and personnel matters. Confidants of Saban have reiterated to ESPN.com that control, particularly in terms of acquiring players, was a more critical issue to him than finances.

Saban began taking a hard look at the Miami job a year ago, when it appeared Wannstedt might be in trouble, following a second non-playoff season. A candidate for several NFL jobs since leaving the league to become head coach at Michigan State in 1994, Saban has always indicated he would return to the league only under optimum conditions.

Part of his attraction to the job was that Huizenga is regarded around the league as an owner who does not meddle in football matters, who essentially gets out of the way and lets his coach do his job.

"Your boss is always really important," Saban said. "And I
was really, really impressed with Wayne Huizenga in terms of what
he wants to accomplish, what his vision is for this team and what
his goals are. I would like to work in partnership with people like
that."

The other intriguing element for Saban is the opportunity to rebuild a football organization to his own specifications.

The Dolphins first huddled with Saban on Dec. 14, in a late-night meeting, and it was clear from the outset that he topped the Miami wish list. Teams officials also interviewed former Oakland Raiders coach Art Shell, currently a league vice president, and interim head coach Jim Bates for the position. But there was never any doubt that Saban was their man if a deal could be struck.

Saban, 53, has enjoyed great success at LSU, and leaving the school would be a difficult decision for him. As late as Tuesday morning, even before he had the Dolphins offer in hand, he told athletic director Skip Bertman that he probably faced a tough call and praised the school for its commitment to him and his family. After rebuffing the Bears advances, Saban signed a new seven-year contract, making him the highest paid college head coach in the country.

His team won the national championship in 2003 and, in five seasons in Baton Rouge, he compiled a 48-15 mark.

Following the Tigers' practice Sunday in Orlando, their first
since his announcement, Saban said the team is taking his imminent
departure well.

"At some point in everyone's life, they have to make some kind
of career decision that affects other people, and that's how I
explained it to them," Saban said. "They have managed this well --
better than I have."

LSU All-American defensive end Marcus Spears said the Tigers
weren't surprised by Saban's decision.

"It's not the first time coach has had to entertain the idea of
taking another job," Spears said. "I think most of the guys are
happy for him. Some young guys may have concerns, but that's
normal."

In stints at LSU (2000-present), Michigan State (1995-99) and Toledo (1990), Saban had a record of 91-41-1.

His previous NFL experience came as secondary coach with the Houston Oilers (1988-89) and the defensive coordinator of the Cleveland Browns (1991-94), where he worked on the staff of longtime friend Bill Belichick.

Len Pasquarelli is a senior NFL writer for ESPN.com. To check out Len's chat archive, click here

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Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.

 

[Merlin]

http://dailydolphin.blog.palmbeachp...rees-defends-himself-on-jeno-james-treatment/

Alabama coach Nick Saban reveals details over departure from Miami Dolphins; admits he wanted Drew Brees; defends himself on Jeno James treatment

• Post Staff

December 17, 2012 General NFL news.

Nick Saban’s Alabama Crimson Tide is playing Notre Dame for the BCS Championship on Jan. 7 at Sun Life Stadium, and Saban knows he is going to get asked about his controversial two-year tenure as Dolphins coach at some point during the week leading up to the game.

MIAMI – DECEMBER 10: Head coach Nick Saban of the Miami Dolphins claps for his defense after a key series of downs against the New England Patriots at Dolphin Stadium on December 10, 2006 in Miami, Florida. The Dolphins defeated the Patriots 21-0. (Photo by Paul Spinelli/Getty Images)

Nick Saban said he regrets the way he left Miami but he's happy with the decision to coach at Alabama / Getty Images

Instead of waiting to get down here with his team, Saban appeared on Dan LeBatard’s radio show on 790-AM Mondayand was surprisingly humble, candid and apologetic about the way he left the Dolphins, bolting for Alabama two weeks after saying, “I’m not going to be the Alabama coach.”

Saban’s name is still a dirty word among many Dolphins fans, and he was asked if he would do anything differently.

