Trev Alberts' take on Saban

[bigsixfive 328]

What do you think of Nick Saban coming back to college football with Alabama?

From a football coaching perspective, there would probably be very few coaches that I have more respect for in terms of their football acumen and ability to lead a program than Nick Saban. I thought he was remarkable at Michigan State, where he had some adversity. I think he went to LSU and put that program back on the map, and I have no doubt in my mind that it will be just a matter of time before he's able to accomplish the same thing at Alabama. I cannot possibly overstate how terrific a football coach he is, and how terrific a hire and a coup that Alabama pulled to land Nick Saban.

All that being said, maybe I'm just "old school," a conservative Iowan, but it really bothers me when people lie, and say one thing and do another. I saw this thing unfold, and it was pretty clear, even when he was saying that he was not going to be the Alabama coach, that he really didn't squash the rumors. I'm thinking to myself, as a high school player, if a guy can't even be true to his word and have the character and courage to stand behind something that he said he would do, I guess it would concern me as a potential player, about whether I could trust anything that he told me.

My background is with Coach Osborne, and when he told us, "This is what's going to happen," that's what happened. If he told us this wasn't going to happen, it didn't happen, and he demanded and expected the same thing out of us. There's probably no more important thing I can think of as an individual than your personal integrity and your character in terms of meaning what you say and then standing by those things.

It really bothers me, but I also know that it's completely unfair for me to sit up on my moral high horse here and make judgments. I know that there's a lot more involved in making a decision, more than any of us know. I guess I'm getting old, but I'm glad he's back in college football, because it is not lost on me how absolutely terrific a football coach he is.

Why do you think Saban decided to leave the Miami Dolphins for Alabama?

You can talk about the lifestyle in South Florida, or maybe his wife, but in the end, winning is what's everything. That's why you coach: the feeling after the game when you look the kids in the eye and they just won. You can be a really good team in the National Football League, and you win nine and lose seven. You're not having many more feelings of great joy than you are of total despair.

The NFL was searching for parity, and parity is a great thing for the fans, but it's a terrible thing for people who are ultra-competitive, who receive most or all of their personal satisfaction from winning. Let's not forget that Nick Saban and Bob Stoops and Pete Carroll do what they do because they love the feeling of winning. I'm not saying that they don't care about the kids, because they do. In the NFL, winning is really hard, because everybody's good. It's a league built on parity, so the one thing that really motivates, beyond the money, is winning, the feeling that you get when you win, and it's much easier to attain that feeling of winning on a week-to-week basis in college football, because you can still have more control over the winning aspect. Whether or not there's parity is largely dependent upon you. If you do a great job of recruiting as a staff, you can have more talent, and you can win more. It's great for the fans in the NFL, but what hurts the NFL is that some of the coaches are going to realize that it's more satisfactory being a college football coach because the ultimate feeling that all of those coaches want is the feeling of winning, and it's easier to do that on a consistent basis in college football than it is in the NFL.

How successful do you think Saban will be at Alabama?

It's a very difficult job because there are just incredibly unreasonable expectations. They fired a coach who won 10 games two years ago, so you're not walking into a situation where it's going to be a lot easier. I think the pressure cooker at Alabama is a lot higher than it is in the NFL. But, Saban's in a good position, because they're coming off a year in which they weren't great, so obviously, he has plenty of time. I think he likes challenges. He's not afraid of the job and the pressure and the expectations at Alabama.

In the NFL, even if you hit the jackpot on your first-round draft pick, and he's a great player, that's just one kid. In college football, you have control over hitting the jackpot on, potentially, 22 kids a year. Let's not forget: Nick Saban's a great coach, but his biggest asset and why they won a national championship, was that he brought a tremendous amount of talent into LSU. They had Marcus Spears and Travis Daniels. They had some terrific defensive players. They had four stud running backs. He came as a recruiter, too, and the same thing will happen at Alabama. The one thing that you know you're going to get immediately, even with the talent that they have, is a terrific defense, but what they'll notice at Alabama over time is the recruiting will change drastically in terms of the level of talent. I'm not saying they don't have talent there now, but the level of talent will increase dramatically in a couple of years.

