Media and Saban in BR

How is the relationship between Saban and the local media?
I made a comment on the board that Saban should have mentioned the the Jag interview during his Baton Rouge is our home press release, but I think Rabalais put it in a little harsher terms.

Rabalais

 

Media "making" the news...

I tend to want to believe Saban. Rabalais seems to be trying to twist this into a bigger story than it is. We should accept Saban's press release. Neither he nor Emmert seem to be very upset about this.

Sometimes I think that "journalists" feel the need to justify their salary by sensationalizing stories. Once the truth (whatever it may be) comes out, they can C.Y.A. by saying whatever is necessary. They say what they say by hiding behind some line like, "it's my job to investigate the story further." Rabalais is painting this story with negative tone.

We're fools if we think that Saban wouldn't at least listen to overtures from the NFL...if only to gauge what he's worth in the market and get a raise. Heck, my latest raise came through a similar thing. My marketability had risen and my boss adjusted my pay accordingly.

As for Saban's relationship with the media...who cares about it? The media doesn't run the world of LSU sports. The fans do. It's his relationship with us that's important. We're not trying to make a buck off of some backstory like Rabalais is.

The point is, Saban's taken our program from the doldrums and put it back in the mix. That's the only relationship I care about in this. Saban as a coach...as long as he's here.

 

I thought the story was strange. That was why I was wondering if he had something against Saban.

 

Here's the Rabalais/Advocate story for those who didn't see it

<<< Saban should have said more

By SCOTT RABALAIS
[email protected]
Advocate sportswriter
01/18/03

It's been an interesting, convoluted week in LSU football coach Nick Saban's world.

Wednesday, he issued a statement saying he was "as committed to LSU as the first day I stepped on campus" as a response to the annual rumors tying him to just about every NFL coaching vacancy. It was a statement clearly aimed at protecting what is shaping up to be a stellar recruiting class.

One thing, though. One salient thing. Saban's statement left out the fact he met with Jacksonville Jaguars owner Wayne Weaver on Jan. 10.

Thursday, after national stories tied him to the Jacksonville coaching search, Saban admitted that yes, he talked to the Jaguars, but told them he wasn't interested. LSU Chancellor Mark Emmert said he knew in advance of the Saban-Weaver rendezvous but that their discussions were brief.

Exactly how brief no one has said. Saban characterized the meeting as briefer than the eight-hour marathon it was portrayed as on ESPN.com. That means anything up to 7 hours, 59 minutes is in the running.

Coaches are always trying to downplay these things, and Saban is more interested in information control than any coach I've ever met. I hear an echo from 1986, when LSU coach Bill Arnsparger returned from Florida at the start of preseason practice and asked, "What's wrong with talking?"

Three months later, Arnsparger resigned to become Florida's athletic director. Sometimes talk isn't cheap.

Back in Florida 17 years later, at a Friday news conference to introduce new Jaguars coach Jack Del Rio, Weaver made Saban's life a little more complicated. Weaver said he interviewed five candidates: Del Rio, Dennis Green, Mike Mularkey, Kirk Ferentz ... and Saban.

As someone who interviews people for a living, I can tell you an interview is different from a talk or a chat. It is a serious exchange of information intended to produce a result like a story -- or a hiring.

An LSU fan can choose to believe a host of things at this point. You can believe Saban when he said he talked, listened, but declined to "take the process further." You can choose to believe that Saban agreed, in the heated stretch run of the recruiting season, to kindly sit down with Weaver for however long it was to merely give him his opinions on who Weaver should hire. Or you can choose to believe, as some who cover the Jaguars do, that Saban finished third in the Jacksonville derby behind Del Rio and Mularkey, the Steelers' offensive coordinator.

Finishing third may not mean much when only one prize is awarded. But it does tend to mean you were running the race until the end.

Saban should not be criticized for his interest in the Jaguars job. Everyone has the right to better themselves career-wise however they see fit. I doubt that 20 years ago, when Saban was defensive secondary coach at Michigan State, that he thought of LSU as the last stop in his career.

More likely, he thought of a NFL head coaching job as the ultimate challenge. The ultimate prize.

But Saban is at LSU now, where his actions and decisions could nibble away at his credibility. Saban has painted himself into a position that could cast doubt on the rest of his days at LSU because it appears he only told the Jacksonville story to a certain point.

Saban emphasized that he and his family are happy here and that Baton Rouge is their home. Of course, to coaches, home doesn't mean what it does to you and me. Home is, in reality, the coaching profession. Your hometown basically consists of the office, the practice field, the stadium and the roads in between.

In other words, don't read too much into the "we love it here" line. The Sabans could have learned to love north Florida as much as south Louisiana.

No, Saban should have included some other verbiage in his Wednesday statement. He should have included a line that went something like: "by the way, I met with the Jaguars and while it sounded good, I'm not going there," all would have been well.

Instead, the man who is revered for his calculations on the football field miscalculated badly if he thought his meeting with Weaver would stay quiet.

Well, sloppily handled though it was, the matter is done. The Jaguars have their coach and LSU still has Saban, where he's winning and recruiting at a clip potent enough to satisfy most ardent Tiger followers.

As Saban might say, we're moving on. But before we go, consider this: Weaver's statement from Friday finally confirms what some have long thought about Saban: That no matter what he says, no matter how much he dances around the issue, he does eventually want an NFL job. A job with the right money and the right amount of control.

Saban might never get that job. And the inability to find it may leave him at LSU to coach -- successfully, in all likelihood -- for years. But one day, one interesting day, he will leave LSU the way he left Michigan State to come here. When an opportunity presents itself that is simply too good to pass up. >>>

 

Yeah, and now I have John Adams here in Knoxville. He still sucks. He does the same crap to UT. Not that I don't enjoy it some. I dislike him because until LSU improved (2000 season), he only referred to LSU as MPS (My Punk School). It really wore on me. I cancelled my subscription to the paper because of him. I sure miss The Advocate. At least they covered more than just the home team.

 

Columnists like Adams and Rabalais think it's all about them. They believe (or hope) that people pick up to paper to see what THEY have to say as opposed to WHAT they have to say. They are frustrated non-jocks who always pined for the head cheerleader only to see her going out with the star QB. They are punks. The worst one is with the Times Picayune. I can't even remember his name but his mission in life is to "expose" LSU athletics. The Lafayette Daily Fertilizer doesn't have any real assholes but that's because they spend all of their time fawning over Ricky Bustle and Jesse Evans, and providing daily updates on "former USL greats" Brian Mitchell, Brandon Stokely, Jake Delhomme, Hollis Conway,etc., ad nauseum.
There. I feel much better now.

 

<<< The worst one is with the Times Picayune. I can't even remember his name but his mission in life is to "expose" LSU athletics. >>>

That would be Wright Thompson, who ironically is no longer with the T-P. That guy could look at an ant hole and swear a chipmunk just crawled into it.

 

Good one.