Saban and Bama Don't Make Sense to Me

All this hype. A top 25 ranking. A huge coaching contract. But the Tide just do not make sense to me. In my previous articles I have relied on stat after stat trying to prove my points...this is where I change my swing and become an opinionated writer. Nick Saban obviously did not coach the Miami Dolphins very well but managed to broker a deal of mass proportions, putting him in charge of just about everything football related in Alabama. I mean the guy went 6-10 with the Dolphins the season before he split. He has a 15-17 record as an NFL head coach. Not very promising, you think?

He lucked into some bowl games because he happened to be coaching the LSU Tigers from 2000-2004. When he split on the Michigan State Spartans the end of November 1999 that should have been a hint.

Tell me college football is not political and has not been pushing the Alabama Crimson Tide to try and show a glimpse of the past when Bear Bryant used to run the show. They want the Crimson Tide to win! This is a team that went 7-6 last season. Ok, wonderful. They play in the same division as some of the toughest football teams in the nation, which on a good day I think could give some of the better NFL teams a hard time, but that just means that you have to recruit better people. Show that you have a program that is a program built around winning. You're looking for another Pete Carroll or Bear Bryant and you let Nick Saban run your operation? Nothing against him personally as a coach and businessman. If I could have done and brokered half the things he has then I would be sitting in the same situation he is, having some "know-it-all" sports fan write a column about how could this happen. I don't blame him for doing any of the things he has done so far. He has fallen into the right places at the right times with the right teams.

If I were able to vote on the polls, Clemson certainly would not have been number nine and Alabama would not have been in the top 25. I personally think that Fresno State is a better football team. I love their style of play, they have a few starters returning and felt they got bumped because of history instead of basing the rankings off the present. I could say the same about Michigan, but at least they weren't voted into the top 25. That is a whole other article though.

Flat and simple, I don't see the Tide winning a lot of games this year. I see them struggling to get above .500 just like last season. LSU is still good. Tennessee has built a good football team again. I do not see the Tide making it above the top 12, if that high. They may have just spanked Clemson. They have Tulane, ohhhhh scary, and Western Kentucky coming up. Well that is a tough schedule. The next week they have a McFadden-less Razorbacks team. On September 27 is when things will start making sense. They face Georgia, then Kentucky, then Mississippi. A brief break with Arkansas State the next week, then right back to the thick of things with LSU the following. Mississippi State and Auburn round out their schedule. The absolute best I see this team going is 8-4.

Nick, I hope you prove me wrong. Show us you are worth all those millions so guys like me writing for free don't have to spout off like this anymore.