Among social media sites since the 27-20 Alabama OT loss to Michigan in the CFP on Monday night, many fans question the final play call by Nick Saban of Alabama following a time-out before Jalen Milroe took a header into the teeth of Michigan’s strong defense to end the game. 

Many consider Saban the G.O.A.T, that is greatest college football coach of all time. In Saban’s 16 years as Head Coach at Alabama, his record overall is an outstanding 201-29. Overall, his record as a head coach now stands at 292-71-1. Also, he’s won six NCAA Division 1 National Championships.  Impressive for sure. However, for the final games among all those seasons, his stands at 9-7.  What does that indicate?

Saban career in review

Consider this:  Saban coached successful programs as head coach at Michigan State and LSU before he took the helm at Alabama.  After coaching those two programs, he spent eight seasons in the NFL. The first six as an assistant before becoming head coach of the Miami Dolphins in 2005-2006.   He absorbed great experience. He learned a lot both with college programs and in the pros before joining Alabama. However, at Miami, he recorded a record of only 15-17 with the NFL Dolphins.  There were some issues with personnel supposedly. He denied to the press that he was going to leave the Dolphins and go to Alabama.  However, shortly after denial, he signed on with the Crimson Tide.

Multi-tasking required

Coaching football requires many skills at both the collegiate and pro levels.  Common ones are building a team, hiring good assistant coaches, developing player skills, formulating game plans, and executing an effective strategy for 60 minutes in every contest.  The major differences at the collegiate level: a coach can determine some of the level of competition one can schedule to play.  Of course, this includes playing against conference foes obligated to play within a particular season. The other one – how you select the talent to make your team successful.

Pro slates

In the NFL, based on where teams finish in the final standings, schedules for all teams become pre-determined. Schedules are prioritized based on where a team finishes. Balanced schedules are assigned based on where other teams finish, from top to bottom, outside the division.  Basically, to make it possible for every team to compete as equally as possible, each team gets a slate fairly equivalent to meet teams close in recent past success. Also every season, half of the games are scheduled on the road and half are at home. Makes it fair to all competing organizations and their fans.

Talent allocation

The biggest difference between collegiate and professional talent dispersion, however, is how coaches acquire their talent.  In the pros, each starts with a draft based on the order how all 32 teams finished the previous season.  Teams draft in a pre-determined order, make trades, and sign free agents after the draft and during the course of the season if and when necessary.  By the start of every season, each team selects 53 active players to be on their roster. Again, everything is done to equalize every team’s chance every season for possible success – truly leveling the playing field as much as possible.  Of course, this doesn’t work out this way.  Some organizations with their coaches’ inputs are better than others at evaluating, developing and coaching talent than are others. That’s business.

Saban: Greatest what?

The point here is, when coaching in the pros, where the playing field is virtually level, Nick Saban’s coaching skills didn’t result in positive results. Greatest “coach?”  Sounds more like, “when the going gets tough – quit!” Bad message.  When it comes to building a college football team, recruiting players is a free-for-all. How can each program attract the best talent? Saban ranks right at the top when it comes to doing this.  This talent recruited begats success.

Have money, will travel

In college, football programs scour the country for the best high school talent available. It’s a crapshoot. Some programs offer better opportunities than others. Some offer a chance to play in major games on TV every weekend, win championships, display skills and establish reputations to possibly make this a very high-financed career in the future. Currently, universities can now have “collectives” contact players even from other collegiate programs to transfer.

Collectives now represent football programs outside of NCAA jurisdiction. Reports indicate Saban disapproves of such pratices. A new coaching skill, however, now also includes keeping the best players happy and satisfied to stay and play for the school that offers them a scholarship to pay for their education.  Not easy any more with Name, Image, Likeness (NILs) incentives floating around.   Teams can have up to 85 players on scholarships in their FBS program.  Non-scholarship players sign as walk-ons can become available too.

Figure strengths among priorities to meet the challenges

So, college coaching requires: talents such as salesmanship to get players; player development done at practice and physical training during the course of a year; a strategic game plan to defeat the upcoming opponent; and an effective tactical plan to have your team ready to execute at game time.  None of this is easy. Not all coaches among 134 Football Bowl Subdivision teams possess all the required skills to be successful.  As in any profession, some have good skill sets in most requirements However, others are better or worse for whatever reason.  In the end, every head coach and their staff strive to win more games than they lose. Otherwise they’re looking for another coaching position or an entirely different profession. The heat is always on.  The media always likes to stir things up in a pressure cooker when a coach is “on the hot seat!”

Coaching skills: Pros vs college

Nick Saban evidently has the skills, and the smarts, to take advantage of the options college football allows him to do that the pros wouldn’t. That’s probably the real reason he left the Dolphins. No doubt, he has a reputation and skill sets to attract the best talent with relatively minimal effort to come play for his team in Tuscaloosa.  His great success starts here.  The best players want to go to Alabama to play for him, and he picks and chooses who he wants.  Times are changing however; these players are no longer going to sit the bench a few years and wait for an opportunity to play. 