“I think the biggest thing was probably not handling the way I left very well, and that’s always been a thing with me that I’ve never really ever felt good about,” said Saban, 61. “I learned a lot. Sometimes you wish you would’ve done things differently. I think I’m a better person because of that circumstance and situation, I learned a lot from it and I’ll just leave it at that.”

Saban’s surprise departure seemingly left the Dolphins in the lurch, and the team scrambled to hire Cam Cameron as its next head coach. The Dolphins went 1-15 under Cameron, and while they had moderate success under Bill Parcells and Tony Sparano, they never fulfilled the Super Bowl dreams Saban conjured when he arrived in Miami in 2005.

But while his departure was a surprise for many Dolphins fans, it wasn’t much of one for the leaders in the locker room. Former star defensive end Jason Taylor, who appears for an hour every Monday on LeBatard’s show, participated in the Saban interview and revealed that Saban confided in him and other leaders about leaving for Alabama or staying with the Dolphins at the end of the 2006 season, which the Dolphins finished 6-10.

“We understood that that train was coming down the track,” Taylor said of Saban leaving. “From day 1 he was up front with some guys in talking about it, kinda getting their feelings. I spoke with him at length about it on several different occasions up until the 12th hour when he finally made the decision to go. I was on the phone with him late that night.”

Saban said he simply didn’t know how to handle the questions once media caught wind of Alabama’s interest in him.

“You’re in unchartered waters. You don’t know exactly how you’re supposed to handle the situation,” said Saban, who said he also regretted the way he left LSU for the Dolphins. “What I was trying to do was do the best thing for our team, and not be affected by all the rumors and innuendo about what was happening on the outside. (But) I just didn’t handle it the right way. I don’t feel good about it right now, and I’ll probably never feel good about it.”

Saban gushed about Wayne Huizenga, the former Dolphins owner who brought Saban to South Florida, calling him “probably one of the five finest human beings that I’ve ever met in this world. … There’s never been, besides my parents, anyone that had a greater impact on me or treated me any better in this world than Wayne Huizenga did.”

And Saban also confirmed that he and Huizenga had an understanding that if Saban, who had spent his previous 11 years as a college head coach, didn’t like coaching in the NFL, he could walk away from the opportunity – no harm, no foul. Saban said he and Huizenga remain friends today.

“He was very understanding of our situation and my whole family situation,” Saban said. “I think in that, it was kind of mutually understood that, ‘Look, if this is not for you, I would understand it.'”

Other topics addressed by Saban:

* It’s pretty much common knowledge at this point that the Dolphins opted to trade for Daunte Culpepper in 2006 instead of sign Drew Brees as a free agent because the Dolphins’ doctors didn’t give Brees, coming off a severely torn labrum in his throwing shoulder, a clean bill of health.

Saban was asked if he would still be in Miami if he chose Brees over Culpepper, and Saban said that not only did he prefer Brees, several other people in the organization did, as well, and everyone kept it quiet:

“Well, we chose Drew Brees,” Saban said. “I’ve never ever talked about this publicly, and I think a lot of players know this – there was a lot of loyalty in the organization, and players didn’t talk about it. But we think Drew Brees was an outstanding player. That’s the guy we made the first offer to, and quite frankly he didn’t pass the physical with our organization so we had to go in a different direction. And there was really nothing any of us could do about that.”

* Saban defended himself on a story from last year in which former Dolphins FB Heath Evans ripped Saban for showing “no human emotion” when former guard Jeno James was convulsing on the floor of the locker room after a 2005 training camp practice:

“Obviously it’s a moment of panic, everyone, you know, we don’t know if this guy’s, you know, gonna die, I mean, the whole deal. But he’s so big and sweaty and heavy that we actually have to set him down in the hallway between the locker room and the training room.

Nick Saban literally just starts walking in, steps over Jeno James convulsing, doesn’t say a word, doesn’t try to help, goes upstairs, I don’t know what he does. But then obviously they get Jeno trauma-offed to the hospital.

