Met CS this week in Atlanta. Man, is he wound tight. What is his relationship with the BR media like? I've been a fan of his and agree with many of his comments and coaching, even while at MSU, but he is almost too intense at times and I wonder if he'll alienate himself from some fans and boosters? Coach Perkins left Bama because of this type of scrutiny and cow-towing to boosters and the media and such.
I've felt the same way, meeting him twice at N.O. Quarterback club meetings. He's also kind of redundent, but his message is a good one, and tough to get through to young men. For some reason his light side seems to come through on Wednesday nights during "Tiger Sportsline". Maybe Hawthorne knows how to bring down his defenses...
Man, Coach Perkins seemed to go out of his way to piss people off. LOL. I have only seen Coach Saban once and thought he was a stand up guy but that was in the off season. Maybe the pressure is starting to show. He seems like a pretty intense person, I'm glad to see his no nonsense approach to coaching at LSU.
Intense is good I have never met a football coach who was not intense and driven to win. Guys like Saban didn't get to where they are now because they were easygoing. Is Jim Haslett intense? Jon Gruden. Was Woody Hayes intense? Bear Bryant? Sure Lou Holtz is a media friendly funny guy in a televised press conference but does anybody think he is any less intense than any other coach when it comes to doing his job. How would any of us be if we had a million dollar + a year job and keeping it depended on our week to week performance? In the words of another intense guy, Oakland Raiders owner Al Davis "Just Win Baby"
Nick is not a touchy-feely kind of guy, nor is he a smiley kind of guy. People who know him (and I'm not one) say that his normal taciturn expression does not reflect his moods and that he does have a keen sense of humor. He has always been VERY careful what he says in public forums, especially with the press. He works the alumni groups well and recruits excellently but he takes a businesslike approach rather than a humorous or patronizing approach. It seems to be successful. Like most coaches, he develops a friendly relationship with the sports media who follow the team every day and are seen at every function. He gets a little testy, as we saw during the Damien James episode, when hoards of strange reporters descend on a juicy story and start asking stupid questions, questions that have already been answered, or inventing controversial situations. Saban does not suffer fools.
I agree with most of ya'lls comments regarding Coach Saban. It is different from venue to venue. He seems so relaxed and nice and easy-going on the Wednesday night radio show, but he looks and sounds like a robot on the Sunday night TV show. Usually he's nice to boosters and regular fans and beat writers, but he did get testy during the James situation. I don't blame him though, it was a tough week for him. I'm sure he will chill out when we beat up on Kentucky next week. I'm sure we've all been like that whenever we've had a bad week. GEAUX TIGERS!!
