Josh Moon compare Donovan and Saban.

[WAR-MATT 2]

Smash

Dishing dirt on dishonest, disloyal coaches

What's the difference between Billy Donovan and Nick Saban? There's no joke here, I'm just repeating a question I've been asked several times by the kind and not-so-kind Crimson Tide fans who have e-mailed me this past week.

(By the way, I've been getting a lot of these e-mails lately from you UA fans and I'm noticing a disturbing trend: No one seems to have any idea that there's a difference between "your" and "you're." Even got one from an attorney who had it wrong.)

Now, let me answer your question. The difference between Donovan and Saban is attitude. Donovan hasn't spent his years at Florida treating the media and pretty much everyone he's come in contact with as if their mere presence in his general vicinity upsets him. He's never tried to belittle reporters during news conferences. I've never heard of an instance in which he's publicly embarrassed another university employee for no good reason. And he generally acts like someone who's making an absolute killing doing something he loves.

That's why Donovan wasn't attacked.

If you don't treat people poorly, you don't get treated poorly. That's the way life works most of the time.

But enough of this.

If you people don't get it by now, you're trying not to.

This whole Donovan situation does bring up another interesting topic in college sports -- the increasing number of selfish coaches. No coach can sit still now. They're all griping and complaining about what they don't have. And they're all constantly threatening to leave.

These are the people who are the biggest influence on thousands of impressionable young people. And this it's-all-about-me attitude is what they're teaching.

It used to be the coaches who had this complaint as they described the difficulty of getting a 17-year-old to commit and stay committed. They used to bemoan the problems they had in trying to keep these kids happy. They used to talk about all the nonsense they were forced to endure to keep their star recruits loyal.

And then somewhere along the way, the coaches realized that the players were on to something. Suddenly, job security wasn't enough for them. The job became more about: one-upping the other guy by getting the better stadium, the better weight room, the better football facility, the best indoor practice field, the ritzy hotel reservations for road games, the best apparel contract, the biggest radio show bonus, the biggest TV show bonus, the best personal Web site and the coolest, most expensive "rides" this side of a rap video.

And you've got moronic boosters and spineless school administrators allowing it all to happen. It's hilarious to me to hear some of these coaches talk about commitment and loyalty. They can barely get the words out in between calls from their agents.

Look, I understand coaches want to advance their careers. If the New York Times calls me today, I'll start tomorrow. Everyone has career aspirations.

But the way some of these coaches are behaving is rather sickening. Look at Dennis Franchione. The guy hasn't seen a recruiting class graduate yet. Saban hasn't seen more than two of his recruiting classes walk the stage. Between them, they've coached at six different universities. And it's not just those two. There are dozens of other examples out there.

I don't get it. How can you tell a group of players that the only way you're leaving is in a pine box on one day and then ask another group of players to trust you the next day? The gall that must take is unimaginable to me. But then, it would take that much gall to ask a player who has spent his life living in poverty to turn down that envelope of cash, as you sit in your BMW trying not to wrinkle your $5,000 Italian suit. It would take that much gall for university officials, coaches and the NCAA to argue against giving players a percentage of the billions of dollars they haul in each year.

You hear people talk about the decline of the college athlete all the time. They see these football players with the braids, tattoos or wild haircuts and refer to them as thugs. They see a guy who jumps to the pros after a couple of years in school and they think of him as a moron who didn't care about a college education. College athletes, particularly football players, are held up by many as the shining examples of all that's wrong with college athletics.

But you know what's sad?

Those players are quickly becoming the only thing right with college football.

[BamaGrad03 0]

So is this another article that we can file under "Auburn fans will forget this one when they whine about the media being Pro UA"

[DKW 86 7,440]

Tou-freakin-che'

And yes I caught the line by Tuberville in there too.

But the paragraph about the two "Second Coming of Bear Bryants" made me laugh. Especially the line about CDF and CNS only seeing two classes between them graduate.

[AUChizad 0]

So is this another article that we can file under "Auburn fans will forget this one when they whine about the media being Pro UA"

Pay attention.

It's the al.com trifecta we have beef with.

The Advertiser is noble enough not to be associated.