Saban calls a team meeting about 10:30 that night, comes down and says, ‘You know, the captain of the ship can never show fear or indecision, we’ve always gotta have an answer, and so I had to go upstairs, that’s why I walked over Jeno like that, I had to collect my thoughts and decide what’s best for our team.’

And I’m thinking to myself, I think along with Jason Taylor and Zach Thomas and Yeremiah Belland all these other guys going, ‘Did he, does he really believe what he’s just saying?’ He showed no human emotion for one of his best players. He literally stepped over him when four or five grown men are trying to carry Jeno to the training room.”

Saban said that version of events is not accurate.

“First of all, at the time, no one really realized that Jeno was probably having as tough a time as he was,” Saban said. “And immediately thereafter I was with Jeno for several hours, as Jason (Taylor) was too. … If I didn’t show that emotion, it was because I didn’t realize the extent of what was happening to the player at the time.”

After the interview, Taylor corroborated Saban’s version of events.

“He cared deeply for his players. That’s why hearing the Heath Evans/Jeno James story bothers me,” Taylor said. “I was with Nick and Jeno and a handful of other players after the fact. But it did not happen the way it was reported. That’s not true.”

* As for the million dollar question – Will Saban ever return to the NFL? Already his name is being linked to a Cleveland Browns job that hasn’t opened yet. Saban doesn’t have a good track record of speaking truthfully about this stuff, but he said he wants to remain at Alabama for a long time.

“I really enjoy what I’m doing here right now,” he said. “I’m getting old now. I don’t think we got too many moves left in us. You develop a lot of relationships and loyalties to the players that you recruit and the people you have in the organization you have here.”

“I don’t think it’s really fair to leave. Hopefully I’ll be able to stay here for a long, long time and we’ll continue to have success.”

 

[Merlin]

http://ftw.usatoday.com/2013/12/nick-saban-alabama-texas-leaving-michigan-state-lsu

When college football's best coach left Michigan State for LSU.

By: Nina Mandell | December 12, 2013 10:21 am Follow @ninamandell

Nick Saban answeres qestions after a news conference where it was announched he would become the new LSU football coach Tesday Nov. 30, 1999 in Baton Rogue, La. Saban, the former Michigan State coach, accepted a five year offer to replace fired coach Gerry DiNardo. (AP Photo/Bill Haber) ORG XMIT: BTX104

(AP Photo/Bill Haber)

In 1999, Nick Saban left Michigan State for a job at LSU. 14 years later, we take a look back at the steps leading to his departure in today’s installment of Throwback Thursday.

The call came around 7:30 on the night before Thanksgiving, as Gil Brandt, a former Vice President of player personnel for the Dallas Cowboys who had been tapped to help out with the Louisiana State search process, sat in his backyard on a pleasant late fall night.

Nick Saban, the Michigan State coach who was smarting from a Bowl Game that went to Michigan over his Spartans and a slow-to-come bonus but at least according to Brandt not searching for a new gig at the time, almost immediately said he would be interested.

“He said ‘look, I think I’ve done a pretty good job here at Michigan State,” Brandt, who now works for NFL Media, remembered in a conversation with For The Win. “I’ve beaten Ohio State, I’ve beaten Penn State, I’ve beaten Michigan and sometimes it’s time to move on.”

According to Brandt, who said he has known Saban from when he was a graduate assistant at Ohio State, then asked if he’d be interested in the LSU position, which was open after Gerry DiNardo was fired earlier that month.

“He said, ‘yes I’m prepared to say I’m interested in the job’, without asking what it paid,” Brandt said. “Without asking anything about money, about years (on the contract).”


The offer came during a time of frustration for Saban. In his view, his team had been passed over by the Orange Bowl in favor of Michigan (“We have financial responsibilities, and we look at a team and a matchup that’s best for us,” then Orange Bowl executive director Keith Tribble told reporters at the time. “We look at lots of factors, from tradition to records, ranking, TV exposure, fan enthusiasm and overall what a team can do for our game.”) and he reportedly was frustrated at MSU’s slow movement on his bonus.

