I thought CNS was the ONLY way to go. I nearly had an epileptic fit (hyperbolically speaking, no offense intended) when I heard on the radio that RichRod was hired.
I made my feelings known here in 2009. I think RR is the kind of guy who can thrive in the right set of circumstances that involves avoiding playing tough teams (Hawaii, for instance; Boise State). But I think he's in over his head and overrated.
When I heard Saban's name in the search, I put together why he MIGHT actually come here. I am NOT a salesman at all, but I had worked out part of it. I've said before that when LSU hired Saban, I thought they were out of their minds, that he was another "latest fad" like Hallman and DiNardo. Keep in mind he had just broken through at Michigan St, so I figured he was basically another Ty Willingham (as we found out - Ty ain't that good). I thought he was incredibly arrogant to go to LSU and actually negotiate a national championship salary clause into his contract.
Then he won it all.
So I figured we had a good product to sell:
1) We were coming off the major period of probation on February 1, 2007 (this was before Textbookgate broke, of course). This would free him up to put his own team together.
2) Despite what he had heard about our misguided fans, they simply wanted a winner. And Saban had to know we had the raw material. After all, Shula-DuBose-Franchione-Curry - each of them a coaching misfit - all won ten games at Alabama (Curry's was the most impressive as he went 10-for-10 before losing the 1989 national championship at Auburn; Fran and Shula got 13 games). And his having been at LSU, he had to know the fire we had.
Let me add something else. I am NOT a body language expert BUT.....go back and watch his "I'm not gonna be the Alabama coach" comments. Look at him - when I saw that report, my immediate thought was, "We can get this guy." His eyes looked like a guy who almost wishes he HAD taken the train out of Miami. He has a sort of smirk when he says it that reeks (to me anyway) of insincerity in what he's saying. Go compare all of his other interviews with that. Rather than the defiant and determined coach we all know, he looks like a mouse cornered. (Note: please don't take ANY of this as a criticism of CNS - if he left here this morning, I'd thank him and buy him a beer just for restoring pride to this place).
So I was for CNS. He is the ONLY coach that ON THE DAY WE HIRED HIM I thought it was the right move. Stallings won me over by winning, but I thought his hiring was a pending disaster. I thought Perkins a train wreck, Curry a joke, DuBose unproven, Unmentionable living off LT's great year at TCU, and Price an idiot. (I tolerated Shula ONLY because of the circumstances of his hiring - firing Croom would have been a PR disaster).
And I'm proud to say I was right. Sure, I was wrong when LSU got him - but so what?