College Football 2011: Nick Saban and 10 Other Coaches Who Deserve a Statue
After only four seasons in Tuscaloosa, Alabama head coach Nick Saban already has a statue in his honor.
Saban's bronze likeness outside of Bryant-Denny Stadium was unveiled last week to commemorate the Crimson Tide's 2009 BCS National Championship.
Now, Saban's rather expedient path to immortality at one of the great bastions of college football got us to thinking: who else, given their accomplishments at their respective universities, deserves a large hunk of bronze in effigy for his coaching contributions?
Not to diminish Saban's achievements since arriving in Tuscaloose, but certainly, there are coaches across the country who have spent more time at and have done more for their respective institutions than Saban has at 'Bama.
With that in mind, here's a look at what Saban did to earn the replication of his likeness, followed by 10 other coaches who are just as deserving of such artistically-rendered immortality, if not more so.
Nick Saban, Alabama
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So why, pray tell, does Nick Saban have a bronze statue in his likeness anyway?
In just four seasons in Tuscaloosa, Saban has revitalized the long-dormant Crimson Tide football program, going 43-11 overall while winning two SEC West titles and three bowl games, including the BCS National Championship in 2009.
Those accomplishments, notable as they may be, don't quite measure up to those of Alabama legend Paul "Bear" Bryant, who won 232 games and six national titles in 25 seasons as the Tide's head coach.
Now, if Saban sticks around for another 20 years or so, he just might measure up to the "Bear" eventually. After all, Bryant needed four seasons to win his first national championship, while Saban brought the crystal football back to 'Bama in just his third season while also grooming the school's first-ever Heisman Trophy winner in Mark Ingram.
And, if nothing else, having a statue made in Saban's honor is a relative drop in the bucket of the university's finances when considering that the real Nick Saban makes just under $6 million per year.
Les Miles, LSU
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Before Saban was immortalized in bronze at Alabama, he was busy winning games at LSU, where current Tigers head coach Les Miles has done at least as much with his teams as Saban has done with the Tide, if not more so.
In six seasons in Baton Rouge, Miles has compiled a record of 62-17 with five bowl wins, including a victory in the 2008 BCS National Championship Game against Ohio State.
What's more, Miles' Bayou Bengals are among the preseason favorites to win the national title for the 2011 season after finishing 2010 with an 11-2 record and a win in the Cotton Bowl.
Add to that the fact that Miles has twice rebuffed job offers from the University of Michigan, his alma mater and one of the pre-eminent programs in all of college football, and it's clear that he's just as deserving of some statuary of his own at LSU.
Urban Meyer, Florida
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And if Saban and Miles deserve their own effigies, then the University of Florida would be remiss to not carve a statue commemorating the glory of the short-lived era of Urban Meyer.
Meyer spent six seasons in the Swamp before retiring after the 2011 Outback Bowl, doing so at the pinnacle of his profession. He led the Gators to a 65-15 record during his tenure, highlighted by five bowl wins—two of which resulted in BCS National Championships for Florida.
For perspective's sake, Steve Spurrier, the legendary who predated Meyer, didn't win his one and only national title until his seventh season in Gainesville.
Furthermore, Tim Tebow, Meyer's main disciple and college football's foremost "Golden Boy" during his time at Florida, has a statue in his honor on the UF campus, so why shouldn't Meyer, his coach, garner similar respect?
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Gene Chizik, Auburn
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Of all these great SEC coaches, none quite managed to pull off what Gene Chizik has in just two years.
And no, I'm not referring to Chizik's ability to wipe away memories of hatred and disgust from the hearts of Auburn fans when he was hired back in 2009 after a miserable 5-19 tenure at Iowa State.
I'm, instead, attempting to highlight the fact that he brought the national title back to Auburn in only two seasons.
Keep in mind that Tommy Tuberville, the current head coach at Texas Tech and Chizik's predecessor at Auburn, led the Tigers to an undefeated season in 2004 but was denied a shot at the national championship when Oklahoma and USC were selected to play in the BCS National Championship Game at the Orange Bowl.
Of course, Tuberville was fired four years later, which is pretty much the exact opposite of getting your likeness cast in bronze.
However, because Chizik's undefeated season resulted in a BCS National Championship for Auburn, boosted quite heavily by the play of Heisman Trophy winner Cam newton, he, and not Tuberville, is likely on the statuary shortlist at Auburn.
Mack Brown, Texas
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It took Mack Brown six more seasons to earn his first national title than it took Chizik to earn his, though that does little to diminish the fact that Brown has earned the right to have a bust of his own at the University of Texas.
Thirteen seasons in Austin have netted Brown a record of 133-34 with eight bowl wins, four trips to BCS bowls and a national championship in 2006.