Caveat: coaching success doesn’t guarantee player commitment

Saban is somewhat to blame for this attitude.  Look how he won the 2018 national championship with Jalen Hurts as quarterback. Then, he sat him down for a year behind Tua Tagovailoa to give him impetus to transfer to Oklahoma. Great for Saban’s status, but what about for his dedicated player? Aren’t the games supposed to be for the players?  Too much talent waiting in the wings is no longer a viable coaching strategy in the college ranks.  Even Alabama’s success does not guarantee any player’s staying to play at one school for four years anymore.

Back to the Future

Look back on Sunday night and Nick Saban’s 9-7 record in season-ending games that Paul Finebaum must not remember.  The coach’s recruiting prowess and reputation started most of his seasons off with the best talent.  Foes in his conference and those he scheduled outside the SEC slate don’t have the same aura to attract as much talent to compete with the Alabama Crimson Tide under Saban.  He developed his most talented recruits to play better.  He hired experienced assistant coaches like Bill O’Brien, Steve Sarkasian, and Lane Kiffin, all former head coaches, to be his primary assistants.

Check out Bamas’s football budget compared to the teams he plays against.  His team could generally dominate their way with his resources to the top every season. No doubt, he’s a smart man who understands his strengths and other teams’ weaknesses.  Let’s look at 2023 as a microcosm for Saban’s success over 16 years at Alabama.  Harbaugh was not the only mentor he faced who outcoached him.

Other coaches learn from the best, Nick Saban

Harbaugh, like Saban, went on a crusade to compete for the best talent wherever available.  Both recruit nation-wide. They even take trips to Hawaii and Australia to bring the greatest talents they can find to their campuses. If there was word of some behemoth teenager roaming the Himalayas, these guys would go recruit him.  Peruse their current rosters. The longevity of their coaching careers depends on such talent bringing them wins, prestige and a lot of money. Not to say that’s wrong, but that’s just reality. In our society, to the victors go the spoils!

And in previous seasons prior to 2023, other football programs matched Alabama’s talent level as well.  In the end many resulted in great battles. Programs under head coaches who recruited similar talent to Saban started on a more equal talent level than most teams The Tide faced during regular seasons. Consider Urban Meyer at Utah in 2008 and at Ohio State in 2014; Bob Stoops at Oklahoma in 2013; Dabo Swinney at Clemson in 2016 and 2018; Kirby Smart at UGA in 2021; and now Jim Harbaugh in 2023.  With equal talent, how else do you explain losses in these match-ups other than Saban got out-coached?

Alabama’s 2023 season in review

In their 2023 opener, the Tide massacred eventual 4-8 Middle Tennessee, 56-7. The Blue Raiders never attracted the volume of talent nor level of talent to Murfreesboro to match The Crimson Tide.  Usually, Saban opens at a neutral site (Atlanta or Arlington, TX) against a program whose successful QB moved on to the pros since the previous season. Check out games in 2018 after Lamar Jackson left Louisville and in 2019 after Daniel Jones left Duke. This smoke and mirrors tactic seemed to always get by his supporters in the media.    A week later at Alabama, his team fell to improving Texas, 34-24, with QB Quin Ewers remaining healthy throughout the entire contest.  In 2022, things took a turn for the worse for Texas. Ewers went out injured with a lead to eventually lose to Bama. 

Shockingly difficult win

A week later, the media including Paul Finebaum, went into a panic. The Tide went to Tampa and only beat South Florida, 17-3.  Questions arose regarding Saban’s coaching capabilities. I questioned why Saban even scheduled an actual road game against USF.  I figured maybe he considered Raymond James Stadium as a neutral site like many other non-conference games he’s scheduled over the years.  Last time his team actually played a non-conf on a campus was at Penn State in 2011. So much for his early season non-conference scheduling prowess.  Like stated previously, he’s a smart man, no doubt.

Annual Alabama SEC wins as usual

Despite these early shortcomings in 2023, wins over the two Mississippi schools in the SEC West seemed to put him back on the right track with Paul Finebaum and the rest of the media. A six-point win over eventual 6-6 Texas A&M and a three-point win over eventual 4-8 Arkansas didn’t lend much cause for concern later in the season.  The Tide handled Tennessee of the east SEC as they traditionally do the following week.  After that, reports in the media prior to the Michigan game started to note that the next five games really showed improvement to boost Bama into the CFP mix. They did defeat always tough and talented SEC West foe LSU the following week, always a significant challenge annually. However, they annihilated 7-5 and suspect Kentucky the following week, 49-21, par for the traditional course over the dominant SEC basketball school.

Saban’s team improving?

