Nick Saban going to 'Bama

Seriously, in the grand scheme of things…who cares if a coach says he’s not going somewhere and then does? Nick Saban is not the first coach to outright deny going somewhere in the middle of a season and then turn around and go. He won’t be the last coach to do it, either. And as long as Alabama or its fans don’t expect him to be around for 8 or 10 years, then there’s no problem. It’s already established that contracts or press-conferences are meaningless, so why so much scrutiny about THIS coach saying he won’t go.

I realize that he said that he WOULD NOT be the coach at Alabama, and maybe he should have said that he preferred not to answer – but which provides more stability to a team in the middle of a season? A coach that’s elusive about his answers or a coach that pounds the podium and points his finger at the reporters and firmly states that he did not have sex with that woman?

Is it a shameful thing that he wouldn’t even show up at his own press conference to announce he was going to Alabama? Absolutely. Is anybody surprised? Absolutely not.

The bottom line is that Alabama needs help. They Need recruits and they Need a good coach – and they WANT both right now. And with Nick Saban, they’ll be good right away with his coaching and they’ll be good for a while with his recruiting. They’ll use Nick Saban to get Alabama back to being what Alabama feels like they should be right NOW, and they’ll worry about maintaining that after he leaves.

But you have to say this – it’ll be easier to get a coach to come to Alabama after Nick Saban leaves than it is right now. So long as Alabama doesn’t do a lot of whining and crying when he bails in a couple of years to go coach the Detroit Lions or whoever, then I don’t have a problem with it. Coaches lie about whether or not they’re leaving. It’s part of football – college or pro. It happens – so don’t act like Nick Saban is the devil for doing it this time, but don’t act like he’s the world’s biggest traitor when he does it next time. People know how he is – and even if he truly didn’t want to go, it gets hard to say no when Alabama keeps throwing more money at him.