The "Saban Rule": Lazy Coaches of the World Unite!

Lazy coaches of the world unite. You have nothing to lose because you don’t work…

The AP moved a story tonight, which exposes the real reason for the “Saban Rule.” We’ve speculated for weeks the rule was all about punishing hard work. Guess what? Someone confirmed it.

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Minnesota recruiting coordinator Dan Berezowitz said the so-called “Saban Rule” limits the demands on “coaches who don’t want to work and evens the playing field with the ones who do.” He is eager for coach Tim Brewster to start using the Web cam once they’re sure it’s permitted by the NCAA.

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Les Miles and Phil Fulmer along with Nick Saban are using the Internet to aid in recruiting. And Auburn’s Tommy Tuberville?

This week, he doesn’t like it.

This AP story with contributions from sportswriters around the country showcases the technological divide in college football. Fulmer, Miles and Saban go into the “modern” category, and Tuberville gets lumped in with a dinosaur.

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It may be the new, new thing. But not everyone seems likely to embrace the technology.

Florida State’s 78-year-old Bobby Bowden is more at home with face-to-face chats in recruits’ living rooms. What about screen to screen?

“I can guarantee you Coach Bowden is not on a Web cam,” Florida State football SID Elliott Finebloom said.

Auburn’s Tommy Tuberville said he plans to stick to his strategy of assembling the Tigers’ coaching staff at his home on the first day of permitted contact and take turns chatting with each targeted player. Web cams aren’t in the game plan.

“I wouldn’t be interested in doing it,” Tuberville said. He said personal contact is the method he prefers. “I’ve talked to them, their parents, they’ve been on our campus. I think that’s what’s important.”

Besides, he added, “I’ve been recruiting these kids since the eighth grade. Hopefully, they know what I look like.”

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The “Saban Rule” and the teleconferencing stories just won’t die. Once again, Saban is the trendsetter in college athletics.

And Auburn’s Tommy Tuberville?

I think he and Bobby Bowden were sending telegraphs via Western Union. Or was it letters via the Pony Express.

Nothing like being in the 19th Century. I guess Tuberville is just keeping up Auburn’s traditions—recruiting like John Heisman