From a Sports Illustrated article at the time:

One of the coach’s friends says that Saban wanted to hear, “We love what you’re doing. We don’t want to see you go.” No such affectionate words came.

Saban and his wife Terry flew down less than two days after Brandt called and together, the duo was impressive. Terry Saban, Brandt said, immediately hit it off with then-LSU president Mark Emmert’s wife as her husband impressed LSU officials and trustees. “Whenever you talk to Nick you can’t be anything but impressed,” Brandt said. “He’s very smart — he can talk about politics and banking and the Louisiana Purchase and everything. He’s just a guy that he’s never unprepared I would imagine that in a matter of 24 hours he probably did a thorough search as you could do (on LSU).”

By the time Saban left to go back to Michigan on Saturday, the deal was all but done.

Meanwhile, back in East Lansing, Mich. reports had been leaking out that Saban had been in talks with LSU. But without Twitter and the 24 hour news cycle, Michigan State officials led by trustee Joel Ferguson, according to the Wall Street Journal, were surprised to find Nick Saban at home without his wife. Saban, according to that report, denied that he had taken the job and said only that LSU had reached out to him.

“Joel said, ‘Nick where’s Terry?'” said Clarence Underwood, the former MSU athletic director, according to the WSJ. “He said she was at the store. But then he asked again: “Nick, is Terry in Baton Rouge?’ And he said, ‘Yes, she’s there now.'”

Remembers Brandt, who said it was likely Terry Saban was househunting: “I imagine she just stayed and I think if I remember correctly they bought a piece of property from an oil company that was in bankruptcy and they got a 20 acre plot of land that was one of the great bargains of all time.”


(AP)

The deal was made official the next week. Saban reportedly got $6 million over 5 years, a raise from the $700,000 he’d made the previous year at MSU and an entry into the more than a million dollar a year coaching club. But seemingly more importantly, he escaped the shadow of sharing a state with Michigan.”At Michigan State, we were never Number 1 [in the state],” Saban told reporters after accepting the job. “That was always Michigan. It was always, ‘UM this and that.’

“If I’d gone to Ohio it would have been Ohio State. Indiana, it is Purdue. Chicago, it’s every other school in the Big Ten. Wherever you go you’re looking at someone else when you’re recruiting, trying to catch up, trying to convince someone you’re up there.”

After Saban took the job, Bobby Williams was elevated to the head coach position for the Spartans’ Bowl Game, a move that was met with a “standing ovation” by players. And as the Sabans headed down to LSU, MSU basketball coach Tom Izzo stopped by with some words of encouragement for the big game.

“Who’s kidding who? The players play the game,” Izzo told them, according to the AP. “It’s you players who will make the difference.”

Saban told reporters that talking to the players was the hardest part of the move.

“I couldn’t talk to the players without getting pretty emotional this morning,” Saban said at the time, according to the Associated Press. “My gratitude to them is overwhelming.”

 

[Merlin]

Wanted to put up some articles showing the reported why and how he cut bait.

 

[Loyal]

Wanted to put up some articles showing the reported why and how he cut bait.

Just didn't respect him after he left the Dolphins like he did. I am not at all confident that he can shift from coaching college kids, to coaching grown men with kids that have a million in the bank....

 

[Mackeyser]

I don't recall all the details, but I do recall that there was a whole lot more to the story than just him not getting Drew Brees and then leaving them in the lurch after a disappointing season to go back to college and coach Alabama.

I dunno about all of that.

What I got about all of that is that he's great at coaching and not great at leaving.

Considering he's been a winner, I dunno that I'm all that worried about the dismount...

That could be just me.

 

[Barrison]

Just didn't respect him after he left the Dolphins like he did. I am not at all confident that he can shift from coaching college kids, to coaching grown men with kids that have a million in the bank....

At least he didn't just say brb I'm gonna go get some McDonald's and think about it and just leave town..

 

[Loyal]

At least he didn't just say brb I'm gonna go get some McDonald's and think about it and just leave town..

Yeah, Rob isn't on my radar..lol