Ex-LSU coach faces tough situation in rebuilding Dolphins. January 16, 2005 "The systems that we learned in the NFL, as far as size and speed and athletic attributes for each position and mental and psychological characteristics to be successful, are all things that we used in college." Nick Saban, Miami Dolphins coach By Glenn Guilbeau [email protected] BATON ROUGE -- Will Nick Saban succeed in the NFL like Jimmy Johnson or will he fail as previous mega-successful college coaches Steve Spurrier and Butch Davis did? Johnson won a national championship at Miami and two Super Bowls with the Dallas Cowboys. But both Spurrier and Davis resigned under pressure over the last two years from the Washington Redskins and Cleveland Browns after winning big at Florida and Miami, respectively. Spurrier was a head coach in the USFL and revolutionized Southeastern Conference football. He went 12-20 and left D.C in 2003 with his visor down, nearly as embarrassed as Richard M. Nixon three decades before. Davis, like Spurrier, spoke of Super Bowls upon his hiring. He won eight of his last 27 and resigned late in the 2004 season, finishing 24-36 and experiencing enough health problems to take a year off. Saban, like Spurrier, enters the NFL having won a collegiate national title. Like Davis, Saban turned around a program and enters with significant NFL assistant coaching experience. Why will Saban be any different as the Miami Dolphins' head coach? "I don't really know why it is," Saban said of the failures of Spurrier and Davis. "I only know how we do things and what we will try to do to be successful here." Saban, who frequently referred to himself as a personnel director while coaching LSU, apparently has been operating in NFL mode ever since his days at Michigan State when he first started turning down one NFL job after another. "If anybody can do it, he can do it, because he does EVERYTHING, and he knows everything about football," LSU Athletic Director Skip Bertman said. "I have always been a systems kind of a coach," said Saban, who was the Cleveland Browns defensive coordinator from 1991-94 under Bill Belichick and the Houston Oilers secondary coach from 1988-89 under Jerry Glanville. "We recruit in college like we drafted in the pros," Saban said. "I don't think many of these other coaches who went to the NFL actually did that. The systems that we learned in the NFL, as far as size and speed and athletic attributes for each position and mental and psychological characteristics to be successful, are all things that we used in college. Most people don't do that." Belichick, who has won two of the last three Super Bowls, still uses the Saban System. "Nick was absolutely instrumental in developing the criteria we use for scouting and drafting defensive players," Belichick writes in the foreword to Saban's book, How Good Do You Want To Be?, that has recently been released. "A large share of the credit for the Patriots' drafting of defensive players is a result of the player profiles we created in Cleveland," Belichick continues. "So enjoy this book, and pay attention: This is real wisdom from a true leader." LSU players Saban coached who are on the Patriots' roster for today's AFC playoff game against the Indianapolis Colts are defensive ends Marquise Hill and Jarvis Green, cornerback Randall Gay, linebacker Eric Alexander and quarterback Rohan Davey. Cornerback Travis Daniels, who will play in the Senior Bowl on Jan. 29, feels that he already has a jump heading into the league. "Randall Gay told me when he went to camp last summer that he didn't even have to take his playbook home with him at night," Daniels said. "He was telling the other rookies, 'Man, you guys busting your butt learning that? I already know it.'" Saban has not been in the NFL in a decade, but he unquestionably believes he has a jump on Spurrier, Davis and maybe many others. "Maybe I've approached it a little bit different in how we've coached college football, which may help us be more successful in the NFL," Saban said. "I haven't been in this league in 10 years, but something I'm looking forward to is learning the nuances that have occurred the last 10 years. But there are a lot of people who have a lot of experience who can help us know the competition. With every part of the organization, we want to try to be on the cutting edge with everything. In systems analysis, everything we do." Saban may also be the most NFL- connected college coach to ever enter the league. People he worked with in Cleveland and Houston remain all over the league in coaching and in front office spots. Two of his graduate assistants at Michigan State -- Brian Daboll and Josh McDaniels -- are the receivers and quarterbacks coaches for the Patriots. New England linebackers coach Dean Pees was Saban's defensive coordinator at Michigan State and may garner that title with the Dolphins. "He gives his players something they can really lash their teeth into, which allows them to play more aggressively," Pees said. "A lot of guys can draw Xs and Os. The question is what little things can you find to help each player at his position. That's one thing Nick's good at." Daniels said Saban should come out with his own DVD for how to play defensive back. "He does give us tapes, and if you just listen to them you'll learn how to play," he said. "I think Nick Saban is one of the finest coaches that I've ever been associated with," Belichick said. "I learned more from him than he learned from me when we were together in Cleveland. I think Nick has tremendous organizational skills and motivational skills with players." After all these years, Saban and Belichick will go head-to-head as head coaches in the same division. They've come a long way from male-bonding sessions at a small hotel at West Point. Belichick and Saban, who are 52 and 53, hit it off immediately when Saban was an assistant in 1982 at Navy, where Belichick's father Steve was an assistant coach. Bill Belichick at the time was already an assistant with the Giants. "Bill would come home in the summer and he'd hang around a lot with us," Saban said. "I got to know him pretty well. We'd talk football and mess around and stuff like that. From that relationship, wherever I went from there, he'd always ask about players and come work them out. Then we would meet about football. We'd even sneak off and meet when we weren't supposed to be meeting when we were both in the NFL." This was when Saban was with the Oilers under Glanville and Belichick was the Giants' defensive coordinator under Bill Parcells. >the rest here<
I posted that the other day but it was buried in another thread. It's well worth reading. http://www.tigerforums.com/showthread.php?t=24745
You have got to be kidding me. I was about to post the link when I saw this. It just came out in our paper today. The News Star sucks!!!
Not only should he hope that his system flies but he better pray nightly that it flies quickly as a losing record will not be met with a lot of faith from the fans
