Most of us attribute the success of our football program to the genius that is Nick Saban...and rightly so. However, don't for one minute think that it's mere coincidence that all of this success is happening on Skip Bertman's watch as AD. I know that Nick was a Joe Dean hire, but Skip has provided the support Nick needed to get us to the next level...and likely keep us there. He's definitely a man who knows a thing or two about what it takes to build a champion. For a long time, one of the things that's held us back in this state is the "free lunch" mentality (fostered by close to a century of big oil revenue paying for everything) that we, as a population seem to collectively have. Recently, Skip has come under fire from a lot of people for whom this mentality dies hard. What they fail to understand is that this is the 21st century, there IS no free lunch, and that nowadays, if you want quality it has to be paid for. What they also fail to understand, is that Skip is not doing anything that any other AD wouldn't be doing to keep his department in the 21st century with the big boys...in fact, I think he's done a pretty good job at keeping the cost down (comparatively) fo the rank-and-file fan. So while we're cheering on Nick and the Tigers this weekend, let's keep in mind the guy that has the thankless job, and thank him as well.
