By Will Vandervort.
By Ed McGranahan
The folks down at Alabama are facing a dilemma.
Everything at Alabama has Bear’s name attached to it; the stadium and the football museum, even the road to the front door.
They all made sense at the time. Nobody won more national championships, and Pop Warner had won more games when he retired.
Now that Nick has won a third national championship at Alabama, what’s left for him? There’s already Saban Sauce for barbecue, which he sells to benefit his charity. How about a stadium coffee shop, Nick’s Nook?
Alabama commissioned a likeness after the second national championship, nine-feet tall in bronze, and placed it along the Walk of Champions outside the stadium with those of Bear and the other three coaches who won national championships. One, Wallace Wade, reportedly of sound mind, left after winning three national championships in six seasons for a job at Duke.
Despite rumors during the season he might be lured back to the NFL, Nick isn’t going anywhere and shouldn’t. He makes nearly as much money as God and doesn’t have nearly as many people troubling him.
Occasionally somebody would compare Bear to God, suggesting he could walk across the Tuscaloosa River. At the very least he was an iconic figure under that houndstooth fedora. Nick usually doesn’t wear a hat during games. Bear was much taller. Nick coaches taller. Both cast equally long shadows, which is why coaches in Clemson, College Station, Columbus and Eugene are wondering what it’s going to take to get a statue or at least a coffee shop.
Clemson’s football history is inextricably linked to Alabama, the state and the school. It may be accurate to say that Alabama spawned Clemson football and has continued to nurture it for more than a century, so there’s more of a familial than collegial interest in Alabama football, certainly a respect for the program if not a degree of pride.
There’s always a tendency to emulate or attempt to mimic success, but other schools have passionate fans bases, comparable facilities and certainly better locations. Only Texas has more money, though Georgia, LSU, Florida, Auburn, Notre Dame, Ohio State and Michigan are in the same neighborhood, rather like Gates to Buffet and the Walton Family.
And talent abounds, though all Nick needs to do is open the screen door and chase away the flies on signing day.
What we saw Monday night was that if you give him a month to prepare, not only does the defense play at a championship caliber, so can the offense. It’s a no-nonsense, take-no-prisoners attention-to-detail approach that’s the contemporary model for ambitious young coaches.
When Kevin Steele came to Clemson from Alabama he occasionally talked about how Nick’s unflinching focus and how it trickled down to the staff. Nick was a friend long before they worked together, and ultimately that firm grip on the wheel led to Steele considering Clemson for relief.
Yet, how do you argue with his success? Three titles at Alabama, a fourth at LSU, in nearly the span of dog years. How to explain it?
Coaches will be fired next year because they aren’t Nick Saban. Fan referendums could probably bring down more after a few 10-2, 9-3 records. Fortunately it’s not solely in their hands.
Every college coach will start the season believing that with a couple of breaks they might be on the field as he goes for numbers four and five, but there’s only one Nick. Just as there was one Bear.
The stadium was originally knighted for the school president that built it, which is why he and Bear share the name, but he didn’t win a national championship.
While Alabama ponders what to give a man who seems to have everything, now that he’s conquered Notre Dame maybe Saint Nick would be appropriate.