You are not new to Saban, but you are sitting on the outside looking in when it comes to things happening with our staff and our school. The attempt at painting everything with a broad brush isn't going to work in this scenario. Like I said earlier, with Middleton, one of the reasons he left was the hours. The attempt to make this into a "Saban is an ass" is sad considering the problem with the hours revolved around Middleton's wife's battle with MS. It was one of the reasons Tampa let him out of his contract with them and one of the reasons he went to Duke with Cut. He's worked with Cut before, knew what was expected from Cut at Duke. His wife is getting better health care at Duke than she was going to get at UAB....better at UAB than she was getting in Tampa. I knew Middleton didn't like the hours he was having to put in from early on in the season. It's just one part of this whole story. One of these days, perhaps, you'll let your Saban hate go...
We can over-sign, but once we find out who qualified we cannot over-enroll. So, if 28 sign & qualify, 4 must grayshirt, which would mean they would not be on scholarship until next year and would count towards next year's class. I expect us to have, at most, 2 grayshirts.
I will not dispute that this coach had an issue with the hours that Saban demanded, as we know that he does require a lot of hours. However, without knowing anything about the situation specifically, I would emphatically say that Saban being a giant @$$hole didn't do anything to make the coach want to stick around.
I'm reminded of a story about Coach Bryant when I see these comments about Saban being an ass. Coach Bryant had called Auburn to discuss something and there wasn't anyone in the football office that morning. His comment was "what, don't ya'll take football seriously around there?" I bring that up for one point. Saban takes football and the program seriously. Does that get him the moniker of an *******? It seems so. Who cares? The story change daily. First, it was about the $ then it was about him wanting to return to college. Then, it developed in to the "he'll never be able to recruit at Bama the way he did at LSU." Now, that's changed because he's virtually closed the state down. Hell, Florida has more recruits out of the top 20 than what was supposed to be our rivals in recruiting. To use another quote, "he's an *******." Well, "he's our *******" and there are no regrets or doubts about it. Now, as to Middleton, I find this to be a disturbing conversation because the man was concerned about his wife and the hours he has to spend with her dealing with her disease. If the hours of a job conflicted with anyone taking care of their immediate family I would encourage and support a move if it meant having more time to focus on what is important to them. In this case, his wife's health. To paint it as Saban being an ass is out there, IMO. Sad, in fact, that one would throw things out there about him. If you have talked to Middleton you would have heard how impressed he was with Saban and how much he learned in just one year. FWIW, there could be as many as two more changes on the staff this year. And, I have no worries, none, about the changes. As demonstrated in his tenure at LSU he upgrades. In the 24 years Coach Bryant was at Alabama he changed coaches 59 times. It's not about the Asst's, it's about the guy at the head role.
7-6 buddy 7-6. Also, we don't think he's an a****** (did I get the write number of *s?) because of this guy leaving. We KNOW the guy is an a****** because we all know people in the athletic department that would hear him curse out student workers, trainers, players and coaches at the top of his lungs. And don't try to come back with some cryptive bs about this and that. I know that for a fact because a very good friend of mine was on the sidelines for every game and in the athletic department for the entire time he was there. Did we care? Hell no. He got us a national championship. But now that he's at Bama, we're gonna point out his weaknesses. Get over it. The guy is an a****** and anybody who denies that is burying their head in the sand.
We are in the same boat. You didn't care when he was there, we don't care now that he is in T-town. Those that bring it up as some sort of slam on him is what confuses me. A football coach that takes his job seriously and those that don't aren't retained. That's a bad thing?
Of course. Saban was a jerk at LSU and we just didn't care. He was winning. He turned over a lot of assistants and we just didn't care. He was winning. Some were let go for not getting the job done, some left because Saban was a jerk, some left for a better position. It should not be forgotten that Dinardo and McClendon lost their jobs for being too loyal to assistants that were not getting the job done. If the guy is winning he can do what he wants to. Nick can be a jerk and turn over assistants at Bama and why should they care? . . . as long as he is winning.