The next two wins present major questions pertaining to the supposed improvement of Bama over the last five weeks of the season.  They thrashed FCS UT Chattanooga, 66-10. The media insinuated that the Tide improved greatly since that loss to Texas earlier in the season.  Really?  Would the result of these two games been any different had UTC been the second game on Alabama’s schedule and Texas as the tenth team instead?  Bama playing FCS schools annually to benefit the lower program’s finances is a farce.

These issues need to be addressed – pronto!

I have a better idea of how FBS programs can support FCS programs financially in my book, Fifty Years of Tailgate Tales: The Good, the Fun and the Ugly. As a matter of fact, I dissect scheduling solutions, transfer portals, NILs, and other factors used in manipulating ratings with solutions to level the playing fields among FBS programs. The details are in my analysis of how college football can be improved to make more programs more competitive.  Please check out reviews on the book page and link to buy my book on Amazon.com.

Under the rug

The next game won irked me even more though because the media just shoved this one under the rug.  In their traditional Iron Bowl rivalry, Saban’s Tide defeated archrival Auburn on the road, 27-24.  His QB Jalen Milroe pulled this off with a fourth and goal TD pass from the 31 to win with 32 seconds remaining.  Ok, great win over their big in-state rival.  Prior to Michigan game, I heard no one in the media refer to 6-6 Auburns’ loss the previous week at home to New Mexico State, 31-10.  SEC schools schedule games like that to pad records.  The media hyped Alabama’s improvement over the last five games based on wins over FCS UTC and downtrodden Auburn?

Auburn, Schmauburn

And based on my long-term connections, Auburn is my favorite SEC team. Florida State defeated more power five programs than NMSU did.  To add fuel to my fire, I attended the Music City Bowl here in Nashville. Maryland QB Talia Tagovailoa opted out for the game.  The Terps had two inexperienced QBs play against Auburn.  At the end of the first period, they lead Auburn, 21-0, on their way to a 31-13 win.  Bama’s victory over Auburn was a struggle against a very mediocre team in 2023. Yet, the media includes this among proof of Alabama’s improvement late in the season.  Talk about “smoke and mirrors.” The media is not smart, just deceitful.   

Smart learned well under Saban

In the SEC Championship, The Tide defeated East Division champ Georgia, 27-24.  Great win. The Tide did what they had to do.  What I will say about UGA, however, as an assistant under Nick Saban at Alabama, Kirby Smart was smart enough to learn under Saban. He definitely recruits at as high a level. He also schedules non-conference games in a similar manner: FCS UT Martin, Ball State, and UAB. Whacked most of SEC East with Mizzou giving them the toughest conference this season. Georgia Tech of the much-maligned ACC in 2023 even played them closer. Bama’s win put them ahead of Georgia and rightfully so.

Makes sense. Otherwise, why play the games?  Why don’t polls just rate teams after recruiting season based on potential to determine who plays for the CFP? Just joking, of course. However, many “experts” seem to put more credence into this than actual game results on the playing fields.  Reputations boost rankings.

A lesson in the new ways of college football

Don’t even tell me about that unwatchable Georgia-Florida State Orange Bowl. What a waste of time and money.  That “contest” epitomized what’s now wrong with college football.  Bowls aren’t what they used to be – rewards for stellar regular seasons. They’re now exhibition games consisting of inexperienced players replacing selfish quitters who opted out or jumped into the transfer portal after regular season ended.  In bowls, little used players now audition for next year’s squads before all the transfers come to campus lured by NIL money to take their positions. NIL money and self-preservation rank as priorities among today’s players.

Saban is the G.O.A.T. in this respect

In summary, based on Saban’s record at the pro level where he won less than 50% of his games and decided to dwell in his comfort zone where he knows how to outmaneuver his primary and selected competitors on the field, but where he gets to games where the talent level matches, his 9-7 record doesn’t exude dominance. He’s a Greatest of All-Time (G.O.A.T.) no doubt – not in gameday coaching per se, but definitely when it comes to evaluating, recruiting and attracting superior football talent.  It gets him to the top level over so many others, but when the field is leveled at the top, he shows a lesser result when it comes to game day coaching superiority.  When everything else is level in terms of his team’s talent, his coaching capability has been exposed.

As stated, he’s a smart man. Knows where he can gain advantages and that has put him at the top of college football history.  He knows how to play the pre-game process of college football more than anyone else.  That’s where he reins as G.O.A.T. Being outcoached is not new for him. That’s how this “Ant-Finebaum” sees it. If the playing field can become more level for more FBS teams during the regular season as I prescribe in my new book, maybe fewer programs would dominate like Alabama under Nick Saban, all-time recruiting leader, does today. 

Next!

We attended three bowl games this season which brought us up to 49! Will we ever plan to see a 50th? Things are up in the air. Having watched many bowl games on TV this season, are they really worth watching or even playing any more in this culture or quitters the NCAA is perpetuating? Look for more of my insight on this by Thursday morning.