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ScriptOhio
Everybody is somebody else's weirdo.
As the New Year dawned, Bruce’s team was coming off a bowl win and his second straight 9-3 finish. But he had to do something because the bend-but-don’t break defense had made a habit for two seasons of given up record-setting days to opposing quarterbacks. And there had been too much breaking following the bending.
So, he had made up his mind to fire Fryzel and linebackers coach Steve Szabo.
There were many stories of what happened next, but I had good sources in the room that day that stated he had planned to keep Saban, when suddenly the secondary coach rebelled against the firing of his good friend Fryzel. Saban also resented Bruce for not letting Fryzel use a more complicated defensive scheme, involving blitzes and more press coverage. Saban stood and immediately erupted at Bruce, screaming expletives at him. Bruce, resenting what he deemed obvious insubordination, then fired Saban, too.
I will never forget standing in the hallway outside the football offices in St. John Arena, as Saban stormed out carrying a box of his possessions.
Many years later, I once asked Saban about that day.
Well, I have learned so much about being a head coach all these years later,” he said. “He had every right to do what he did that day and I should have handled it much better. I wasn’t the head coach. He was. And I didn’t handle it very well at all. I would have probably done the same thing if one of my assistants ever reacted that way. And when I look back at the mistakes I have made over the years and that was one of them.
But it set a new course for Saban’s career.
He then headed to Navy, the team the Buckeyes had just defeated the previous week, where a Midshipmen defensive assistant coach by the name of Steve Belichick had pushed for him to be hired as the secondary coach. There, he befriended Steve’s son Bill. One year later, George Perles hired Saban at Michigan State as defensive coordinator. He then tried the NFL as secondary coach of the Houston Oilers for one season and accepted the head coaching job of the Toledo Rockets. After one successful season, he then made what many believed was a strange move, back to being a defensive coordinator, but this time in the NFL as Cleveland Browns’ head coach Bill Belichick hired him. It was a friendship that often would pay dividends throughout Saban’s career.
He then coached the Browns to become the NFL’s top defense statistically before his biggest break yet, becoming Michigan State’s head coach in 1995.
Three years later, his Spartans upset No. 1 Ohio State 28-24 at Ohio Stadium, preventing John Cooper from winning what surely appeared would be his most likely national championship.
Saban then moved on to LSU, where he won his first national championship in 2003. Then he tried the NFL, coaching the Miami Dolphins to a 15-17 record in two seasons, before finally deciding college football suited him better. Then, after one week of denying the rumors, he took the head coaching job at tradition-rich Alabama, where he accepted the job as head coach of the Crimson Tide on Jan. 3, 2007.
The rest is nothing but championship history.
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ScriptOhio
Everybody is somebody else's weirdo.
Very impressive....probably the G.O.A.T. college coach, and that doesn't even count the one he won at LSU..
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OregonBuckeye
Semper Fi Buckeyes
I'm sure Saban is pissed about that being recorded but it's cool to get an inside glimpse into recruiting pitches
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OregonBuckeye
Semper Fi Buckeyes
Because he's a control freak. Have you seen him interact with the press? Not to mention it's inconsiderate to record a private conversation and release it publicly without someone's knowledge, regardless of what was said.
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sparcboxbuck
What happened to my ¤cash?
Totally. The only thing in his life that isn’t scripted is his daughter’s bar fights.
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Iron sharpens Iron. Saban uses that for his players, coaches, recruits and anybody else associated with the program. He's relentless and gives zero fucks when it comes to accountability. Thats why the bastard never loses.
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It's easy to give zero fucks when it comes to accountability when the kid you release is replaced by another 5star, a coach who's released is replaced by another disgraced former HC. Every program doesn't have that luxury. But I fully agree with all of your points, it's a great spot to be in for Saban. If your starting LB or OT isn't cutting, then boot him and replace him with an equally talented kid. Your coach isn't doing his job to what you expect, go through your rolodex and see what one of your buddies in the NFL or college is doing with their time after getting let go. The fact that he can get Doug Marrone to be his OL coach is only matched by the fact that a coach had the biggest win in his career over Saban and Bama, and now he's their freaking analyst(Sumlin)!
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ScriptOhio
Everybody is somebody else's weirdo.
He lost 16 times in five seasons leading the Spartans, which is one more loss than he's suffered at Alabama over the past 15 years
The consequences of building a legend vs. being born one is Saban will never own career marks like Most Wins or Winning Percentage. It was all worth the wait.
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ScriptOhio
Everybody is somebody else's weirdo.
Looks like Ramzy Nasrallah used Saban's MSU conference record (23-16-1) or his overall record at LSU (48-16) which was also for 5 years in lieu of Saban's the overall record (34-24-1) at MSU. He's definitely one of 11W's better writers, I really like his articles, etc. He's a member of Buckeye Planet, you should send him a PM accordingly. I'm guessing he would appreciate it and would like to correct the article.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nick_Saban
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