Good artice. Haunting quote about his love of Michigan State in there. It's clear that LSU should match the Bear's offer. I mean why take less money for the same job? It's a cruel world out there. Someone once told me, "Institutions will survive (LSU, MSU, the NFL), but sometimes individuals don't" Meaning, you can get fired or lose your job in a just a few years and unless you got some money in the bank what do you have to show for it. Never underestimate money and the drive to be comfortable and to make it. Ask any financial planner, there is a big difference between 4 million and 3 million! I hope he stays at LSU, but you can make life a little more comfortable for your great-grandchildren withn an extra million dollars.
Saban coy, still on fence Bears encouraged by waiting game By David Haugh Tribune staff reporter January 9, 2004, 11:51 PM CST Every hour the Bears go without hearing from Nick Saban this weekend, hope grows in step with his salary. He could end this quickly if he wished, take his $3 million-a-year bounty in the Bayou and live happily ever after. He could tell general manager Jerry Angelo thanks but no thanks and allow the Bears to get on with their search while he gets on with recruiting the No. 1 class in the country. But Saban has yet to say no, passing on several opportunities to do so, and league sources said Friday that Saban's reluctance to end the flirtation has encouraged Angelo. He remains hopeful a face-to-face meeting could come as soon as Monday, but none had been finalized as of Friday night, sources said. Saban has danced this dance enough to know the steps by heart, and he obviously likes the way the rhythm of the chase makes him feel. Last year, a source said Saban quietly poked around the possibility of coaching the San Francisco 49ers after they fired Steve Mariucci. He also met with Jaguars owner Wayne Weaver about the Jacksonville opening—within a day of issuing a statement professing his loyalty to LSU. This year, before the Falcons hired Jim Mora on Thursday, reports out of Atlanta said Saban had agreed to interview with the Falcons on Friday, a meeting made moot when owner Arthur Blank said he wanted "a coach, not a czar," and signed Mora. Then Thursday night, to offer the latest example, Saban told reporters at a banquet in Arizona that he would take a couple of days to consider whether to interview with the Bears. That filled fans in Chicago with as much optimism as they are feeling dread in Baton Rouge. Saban spent Friday in his office at LSU, meeting with players and coaches for their final evaluations. They hope it wasn't goodbye. The uncertainty of Saban's situation has made Angelo's itinerary so fluid that sources couldn't confirm whether Ravens defensive coordinator Mike Nolan would be interviewed this weekend. Not even Nolan was sure as of Friday night. It is believed the Bears have put the search in a holding pattern until Saban decides whether to interview. "Fans down here cannot understand why anyone would leave LSU for anywhere, especially after a national championship," said 79-year-old Paul Dietzel, the last LSU coach to do just that. Dietzel led the Tigers to the 1958 national title but left in 1961 to become the head coach at Army. He never regretted it, as much as Tigers fans tried to make him. "I never looked back because when my wife [Ann] and I decided to go, we were sure and I think Nick is the same way," Dietzel said. Dietzel is a friend of Saban's, having sat in his box at the Superdome for the Sugar Bowl. "When Nick Saban decides to do something, I don't believe he'll sit and say, 'I should have done something else,"' Dietzel said. "He'll think it through, and that's what he's doing. … I still find it hard to believe he will leave." To understand better where Saban may be headed, it helps to know where he has been. Two points in time, in particular, might provide a window into the complex mind that will be cluttered this weekend with thoughts of leaving LSU to coach the Bears. It was 1997, and Saban's Michigan State Spartans were in Honolulu preparing to play Washington in the Aloha Bowl. Rumors swirled that Saban was headed to the Indianapolis Colts for a bigger payday after the game. So in the Spartans' final team meeting on the eve of the game, he related a phone call he got from Everson Walls, a cornerback who played for Saban when he was the Browns' defensive coordinator. "[Walls] said, 'Coach, it doesn't make any difference how much money you make. If you're not successful, you never feel good about yourself,'" Saban said. "No matter how much fun we have here … if you don't have success, it's tough to enjoy." Saban wanted to make sure his team understood that no matter how rich the experience in Hawaii had been, it meant nothing if they lost the game. But those around Saban also thought he was trying to make a point shrewdly about the value of money in his future that he believed at the time. Fast-forward two years later to 1999. Saban still claimed that making money didn't matter to him as much as being appreciated. And, mysteriously to some, Saban felt unappreciated at Michigan State despite getting two pay hikes in five seasons and drawing a salary just below $700,000. So he enlisted agent Jimmy Sexton to look into the opportunity at LSU after a third party had contacted Saban on Thanksgiving Day to gauge his interest. Michigan State was a place Saban called home, and he would say later that "my heart was at Michigan State and with the people at Michigan State." But four days after LSU contacted Saban, he left East Lansing, Mich. In one weekend, Saban not only had changed his mind about Michigan State, he changed the course of two college football programs, and his career, forever. "There was a little bit of feeling that what I accomplished [at MSU] wasn't appreciated," Saban said at the time. "Maybe it's your vanity that gets to you after a while." It's interesting to note that Saban interpreted Michigan State's refusal to match LSU's contract offer as a sign for him to go. If Saban similarly interprets LSU's stated intention not to match any Bears salary proposal in the neighborhood of $4 million, Angelo may have his man. Copyright © 2004, The Chicago Tribune
