What do we mean when we say, "he was our Bear"? 1. The best football coach in the history of the school. 2. A coach who stayed a long time, won SEC and national championships, and is viewed by the rest of the football world as one of the best ever, a legend in his own time, and forever after. If its 2, then we have no Bear. I'm going for 1. Its either Bernie Moore, who I know nothing about, Paul Dietzel who won the national championship in 1958, Charlie McClendon who was a very good coach in the 60's and an average coach in the 70's, Bill Arnsbarger who was an excellent coach in the 80's, or Saban. If I could pick one of those to coach a new team and build with, hands down, its Nick Saban. Best recruiter, best X & O's coach. Not best with the fans or press, but who cares. Our coaches with longevity didn't win national championships. The coaches with nat. championships didn't have longevity. I'll go with the championships and thank the coaches for getting them for us. Saban could have had longevity, we'd have given it to him. He could have won at least 9 games a year, and nobody would have been dumb enough to suggest getting someone else in. Some years he would have done better. Best football coach in the history of the school, Nick Saban. Saban is not a legend yet. Time will tell, but he has a shot to become one. He took a broken LSU program and build a championship team in 4 years. He looks like he has turned around Miami in his initial season. If he takes them to a super bowl win in 4 or 5 years, he'll be on his way.
