hack Posted January 4, 2007 Share Posted January 4, 2007 "Saban only lied when his lips were moving" by Pat Forde PARADISE VALLEY, Ariz. -- With Nick Saban en route to a coronation in Tuscaloosa, it's officially time to change the vocabulary used to describe college coaches. "Integrity" is out. "Character" is out. "Teacher" is out. "Leader of men" is out. "Liar" is in. but how do you *really* feel about this, pat? They're not going to tell the truth to us, but we can tell the truth about them. It's this: They'll say anything to get recruits on campus, and they'll say anything to get media members off their backs when angling for a different job. And the panting attempts by school administrators, fans, other coaches and many media members to portray them as men of superior moral fiber needs to stop. pat forde's world is shattered. to him, christmas next year has been cancelled, the tooth fairy is a scam and the easter bunny is dead. link here. Quote Link to comment
BIGREDFAN_in_OMAHA Posted January 4, 2007 Share Posted January 4, 2007 Saban does have issues. May the constant spotlight in Alabama document his rise and fall. Quote Link to comment
DaveH Posted January 4, 2007 Share Posted January 4, 2007 From what I have heard, I wish the Alabama job on NO ONE. Quote Link to comment
HuskerfaninOkieland Posted January 4, 2007 Share Posted January 4, 2007 Bama themselves are as much to blame for this fiasco as Saban. If they were smart they would have kept quiet about who they were talking to and then made the announcement after all the "T's" were crossed and "I's" dotted. What's more disturbing is this: CBS Sportsline 'Little Bear' Bryant crosses line again in denying UAB Dec. 26, 2006 By Gregg Doyel CBS SportsLine.com Senior Writer Tell Gregg your opinion! A ghost from the grave is running the Alabama football program ... and running the program at UAB into the dirt. Oh, wait. That's no ghoul. It's not Bear Bryant, who died in 1983. It's his son, Paul Bryant Jr. Little Bear wouldn't return messages from CBS SportsLine.com, so this will just have to be said without a rebuttal: Paul Bryant Jr., with a murky background and clear conflict of interest, has no business exerting influence over the football program at UAB. We'll get to Little Bear's background in a minute, but for now, understand something. The UAB football program just made the most dreadful hire of the offseason, hiring someone with questionable experience and character. His name is Neil Callaway, the offensive coordinator at Georgia, which you might have noticed was horrible this season on offense. The last thing Callaway did of note was plead guilty to DUI charges in 2003. This is the new UAB coach. He's a lousy choice. Which is apparently what Little Bear wanted. Little Bear sits on the University of Alabama Board of Trustees. From there, he wields all sorts of authority over Alabama and its state step-sister, UAB. Little Bear, who once gave $10 million to the Crimson Tide athletics department, is close friends with Alabama AD Mal Moore, who keeps his job despite a proven inability to pick a quality football coach. What happens to Alabama football, however, is not our concern. Bear Bryant Sr. built the Crimson Tide into the South's most fearsome franchise, and if his boy tears it all the way down, well, there is symmetry in that. What has happened this month to UAB, however, is an outrage. Essentially, Little Bear's Board of Trustees blocked UAB from hiring the football coach it wanted. Twice. And the second time, Little Bear's Board stopped UAB from hiring the coach it wanted because, presumably, the coach UAB wanted -- Jimbo Fisher -- might also be wanted by Alabama. Ugly, but that's the deal, based on SportsLine.com conversations with sources close to the situation. After being blocked by the Board of Trustees in its quest to promote assistant coach Pat Sullivan, who became head coach at Samford, UAB turned to LSU offensive coordinator Jimbo Fisher. UAB and Fisher agreed on basic contractual terms, with half of Fisher's annual UAB salary -- ballpark: $600,000 -- to be subsidized by private boosters. UAB was going to get the coach it wanted, a coach whose rumored arrival already was waking up the comatose UAB football program -- yet would have been on the hook for less salary than ex-coach Watson Brown, who made $375,000. It was perfect. Little Bear's Board of Trustees said no. You want to know why? So do I, but Little Bear wouldn't return my messages. So here's the theory I'm working on, a theory based on conversations with multiple sources with a vested interest in UAB football: Alabama also is in search of a football coach. The Crimson Tide has gone a month without one, raising the obvious possibility that its next coach has been selected but cannot be unveiled. Someone like, say, Miami Dolphins coach Nick $aban, whose NFL acumen is debatable but college resume (Michigan State, LSU) is beyond reproach. Advertisement When he was at LSU, $aban's offensive coordinator was Jimbo Fisher. If he's going to return to college football, his choice for offensive coordinator would likely be Fisher. By making Fisher its head coach, UAB would have stood in the way of that, making the Alabama job less attractive to $aban. Alabama can't afford that. And who does UAB think it is, anyway? The Board of Trustees did the Blazers a favor in 1996 by letting them become a Division I-A football program, but magnanimity has its limits, and for Little Bear's Board, this was a line UAB was not going to cross. Little Bear's board told UAB it would not approve the hiring of Jimbo Fisher. What kind of man is capable of such a plot? Not sure. But here's the kind of man Little Bear is: He made a fortune from dog tracks, including the notorious track at Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, which closed in 1995 after reports of monstrous dog abuse. He's a catfish kingpin whose farm processes 700,000 pounds per week. He's a Civil War buff who has been a ranking member of the controversial Sons of Confederate Veterans, which "is dedicated to the promotion of traditional Southern ideals ... to hold in perpetual remembrance all that was great and good." Yeesh. In 1989 Bryant was quoted in Esquire as describing the clientele at his Alabama dog track as "a low-class, low-income crowd ... generally your lower class of blacks, your welfare blacks, you want 'em to have enough room to get in and out, but at the same time you want to get as many in as possible." In 2000 the Legislative Black Caucus seized on those comments to try to block his appointment to the Board of Trustees. Little Bear said Esquire invented the quotes. Little Bear got his way -- he got onto the Board of Trustees. UAB has the football coach to show for it. Quote Link to comment
mbhusker13 Posted January 4, 2007 Share Posted January 4, 2007 "Fu$king south." Quote Link to comment
HuskerfaninOkieland Posted January 4, 2007 Share Posted January 4, 2007 This is interesting reading, especially what Zemek has to say about Saban: Matthew Zemek Speaking of Saban, the eternally restless coach — quickly becoming to football what Larry Brown is in basketball — has no personal, moral or ethical credibility left in his pocket. Near the end of another season of coaching carousel madness, Saban has exceeded all of his colleagues — in the pros and the NCAA — as a flat-out liar who leaves organizations in the lurch. Nick Saban professed his love for LSU, and then bolted to Miami at Christmastime to give Bayou Bengal backers a big lump of coal in their stockings two years ago. Now, after emphatically saying , "I'm not going to be the Alabama coach," Saban is Alabama's coach. The man might as well keep his mouth shut. Quote Link to comment
BIGREDFAN_in_OMAHA Posted January 4, 2007 Share Posted January 4, 2007 I think Don Shula has a unique take because he has ties on both sides of the issue: "My reaction is that Saban in two years was 15-17," former Dolphins coach Don Shula said. "I don't think that will be any great loss." Shula viewed the situation harshly in part because the Crimson Tide fired his son, Mike, creating the vacancy that Saban will fill. ESPN Quote Link to comment
NU fan in Denver Posted January 4, 2007 Share Posted January 4, 2007 This kind of thing is happening more and more. Why should a coach be loyal to his team when the team sure as hell won't be loyal to him. A few bad seasons and you are gone regardless of how many years he has left on the contract. I agree this is as much Alabama's fault, as it is Sabans. Besides, what coach is going to say, "Yeah, I am considering taking this job from X school" in the middle of the season. On Fox Sports there is an article about him saying "I want to win all my games." Looks like he has set the goals pretty high. Quote Link to comment
admo Posted January 4, 2007 Share Posted January 4, 2007 From what I have heard, I wish the Alabama job on NO ONE. Even me? I'll take the job. Quote Link to comment
hack Posted January 5, 2007 Author Share Posted January 5, 2007 From what I have heard, I wish the Alabama job on NO ONE. Even me? I'll take the job. bama boosters: "coach mode, it's been 15 WHOLE MINUTES and you haven't won a national championship yet!!!!!" coach mode: "but.. i just go here... heck, i haven't even moved into my office yet..." bama boosters: "ZOMG!!! YOU SUCK!!!!! YOUR FIRED!!!!!" former coach mode: "oh... okay... i guess you're gonna have to buyout my $40 BAZILLION contract then." bama boosters: "YAH!!! THAT'LL TEACH YA!!!!" Quote Link to comment
Spartness Posted January 10, 2007 Share Posted January 10, 2007 Opportunist!!! I have my doubts he will have much passion for Alabama football. What's going to be his next job? Quote Link to comment
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