it is widely agreed upon that saban is a top-tier coach. his grasp on the mental aspects of the game is unparalleled, and he always gets the very best out of his players. however, one of the things that attracted him to LSU was the abundance of LA natives on NFL rosters. he figured he could assemble a powerhouse if he could keep those guys at home, and boy was he ever right. the great thing about recruiting is that these guys arent bound by contracts. if you recruit an RB and he's a bust, you can go out and recruit 2 more next year. it allows for more liberal personnel adjustments. you can get as many 5-star blue chippers added to your roster as you are capable of every year. that is somewhat like having unlimited 1st round picks (barring some complexities). that said, would saban be as successful in the pro's without the power and luxury of great recruiting? im not, at all, discounting his system. but doesnt it stand to reason that the strong recruiting was paramount in his success? would he have been able to do that with the same rosters that gerry & curley had?
Well, 2000 was an example of 2 coaches working with similar talent, although just like this year's team and last year's team they are not going to be the exact same. But I really doubt if Dumbardo would have had as good of a season as Saban did in 2000. Now, saying that, you have to think that saban really believes he can install systems which are not based on so much star power, especially on defense, as he knows he will not be able to get any player he wants. Also, I think that maybe he has a lot of faith in his ability to evaluate players and thinks he can outsmart the other personnel people in the league. John Madden said in one of his books that when he was with the Raiders they didn't belong to a group like most of the other teams did and he didn't read 40 times, vertical jump heights, shuttle times, etc., he just watched a lot of film and than liked to evaluate the players in person. And everything they did he wanted them in uniform. He also did a very good job of picking his players. Maybe Saban thinks he is the same as Madden, better than the rest of the guys at evaluating how good a player could become. Just a guess.
