I read in that article that one guy was hired with the understanding he'll be able to recruit his native Louisiana. I don't know if I could recruit against LSU for a million dollars. I might be able to live with myself, but it would be hard.
Terry, Looking for “an ounce of truth” in sports writing is like looking for sympathy for Bama fans on an LSU board. Not going to happen. Just sit back and enjoy the ride because Saban will get bad press for himself and Bama from time to time for no other reason than the way he deals with the press. As any of us LSU fans can tell you, you’ll even get bad press if you win – there are still some sports writers that don’t think we deserved a NC. If you get upset every time you read a negative report on Saban and Bama, the next three or four years are going to be real long. But be of good cheer – after those three or four years when Nick takes his money and runs away to something else, thing will get back to normal at Bama.
Based on reading dozens of Melick’s articles back to when was with the Birmingham Post-Herald, I think he is a good writer with a pulse on college football as a whole. I don’t always agree with him, and sometimes he ticks me off like when he wrote It appears Saban has gotten under Miles' skin. But even though I don’t like or agree with everything he writes, I still think for the most part he is a good writer and I don’t see how you can begin to characterize him on the same level as Guilbeau. In no way, shape, or form is he an attention whore who intentionally writes inflammatory articles just to get people stirred up. That’s Guilbeau and Finebaum, not Melick. Now if saying that he doesn’t speak for Bamanation means that he isn’t a sycophantic, yes-man cheerleader, then yeah I agree with you.
Bama's new DC is really the only hire that stands out to me as being an excellent hire... and that was one area where I wasn't really expecting a big name. I figured Saban would go with a young guy he could more or less control, like he did with Muschamp. As for the rest of the staff, very respectable... I think the issue here is that when you are paying your staff more than anybody else in the SEC or country, people expect bigger names.
I used to live in Birmingham and he usually writes what he hears and believes. Kevin Scarbinsky and Cueball Finebaum are the writers who love to stir the pot.
Rumor has it that a woman in the Mobile, Alabama Mardi Gras parade was wearing a coon-ass on her head. :yelwink2:
I really don't know much about the assistants that Saban has brought in so I can't comment on the quality of his staff. I do know, however, that both Melick and Scarbinsky who write for the Birmingham News are idiots. I don't know many people that really pay much attention to either of them. Over the last 9 years of living here I think I have read one column that I agreed with. The rest of their rumblings are like what you get the morning after chasing down the Super Nacho Plate with a bucket of Pabst Blue Ribbon: A load of S***.
