Link: CBS Sports: Best and Worst Coaches in Close Games Entering 2016

Very rarely, in college football, do in game decisions made by coaches make a greater difference than the ability to prepare a team before the games are actually kicked off.

IMO, this kind of stat is meaningless. It only points out the obvious: when you let your opponent hang around until the end of the game, you increase your chances of losing - no matter how great your coach or players are. You point out a coach who has a great W/L record in these games and I'll show you a coach whose teams under-perform too often, allowing the opponent to hang around and place the game at risk even though they are more talented.

I learned the Mark Twain popularised quote in a Stats Class at the Capstone: "There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics." It fits this article. Coach Saban's record at Alabama is 100-18 and 17-14 in "one score games." I hate articles like this.

There's a lot I can say (and will) but for the time being just remember....SIX of those one-score losses were in 2007.

SIX of them.

Best and worst coaches in national championship games:

Best: Nick Saban
worst: Everyone else

Good story as pertains to Nick Saban as a "game day" coach. So I was sitting at the bar at local pub one evening having a cocktail when this guy that comes in regular, but does not know me(though I knew who he was), was sitting a couple of seats away. He was waxing eloquent to his buddy about how Saban was a bad "game day" coach. I could not help but snicker and he noticed my reaction. Wanted to know why I was listening to their convo and I explained it was hard not to hear from 6' away; especially when he was saying something like that. So, he asked me if I really thought Saban was a good game day coach(this was not long after kik 6); I said anybody that has 4 N.C's (at that time) must be a pretty good "game day" coach . He would not agree; but I bet he does now after the masterpiece against Clemson. The guy was Dabo's stepdad.

Can someone explain this to me. During his time at Alabama he has won 101 games and lost 18 games... but in the article it said that and i quote:

Nick Saban 17-14 at the current school. So you mean to tell me he lost 14 close games at Alabama and 4 blow out games? Correct?

JustNeedMe81 said:

Can someone explain this to me. During his time at Alabama he has won 101 games and lost 18 games... but in the article it said that and i quote:

Nick Saban 17-14 at the current school. So you mean to tell me he lost 14 close games at Alabama and 4 blow out games? Correct?

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Close game is defined as a final margin of a touchdown or less (there are problems with that definition, but let's continue).

That means Saban has lost FOUR games at Alabama by more than one score (presumably eight points). Those games are:

2008 SEECCG Florida (11 points)
2009 Sugar Bowl Utah (14 points)
2010 South Carolina (14 points)
2014 Sugar Bowl Oklahoma (14 points)

In fact, a simple look at those final margins point out part of the problem with the article. Sure, Alabama lost to Florida by 11 in 2008. But not only were we the underdog, we HAD THE LEAD entering the fourth quarter. Tebow got the ball back leading, 24-20, and put the game away. Hardly a blowout.

The Utah game.....while we fell behind 21-0, we did get as close as 21-17 before folding.

The South Carolina game, we trailed 28-21 in the fourth quarter after falling behind, 21-3. Then Stephen Garcia led a seven-minute drive or so and put it way, 35-21.

And the OU Sugar Bowl, the score was 38-31 and we had the ball with 56 seconds left in the game. AJ fumbled and the Sooners got a TD and made it a 14-point final margin.

None of them were actual 'blowouts.'

bamagradinATL said:

I learned the Mark Twain popularised quote in a Stats Class at the Capstone: "There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics." It fits this article. Coach Saban's record at Alabama is 100-18 and 17-14 in "one score games." I hate articles like this.

Click to expand...

The only way to beat Alabama lately has been to keep it close and hope you make one big play late OR get a big lead early and hold on for dear life. The fact that Alabama has only had FOUR 2+ score losses under Saban (118 games) is incredible.

4Q Basket Case said:

Depends on how you define "blowout."

Under Saban, We have lost four games by 8 or more points:
2008 -- Florida in the SECCG by 11 -- 31-20
2008 -- Sugar Bowl vs. Utah by 14 -- 31-17
2010 -- at USCe by 14 -- 35-21
2013 -- Sugar Bowl vs. Oklahoma by 14 -- 45-31

In all those games, the better team that day won. But we were never really out of any of them until the last 5 minutes. I would make the straight-faced argument that we haven't been truly blown out during Saban's tenure.

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Even in 2007 we could've won every game played that season if you look at how the games played out...but they went 7-6 with some losses that should not have happened even with a Shula regime on the sidelines down the stretch.

rgw said:

Even in 2007 we could've won every game played that season if you look at how the games played out...but they went 7-6 with some losses that should not have happened even with a Shula regime on the sidelines down the stretch.

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After the Textbook Scandal broke......

4Q Basket Case said:

Depends on how you define "blowout."

Under Saban, We have lost four games by 8 or more points:
2008 -- Florida in the SECCG by 11 -- 31-20
2008 -- Sugar Bowl vs. Utah by 14 -- 31-17
2010 -- at USCe by 14 -- 35-21
2013 -- Sugar Bowl vs. Oklahoma by 14 -- 45-31

In all those games, the better team that day won. But we were never really out of any of them until the last 5 minutes. I would make the straight-faced argument that we haven't been truly blown out during Saban's tenure.

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Scores are one thing, but just remembering the games, I'd say that against FL we played a tough game but they played better and were probably overall more talented that year. I'd never call that a blowout.

But to be honest, we were a very indifferent team and played a very indifferent game against Utah, and I'm not opposed to saying we got whooped bad that day, even though on paper we should have crushed them. I think similarly about OU -- we played without passion and overall we were lousy and they put a smack down on us. I'd have to say those qualify as blowouts, albeit in games we apparently didn't care enough to compete.

The outlier here is the USCe game, where we were probably on paper the better team, had a reason to play hard, and still got beat by a lot.

LA4Bama said:

Scores are one thing, but just remembering the games, I'd say that against FL we played a tough game but they played better and were probably overall more talented that year. I'd never call that a blowout.

But to be honest, we were a very indifferent team and played a very indifferent game against Utah, and I'm not opposed to saying we got whooped bad that day, even though on paper we should have crushed them. I think similarly about OU -- we played without passion and overall we were lousy and they put a smack down on us. I'd have to say those qualify as blowouts, albeit in games we apparently didn't care enough to compete.

The outlier here is the USCe game, where we were probably on paper the better team, had a reason to play hard, and still got beat by a lot.

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Remember that USCe followed the emotional win over Florida in prime time the week before.....and then we got them all ready with an extra week.

That's a loss that still boggles my mind. Most of the others it's like "oh well," but look at their record that year. HOW did we lose that game?

selmaborntidefan said:

HOW did we lose that game?

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There's a popular bumper sticker that explains it pretty well.