Does Saban's going back on what he had said in Miami mean that he's not going to be able to recruit? Of course not. These kids are going to go to Alabama because it's a great university and he's a terrific football coach. It's just going to be a matter of time before they're consistently top five again.

What do you think this move means in the grand scheme of things in the world of college football?

What'll be interesting to me is to see the domino effect now, as he goes back to college coaching. Many on his staff, if they're true NFL coaches, don't want to go back to college football. Obviously, the assistant pay in college football is much less than in the NFL, so does a guy like Will Muschamp, who was his defensive coordinator at LSU and is now defensive coordinator at Auburn, leave Auburn and go over to Alabama with Nick? It's not affecting just Alabama, it's probably going to affect more than just one SEC team.

There's been one circumstance that I watched happen during all of this process that I think some of the athletic directors across the country are going to have to pick up on. The Alabama job opened up, and there was a small little rumor that Alabama was interested in Tommy Bowden, and it never really got legs, because Terry Don Phillips, the Clemson athletic director, came out and said, "We will not be giving a contract extension or a raise to Tommy Bowden," and immediately, it was squashed. The minute a job of any substance is open, all of these coaches' agents quickly run out and get their clients as "potential candidates," and then those coaches are able to use that to get big money and big extensions. It didn't happen at Clemson, and if more athletic directors call the bluff, it'll make a difference, because they can't all go.

These college coaches are going to wind up making more than NFL coaches at some point. It's ridiculous. With all that being said, you can see the excitement, the incredible finishes we've had. You can see how high-stakes a game we're playing in college football, how huge a moneymaker it is and as Joe Castiglione, the athletic director at Oklahoma, said, "Bob Stoops is worth every penny that we pay him."

I guess that's the current environment that we're in, where coaches are making three-and-a-half million a year in college football, which is supposed to be an amateur sport, where coaches can up and leave in the middle of a season, and yet a student-athlete who decides, "It's not working out for me and I need a better opportunity," at minimum, they're sitting out a year, maybe two if it's in conference. It's probably a great day for Alabama, it's probably a great day for Nick Saban and his family, but I think some of the basic values that we all supposedly are supposed to be attached to probably took a hit.

And they dumped this for Lou...

[sogaaufan 27]

So, how long do you think it will take for a bammer to come on here and say "pine box"?

Seriously, he put more insight in that piece than Mark May and Lou Holtz did in their entire season on the air.

[AU_tiger_2000 0]

Very good and well thought out article. Gave credit where credit was due and still managed to hit the nail right on the head in the ethical dilemma department.

Personally though, Lou Holtz is probably the only person who could make me miss Trev Alberts. He was not my favorite ESPN announcer.

[The Prowler 1]

Man.........I do miss my Boy Trev, he would tell it like it was....No Matter What. And that, my friend, is why espn didn't want him anymore because they wanted a Puppet or two (ie Lou "I Have No Idea What I'm Saying" Holtz and Lee "I'm Going To Make A Damn Fool Out Of Myself, Because This Team Just Handed Me A 100 Roll" Corso).

[SouthLink02 8]

Trev had an obsession with UGA....I loved it

I miss him

Even South Carolina fans want Holtz off the air and he picks them to win every game

[WinCrimson 61]

If Trev Alberts has basic, conservative values, then Jesse Jackson is a real reverend.

Honestly, people can't stand that we fired their media darling boy and went and got a real coach. I'm loving the attention, though!

[AUslug 1]

If Trev Alberts has basic, conservative values, then Jesse Jackson is a real reverend.

Honestly, people can't stand that we fired their media darling boy and went and got a real coach. I'm loving the attention, though!

If you belive that, then wow here I thought you were one of the good ones.

[WinCrimson 61]

It's true... the national media likes the Shula family. I can see why. Don is an all-time great and they appear to be a well respected family with no blemishes. The media appreciates that, yet, has always hated Alabama.

Trev Alberts lecturing on basic values? Did he have "basic values" on his mind when he decided to not show up for work at ESPN in favor of a pity party instead? If Alberts gets to lecture about values, then Paris Hilton gets to go on a national tour promoting the benefits of abstinence. It's only fair.

