TAMPA, Fla. — Alabama coach Nick Saban believes the worst thing a team can do is play bad and win. He used a famous play from his time at LSU in 2002 to hammer home that point.
“Everybody remembers the ‘Bluegrass Miracle,’ where they dumped the Gatorade on the other coach before the game was over, and then we hit the pass and win,” Saban said at Amalie Arena on Saturday. “We played horrible in that game. We played horrible. But nobody ever remembers what happened next.”
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Alabama beat LSU 31-0 the following week. That sentiment almost applies to Saban’s coaching career. He left LSU to go to the NFL for two seasons. Everybody remembers that two-year stint with the Miami Dolphins, a league where playing bad and winning is a little harder. That produced a 15-17 record: You can play bad and lose, too.
Only this time, everybody knows what happened next.
Saban became the most dominant coach in college football, and he’ll have a chance to add a sixth national championship to his collection when No. 1 Alabama (14-0) takes on No. 2 Clemson (13-1) in the College Football Playoff National Championship at Raymond James Stadium on Monday. That begs one question.
What NFL coach other than Bill Belichick wouldn’t trade places with Saban right now?
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Think of Saban’s college football career in NFL postseason terms. The Bowl Championship Series gave college football its version of the Super Bowl starting in 1998. Saban is 5-0 and playing in his sixth championship game in 19 seasons.
Imagine how revered a NFL coach with a 5-0 record in the Super Bowl would be. Pittsburgh’s Chuck Noll is the closest at 4-0, and he was the standard before Belichick.
Part of the reason there is more drama with this year’s championship is Clemson lost 45-40 last season. There’s a chance Alabama could lose. That’s the effect Saban has on the sport.
He’s a big-game coach. Add Saban’s 2-1 record in College Football Playoff semifinals and 7-1 record in SEC championship games to his title game record. That’s a 14-2 record in games that decide conference championships and/or national championships.
That’s why Saban is in those conversations with Bear Bryant, even if he insists Bryant is the “greatest coach that ever coached college football.”
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It’s the same conversation we have about Belichick in the NFL. He’s 4-2 in Super Bowls and 23-10 in the playoffs. He’s compared with Vince Lombardi, who finished 9-1 in the playoffs in a career that spanned the NFL championship and Super Bowl eras.
Bryant and Lombardi. Saban and Belichick. There’s no wrong answer.
The best part? Saban still benefits from those lessons he learned from Belichick in Cleveland from 1991-94. That’s where “The Process” started. Nobody remembers that either. What came next?
“I probably learned this most from Coach Belichick when I was with him at Cleveland,” Saban said. “I learned a little bit about it all the way through from some great mentors, but he was really a well-organized, process-oriented type guy, and was all about putting the players in the best chance to be successful.”
These are the greatest football coaches of all the time, and Saban is in that conversation. What other NFL coach is even close?
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Detractors will say the NFL is the highest level and other coaches such as Pete Carroll and Jimmy Johnson have won both a national championship and a Super Bowl. Carroll coached in two Super Bowls and two national championship games. He’s 2-2.
Which stage is bigger? The Super Bowl, of course, but the new College Football Playoff era offers that same winner-take-all stage with an expanded postseason, and there’s already a call for eight teams. That won’t be much different, and Saban is the coach everybody aims to beat. Just like Belichick.
Seriously, how many NFL coaches right now have anywhere close to as much clout as Saban? Why coach in a sport where you could win or lose — and look bad either way — and get in the playoffs? Saban chose to go back to a sport he knew he could dominate, and he took that to almost-impossible levels at Alabama.
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The NFL will always come up as a footnote, of course. One reporter asked about Miami, which will play in the AFC wild-card against Pittsburgh on Sunday. Other than keeping tabs on former assistants such as Jason Garrett or Adam Gase or the assembly line of players, Saban doesn’t look that way much.
“I'm happy for the Dolphins to be in the playoffs,” Saban said. “I don't necessarily follow the NFL.”
Nobody could blame him. He went somewhere where he could play well and win.
Everybody will remember that, no matter what comes next.