Toss in a Heisman Trophy winner (Ricky Williams) and another who would've won it had certain details come to light earlier (Vince Young), and you get a picture of a coach who's done more than enough to merit a life-sized souvenir with his face on it.
Bob Stoops, Oklahoma
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Combine the careers of Gene Chizik and Mack Brown, and you end up with that of Bob Stoops.
The current head coach at Oklahoma brought the national title back to Norman in just his second season as a head coach at any level and, in total, has guided the Sooners to seven Big 12 titles and eight BCS appearances in 12 years.
All told, Stoops—one of four brothers in a family full of coaches—has amassed 129 wins against just 31 losses, coached two Heisman Trophy winners (Jason White and Sam Bradford) with a potential third waiting in the wings in the person of Landry Jones.
And, like Les Miles' Tigers, Stoops' Sooners are a preseason favorite to come away with the 2012 BCS National Championship.
Now that's statuesque material right there.
Gary Patterson, TCU
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Texas Christian has moved up from conference to conference ever since Gary Patterson took over in 2001, or rather because Gary Patterson took over in 2001.
Since then, the Horned Frogs have won four conference titles—one in Conference USA and three in the Mountain West—while reaching the BCS in back-to-back years, beating Wisconsin in the most recent Rose Bowl.
All told, Patterson has led TCU to a 98-28 record in 10 full seasons in Fort Worth, building the Horned Frogs program into a national power that will be playing in the Big East come 2012.
Kyle Whittingham, Utah
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By departing from the Mountain West, Patterson and TCU will be leaving behind a budding rivalry with fellow conference powerhouse Utah, though the Utes will be doing the same now that they'll be playing in the Pac-12 starting in 2011.
The program originally came to prominence under the auspices of Urban Meyer, though it certainly wouldn't be in a BCS conference today had Kyle Whittingham not proved to be such a capable steward.
Whittingham saw Utah through to a victory over Pitt in the 2005 Fiesta Bowl after Meyer departed for Gainesville and has since led the Utes to 57 more victories in six seasons, including an undefeated campaign in 2008 that concluded with a Sugar Bowl win over Nick Saban's Crimson Tide.
For guiding the Utes into the big time, Whittingham certainly deserves a bit of idolatry in his honor.
Chris Petersen, Boise State
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The string of coaches who have their programs movin' on up continues with Chris Petersen at Boise State.
Petersen took over the booming Broncos program after Dan Hawkins left for his ill-fated tenure at Colorado and did what any coach would do—lead his team to a 61-5 record in five seasons, highlighted by two undefeated seasons and two wins in the Fiesta Bowl.
Did I mention that one of those Fiesta Bowl victories happens to be among the greatest bowl games in the history of college football—an overtime win over heavily-favored Oklahoma in 2007.
And to think, that was only the beginning for Petersen in Boise. Thanks to Petersen's coaching prowess, the Smurf Turfers spent most of the 2010 season in contention not only for a BCS bowl berth, but for a shot at the national championship!
Out of the Western Athletic Conference!
Sure, the program's switch to the Mountain West figures to be nothing more than a lateral move, but the fact that they're moving anywhere is a testament to how much further than his predecessors Chris Petersen has taken Boise State.
Chris Ault, Nevada
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Petersen can thank Chris Ault's Nevada Wolfpack for knocking his Broncos out of the BCS National Championship hunt.
Of course, Ault's legacy extends back much further, as he has been the head coach in Reno for 25 years, dating back to the Pack's days as an independent in Division II.
Since then, Nevada has moved up step by step, to Division I-AA, then to the Big Sky Conference and the Big West, and finally into the Western Athletic Conference where the program currently resides.
Along the way, Ault has won a remarkable 219 games and nine conference championships, enough to make him one of the three active coaches in all of college football who's already in the Hall of Fame.
Ault's sterling reputation has also been staked to his invention of the Pistol offense, which has helped to revolutionize college offenses since its inception in 2005.
Frank Beamer, Virginia Tech
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Has any coach been so successful and still so underrated as Frank Beamer?
The long-time coach at Virginia Tech has won 198 games since arriving in Blacksburg from Murray State.
One might point to Beamer's 1-4 record in BCS bowls as reason to keep him from being immortalized in bronze, though the fact that he's been able to reach so many high-profile bowl games, most of the time while competing for attention and dominance amidst the presence of conference rival Miami.
As such, Beamer has five times been named the coach of the year between the Big East and the ACC, seven times led the Hokies to a conference title, and once been named the national coach of the year—back in 1999, when he coached Michael Vick to the first-ever BCS National Championship Game against Florida State.
It's only a matter of time, then, until Beamer has a statue of his own outside of Lane Stadium.
.jpg?w=480 "Ohio State Team Doctor")
