Saban may shake up Dolphins' front office By Alex Marvez and Craig Barnes Staff Writers December 27, 2004 MIAMI GARDENS -- The strangest year in Dolphins history had a fitting atmosphere for the final home game of the season. While the Dolphins played Cleveland on Sunday night at Pro Player Stadium, the bigger news remained Louisiana State's Nick Saban's decision to accept Miami's head coaching position the previous day. It left lame-duck coach Jim Bates, players and the front office in the extremely unusual situation of having to play two games knowing major changes are coming as soon as the regular season ends Jan. 2. Saban will have total control of football decisions, which puts General Manager Rick Spielman in jeopardy of being fired or having his power within the organization greatly reduced. Spielman didn't return telephone calls and was unavailable for comment. Dolphins owner H. Wayne Huizenga said Saban will decide the fate of Spielman and Bates, who could return in his former role as defensive coordinator. "We talked a lot about Jim," Huizenga said. "He and Nick are good friends. I would hope that Jim would stay unless he has a chance to become a head coach, but the final decision will rest with Nick. "Nick said that he didn't know much about Rick, but he plans to meet with him a lot to see where we are personnelwise. No one has a better feel for our current personnel than Rick." Huizenga said he will fly to Orlando today to have Saban sign a five-year contract worth between $4.5 million and $5 million a season. An introductory news conference will be next Monday in South Florida. "We didn't come all this way just to fax [the contract] over there," Huizenga joked. Saban, who led LSU to a share of the 2003 national championship, is expected to begin full-time work with the Dolphins within five days of the end of the regular season. "Most of the guys we considered are coordinators," said Huizenga, who also interviewed Bates and former Oakland coach Art Shell. "Nick had been a coordinator, but he has also been a head coach for 11 years and won 70 percent of his games. He also had coordinator experience in the NFL. I thought that he was the best of both worlds, and he is an extremely smart guy." Former Dolphins coach Don Shula gave his support of Saban during an in-game interview with ESPN. Huizenga consulted with Shula before deciding to offer the job to Saban. "Wayne had a lot of coaches he was considering," Shula said. "He had college coaches, some pro coaches and some assistant coaches who might be ready to move up ... I think it was a good selection and a great opportunity for Nick." Huizenga said there was "no question" that he considers the head coach the centerpiece of his franchise. Huizenga compared Saban to New England coach Bill Belichick, who also has power over personnel decisions. "I'm not saying we're trying to model [after New England], but he's done a pretty good job," Huizenga said. "When you look around and see what's available out there, in my opinion, Nick is head and shoulders above a lot of other people ... We thought this was a fellow we really needed to have to take the Dolphins the next step." But the decision to give him complete control of football operations is considered a mistake by Chicago Bears General Manager Jerry Angelo, whose team unsuccessfully tried to woo Saban last season. "I think that's absurd," Angelo told the Chicago Tribune. "Desperate people do desperate things ... Teams win. Nobody's that good. Nobody. I don't care who he is. Everybody needs help. No one person is indispensable. If he is, it's not a good organization. "You only have to look around the league [to see] it's hard. Regardless of what your structure is, there are so many things. It's not seasonal. Your decisions are seasonal, but you have to spend all year for that season. And that's hard to do." Saban is expected to revamp the Dolphins' coaching staff, especially on offense. Longtime NFL assistant coach Jim Garrett, whose son Judd is a Dolphins offensive quality control coach, said he believes Saban will clean house. "Knowing Nick, he's very thorough and aggressive and tough in the way he coaches and he would probably favor bringing his own people," said Jim Garrett, who is familiar with Saban from scouting his players at Michigan State in the 1990s. "When you say someone has total control, they're under scrutiny every time a decision is made. If you don't make decisions, the owner will take over." Saban has said he will not be addressing the Dolphins situation further while coaching LSU in the Capital One Bowl. "Coach was his old self," LSU All-America defensive end Marcus Spears said Sunday. "I know that's what everybody wanted to talk about, but he's focused on this game. He's not too worried about the Miami job until he's finished with this game. "We had a feeling he was struggling with deciding to go or stay. I think a lot of guys are happy for him."
Nice touch by WH to fly to Nick today, sign the contract, then leave him alone for the rest of the week. I, for one, appreciate his understanding of Saban's need to focus on bowl game preparations. Friends or no, I think all Nick had to do was see how the McCaskey's jerked Dick Jauron around a few years ago to decide he wasn't interested there, but Angelo's irritation with Saban going to Miami is plain to see.
I have two words for Jerry DeAngelo: Jimmy Johnson. Nick has shown a remarkable work ethic while at LSU and by leaving the offense pretty much exclusively in the hands of Jimbo Fisher, he has shown that he knows his limitations. We've seens guys like Corey Webster, Devery Henderson, LaRon Landry, Jack Hunt, Marcus Spears recruited while they were playing a position other than the one they excelled at for LSU, so we know that he knows talent. My own purely speculative personal opinion is that Nick will hire someone to perform the GM duties, but he'll have the final say. I think he can win like that and I wish him luck.
