LITTLE ROCK — After much consternation, it seems it is OK to respect Alabama’s head football coach, Nick Saban.
That doesn’t mean you have to like him or his aloofness. But considering what he has accomplished on the field since coming to Alabama, he has earned some regard.
The Crimson Tide have not lost a regular-season game in 1,032 days, or since Nov. 24, 2007. Since that date, Alabama is 27-2 overall (the losses were to Florida in the SEC Championship Game and Utah in the Sugar Bowl).
If you look at his body of work, especially in the SEC, all he’s done is win.
Still, this is the guy who had so many rumors floating around about his behavior while he was at LSU that some of the media started referring to him as Nick Satan.
A reporter once let that slip, and Saban asked him why he called him that. He was actually surprised.
Apparently, he also had never heard:
That his Michigan State assistants refused to come with him to LSU.
That John Thompson left LSU after a recruiting trip but before he ever was fitted for purple and gold coaching uniforms.
That secretaries had been informed not to speak to himunless spoken to.
That he was born on Halloween (1951).
That LSU was going to install a revolving door to the assistant coaches’ offices.
Then came Miami, where he openly misled the media about his interest in the Alabama job.
Until he won the BCS national championship last season, he seemed to treat the media - all media - as adversaries.
He did admit at the last SEC football media days that unless he gets coffee and Little Debbie cookies each morning, he tends to be grumpy.
Now, including one commercial showing him with a cookie, he’s getting almost as much face time on ESPN as Lee Corso, and it appears he has developed a professionalrelationship with some of the columnists and reporters.
It is almost as if the light came on and he realized that publicity helps recruiting, and that’s something he does really, really well.
Even though he got in the race late, his first recruiting class was ranked No. 10 in the nation. He followed that with two No. 1s, a No. 5 and his current one is ranked No. 2.
Which explains how the Crimson Tide could lose eight starters off last season’s defense and have the No. 9 defense in the country (Arkansas is No. 10).
If that isn’t enough, the Crimson Tide are No. 5 in team offense ,and Greg McElroy is the top-rated passer in college football. No need to mention Heisman Trophy winner Mark Ingram and Trent Richardson.
All of which might lead people to believe that the guy once tagged “Satan” seems to have eased up in his maniacal march to the top.
He may be the first coach since Bear Bryant to achieve almost universal support from the Crimson Tide Nation.
Of course, Saban and Bryant are the only coaches in SEC history to win conference championships at two schools.
Saban would have an .818 winning percentage (Bryant’s was .824), but he had to vacate five victories his first season for NCAA violations that happened before he arrived.
He and his wife, Terry, have contributed more than $1 million to charities through Nick’s Kids Fund since they arrived in Tuscaloosa, and they pledged another millionto the scholarship fund.
Saying he is respected in the world of Alabama athletics would be like saying Bear Bryant knew a little about coaching.
Saban was also the first to suggest the NFL Players Association get involved with the latest problems involving a few agents, and they have, asking all registered agents to cooperate with NCAA inquiries.
So he wins, does some good things off the field, and yet he will never be thought of as warm and fuzzy.
He doesn’t make it easy to like him, but he makes it hard not to respect him.
Sports, Pages 19 on 09/22/2010