[SouthLink02 8]

It's true... the national media likes the Shula family. I can see why. Don is an all-time great and they appear to be a well respected family with no blemishes. The media appreciates that, yet, has always hated Alabama.

Trev Alberts lecturing on basic values? Did he have "basic values" on his mind when he decided to not show up for work at ESPN in favor of a pity party instead? If Alberts gets to lecture about values, then Paris Hilton gets to go on a national tour promoting the benefits of abstinence. It's only fair.

What does Alberts leaving ESPN have to do with Hilton and other absurd things?

Seems like an obvious apples to oranges comparison

[WarTiger 3,925]

It's true... the national media likes the Shula family. I can see why. Don is an all-time great and they appear to be a well respected family with no blemishes. The media appreciates that, yet, has always hated Alabama.

Trev Alberts lecturing on basic values? Did he have "basic values" on his mind when he decided to not show up for work at ESPN in favor of a pity party instead? If Alberts gets to lecture about values, then Paris Hilton gets to go on a national tour promoting the benefits of abstinence. It's only fair.

The media has always hated alabama??? You've got to be kidding, right?? Have you even picked up a newspaper from anywhere in the state of alabama at any time in your life?? The state media honks so much alabama bobo they have stock in the napkin industry to wipe their chins...

[MDM4AU 336]

The media appreciates that, yet, has always hated Alabama.

This is rich coming from a Bammer.

[WinCrimson 61]

It's true... the national media likes the Shula family. I can see why. Don is an all-time great and they appear to be a well respected family with no blemishes. The media appreciates that, yet, has always hated Alabama.

Trev Alberts lecturing on basic values? Did he have "basic values" on his mind when he decided to not show up for work at ESPN in favor of a pity party instead? If Alberts gets to lecture about values, then Paris Hilton gets to go on a national tour promoting the benefits of abstinence. It's only fair.

What does Alberts leaving ESPN have to do with Hilton and other absurd things?

Seems like an obvious apples to oranges comparison

Alberts didn't like how things were going at ESPN, so he opted to stay at home from work one day and suck his thumb. He was fired because of it. Does the idea of just not showing up for work seem like a classy move to make? No. But, then again, apparently Trev "Holier than thou" Alberts is cool with it.

Like I said, if Albert gets to preach about "values" and other BS... then Paris needs to have a book deal on the "joys of virginity." Neither one of them have any credibility on the subject.

[SouthLink02 8]

Alberts didn't like how things were going at ESPN, so he opted to stay at home from work one day and suck his thumb. He was fired because of it. Does the idea of just not showing up for work seem like a classy move to make? No. But, then again, apparently Trev "Holier than thou" Alberts is cool with it.

Like I said, if Albert gets to preach about "values" and other BS... then Paris needs to have a book deal on the "joys of virginity." Neither one of them have any credibility on the subject.

Man your stretching for a comparison.

[AUslug 1]

Alberts didn't like how things were going at ESPN, so he opted to stay at home from work one day and suck his thumb. He was fired because of it. Does the idea of just not showing up for work seem like a classy move to make? No. But, then again, apparently Trev "Holier than thou" Alberts is cool with it.

Like I said, if Albert gets to preach about "values" and other BS... then Paris needs to have a book deal on the "joys of virginity." Neither one of them have any credibility on the subject.

Man your stretching for a comparison.

I agree, I think BP has gotten ahold of win's password. I guess if Trev lied and said he was not going to take another job then ends up taking said job then he would be A OK in your book.

[WinCrimson 61]

Alberts didn't like how things were going at ESPN, so he opted to stay at home from work one day and suck his thumb. He was fired because of it. Does the idea of just not showing up for work seem like a classy move to make? No. But, then again, apparently Trev "Holier than thou" Alberts is cool with it.

Like I said, if Albert gets to preach about "values" and other BS... then Paris needs to have a book deal on the "joys of virginity." Neither one of them have any credibility on the subject.

Man your stretching for a comparison.

I agree, I think BP has gotten ahold of win's password. I guess if Trev lied and said he was not going to take another job then ends up taking said job then he would be A OK in your book.

Not to revisit this tired argument, but your coach did it too. And no... he didn't specifically mention your name. I'll give you that.