I Want Your Honest Opinion!

you may want to learn what a coonass is before throwing the term around. i realize you may not be TRYING to stir shit, but you may be doing it inadvertantly.

a) its impossible for saban to be a coonass
b) a certain percentage of lsu fans would proudly refer to themselves as coonasses, so your first sentence implying you have no use for their opinions is probably a bad start.

I had no idea there was so much to the word coonass. Its pretty interesting to learn. I’m from south louisiana and never heard the term used as anything but an insult.

Anyway, Saban doesnt strike me as an X’s and O’s guy, but that wont necessarily keep him from being very successful with bama. What Saban does is sell the dream ridiculously well to high school kids. More likely than not, over time, his team will be the more talented team on the field. The guy is just good at recruiting. There is a lot more parity nowadays, especially in the SEC, and Bama is competing against some recent national champions. So, it will be a lot harder for him to do this, but I’m not betting against that guy over an extended period of time.

In stead of x’s and o’s, Saban is obsessed with process and progress. He is very driven, very disciplined, and very focused in getting the team to the next level, the next goal in his masterplan. Not by implementing some ingenious defensive scheme or what not, but by emphasizing fundamentals and eliminating mistakes. He’s very smart and knows x’s and o’s on offense and defense, but thats not his passion. He’ll get some very solid coordinators and defer a lot to them on those fronts. What you end up with him is a super talented, fundamentally sound, motivated group of kids with a solid gameplan.

Obviously, most if not all coaches strive for this, but Saban’s execution of it is what sets him apart.

I have to agree with most of the above, I think Saban is good with defensive X&O’s, and was smart enough to let his OC take care of the ball. He’s not touchy-feely, and some assistants get turned off by his demeanor. As long as he surrounds himself with coordinators who don’t mind his quirks, he will be tough at Bama (or wherever he is). As much as I wished he hadn’t gone to another SEC school (West at that), I can’t bring myself to hate him. After all, he brought us out of obscurity and you know the rest. He left the place in much better shape than he found it, and, realistically, you don’t see coaches hanging around the same school very long anymore.

I didn’t grow up in South Louisiana, but I had heard of the term coonass quite a while back. I never thought of it as a derogatory term, and never knew of any of those fine folks who were offended by it.

I wasn’t a fan of Saban when he got hired. I thought he was an overrated coach who hadn’t really accomplished all that much at Michigan St. Besides, he lost to Dinardo.

My opinion of him did change, national titles have a way of doing that, but I never did truly warm to him. I think he’s a guy who carefully has crafted a media image of himself as a coaching genius and he’s a bigger egotist than most coaches, which is saying something. I think he places the cult of Saban before the team. And considering he never sticks around at any location, I believe he’s not interested in managing a program. He wants to build it, and then get out. He’s like a high priced consultant.

This isn’t to say I think he’s a bad coach. He’s a great recruiter and he’s a terrific manager of the program. For a guy with such a massive ego, he reallly is comfortable with talented assistants and he gives them space to work (though he is demanding and expects results). He really is like a CEO, and that’s a real skill in today’s world. He’s not a great game day coach and his teams often play down to their opponents.

He’s a mixed bag. I don’t hate him, I just don’t buy his hype. He’s only had one great year, but what a year it was. He gets a lot of credit for rebuilding LSU, but I think it’s coming at the expense of Dinardo, who really did reopen the Louisiana pipeline, and Miles, who should be legally allowed to kill anyone who uses the phrase “Saban’s recruits.” To put it like this, Saban won with Dinardo’s recruits and Miles won MORE than Saban with Saban’s recruits. Saban is a tough coach and I think he’ll make Bama a legit threat in the SEC West. But I’m much happier with Miles.

I know Saban will just as quickly jump ship as he will stay for a while but i wonder something. Why would he leave Bama? Im not saying that because “Alabama’s is the shit or anything” but because what else could he want or where else could he go? The NFL won’t take him back and he’s already coaching in the greatest conference in America. He’s got full power over the program and people already treat him as a god, which feeds that ego that you spoke of. Im not being nieve to think he will never leave but im honestly thinking where would he go?

Oh and i haven’t warmed up to him either….i like the approach of a Pete Carroll. I love to see Pete jumping up and high fiving his players when they make a big play. Saban is not a guy who i would want to play for.