Pulling the Tide Out of the Rough

Experienced Talent, Favorable Schedule Should Help Saban at Alabama

Nick Saban signed an eight-year, $32 million contract to become the Alabama head coach and drew more than 92,000 fans to the spring game. (Jason Harless - AP)

Nick Saban is the first one to admit his golf game is not the prettiest in the world. Sure, he can drive the ball nice and straight. But you get him within a short-iron shot of the hole, and it might be best to let the following group play through.

"Anytime I'm inside of 60 yards I'm horrible, so I hit a lot of good drives that come to no fruition for me in terms of positive performance," Saban told reporters at the Southeastern Conference's media gathering last month. "I'm a great scrambler, so when I hit a bad shot, I usually recover better because I'm in a lot of bad shot zones."

The great scrambler will be taking a mulligan on his football coaching career this fall. After two disappointing seasons at the helm of the Miami Dolphins, Saban returned to the collegiate ranks to take over the Alabama Crimson Tide. It took those two years to realize that college football is where he belongs, Saban said.

He appeared less than sure between late November 2006 and early January 2007. On Nov. 27, Saban addressed rumors he was leaving the Dolphins with "Why would I be interested in something else?" Eleven days later, he said of the Alabama job, "It never really progressed, because we just never let it progress." Finally, as his Dolphins were completing a 6-10 campaign, Saban said plainly, "I guess I have to say it: I'm not going to be the Alabama coach."

That came on Dec. 21. He flew to Tuscaloosa and agreed to take over the Crimson Tide on Jan. 3. So, following bad shot after bad shot, Saban did what he claims he does best.

"When I made those statements, they were true," he said. "I believed them. It was in the best interest of our team. We were going to protect our team and the players on our team every way we could from a loyalty standpoint."

The only problem was that hitch in his swing that kept producing bad shots. On the day he took the job, Saban told a group of reporters a story in which he used a phrase considered derogatory to Cajuns. On June 1, Saban laughed off reports he might have committed NCAA rules violations regarding illegal contact with recruits. Two weeks later, the Tide's backup quarterback, Jimmy Barnes, quit the team because of what Barnes's father described as excessive verbal abuse from Saban.

Saban's first eight months as Alabama head coach have not been all sand traps and water hazards, though. For starters, he signed an eight-year, $32 million contract. Then there was the Tide's spring game, which drew more than 92,000 fans to Bryant-Denny Stadium. Best of all, the season begins soon.

"I think probably the biggest misconception about me is I've never adapted very well to the position that I'm in," Saban said. "Sometimes the things I say mean a lot more than what I would intend them to be."

The position in which Saban currently finds himself is trying to turn around a program that went 6-7 last season. Starting quarterback John Parker Wilson said there were blatant differences between this offseason and the previous one.

"It's night and day," he said. "Practices are more intense, and there's just a different mentality now. Players know what to do, know what to expect."

What they can expect from Saban is a coach who, according to Wilson, will get up-close-and-personal to make his points clear.

"Players respond to that," Wilson said. "Everybody feeds off that."

With an experienced offensive line, individual talent dispersed throughout the defense and as generous a conference schedule as the SEC offers -- with the exception of Auburn, the Tide's toughest games are at home -- Alabama figures to be in the hunt for the SEC West division title. Wilson said during the five weeks last winter after Mike Shula was fired and the team was without a coach, the players grew closer.

They'll need to be Nov. 3, when LSU, the program Saban led to 48 wins and a share of the 2003 national championship from 2000 to '04 before bolting for NFL riches, visits Tuscaloosa. Saban anticipates the animosity the Tide's meetings with the Tigers will generate and said it is part of the reason why he returned to college football.

"We love college football because we like the spirit and enthusiasm of it," he said, speaking for himself and his wife, Terry. "We feel like we can impact and affect young people in a more positive way in college football because of their age.

"That's certainly what we wanted to finish our career doing, and that's absolutely what we're going to do. That's my story, and it always will be.

"Maybe we could have handled it a better way."

Saban is preparing to hit his approach shot now. It might be best to duck.