It was a joke for sure.haha.
The fact is that if you think Saban gives two rips about that garbage fire, you underestimate his targets these days. LSU and TAMU are the teams standing in our way. Florida, Georgia, and USC loom on the other side.
I stated on another thread that Malzahn's peer group for the foreseeable future is the Mississippi schools.....see who can get in the Independence Bowl. aTm has taken the place of both Arkansas and Auburn as a team that can get to Atlanta every 6 years. I do not know much about the Arkansas hire other than Wisconsin always looks pretty solid to me and seems to always be one of the more physical teams, so Arkansas should get back up to mid pack quickly after they recruit on defense a couple of years
If I was a coach, I would much rather follow a defensive minded head coach than an offensive one. The former takes longer to build but it is more solid, the latter can leave you in a real bind, as Smith found out. It can all come down fast.