It's the offseason, and I don't want to talk about white helmets or red pants.
So when that sad day comes and Nick Saban heads to Lake Burton, who do you think should be the next Alabama Head Coach?
There are no perfect options. Hard to believe it now, but even Saban wasn’t riskless when he was hired in 2007 – he had a reputation as being hard to deal with, and forever running to the next job. And there was that unfortunate incident where he said he wasn’t coming to Alabama, then did.
So who among a list of imperfect options would you choose?
Generally speaking, the best chance for continuing the success of a legend in any organization, not just a college football team, is to hire someone from within. Problem there is I don’t think anyone looks at any member of the current staff and says, “He’s the one.”
So the next best thing is someone who has been Sabanized at an earlier point, bought into The Process, and has proven he can execute it, having generated success on his own.
Only one name stands out to me, and that’s Lane Kiffin.
He’s an undeniably visionary offensive coach, a good recruiter, and coming around on the defensive side, at least enough to acknowledge that it’s a good idea not to give up 30+ points a game.
No, he’s not riskless. If he hasn’t matured out of the off-field shenanigans, he could embarrass us. And he still has a streak of smartass punk. Due diligence on his off-field behavior would be huge here.
Billy Napier is another possibility, though it’s too early to tell for sure yet. He took a struggling Louisiana Lafayette program and turned it into a Top 20 team in his third and fourth years…a promising beginning. But it’s not the SEC. We’ll have to see how he does at Florida.
In addition to alienating everyone he ever met, Jeremy Pruitt coached himself out of contention at UTe. Dabo is looking like he’s crashing and burning on a number of fronts. Jimbo Fisher is a good recruiter, but forever under-achieves his talent, and doesn’t win enough to overlook his grating personality.
I’m still not sold that Mario Cristobal’s success at Oregon wasn’t part Pac-12 weakness and part Nike money. Plus, I doubt he’d leave Miami. Similar with Lincoln Riley – not sure the source of a lot of his success wasn’t a weak Big 12 where defense is optional, and I don’t think he’d leave USCw. At least no time soon.
After Saban, the next best coaches in college football are Ryan Day and Kirby Smart, neither of whom do I think would leave their current gigs. Even though I acknowledge that they’re probably better coaches than Kiffin (certainly more proven), I don't think they're realistic options.
So I’m going with Kiffin. If due diligence discovers that he hasn’t changed his off-field behavior, just gotten better at concealing it, I’m going with Napier, fully understanding that he’s much more of a roll of the dice.
What say you? Disagree with Kiffin all you want, but if you do, please name somebody who would actually leave their current job, would be better than Kiffin, and why you think that.
So when that sad day comes and Nick Saban heads to Lake Burton, who do you think should be the next Alabama Head Coach?
There are no perfect options. Hard to believe it now, but even Saban wasn’t riskless when he was hired in 2007 – he had a reputation as being hard to deal with, and forever running to the next job. And there was that unfortunate incident where he said he wasn’t coming to Alabama, then did.
So who among a list of imperfect options would you choose?
Generally speaking, the best chance for continuing the success of a legend in any organization, not just a college football team, is to hire someone from within. Problem there is I don’t think anyone looks at any member of the current staff and says, “He’s the one.”
So the next best thing is someone who has been Sabanized at an earlier point, bought into The Process, and has proven he can execute it, having generated success on his own.
Only one name stands out to me, and that’s Lane Kiffin.
He’s an undeniably visionary offensive coach, a good recruiter, and coming around on the defensive side, at least enough to acknowledge that it’s a good idea not to give up 30+ points a game.
No, he’s not riskless. If he hasn’t matured out of the off-field shenanigans, he could embarrass us. And he still has a streak of smartass punk. Due diligence on his off-field behavior would be huge here.
Billy Napier is another possibility, though it’s too early to tell for sure yet. He took a struggling Louisiana Lafayette program and turned it into a Top 20 team in his third and fourth years…a promising beginning. But it’s not the SEC. We’ll have to see how he does at Florida.
In addition to alienating everyone he ever met, Jeremy Pruitt coached himself out of contention at UTe. Dabo is looking like he’s crashing and burning on a number of fronts. Jimbo Fisher is a good recruiter, but forever under-achieves his talent, and doesn’t win enough to overlook his grating personality.
I’m still not sold that Mario Cristobal’s success at Oregon wasn’t part Pac-12 weakness and part Nike money. Plus, I doubt he’d leave Miami. Similar with Lincoln Riley – not sure the source of a lot of his success wasn’t a weak Big 12 where defense is optional, and I don’t think he’d leave USCw. At least no time soon.
After Saban, the next best coaches in college football are Ryan Day and Kirby Smart, neither of whom do I think would leave their current gigs. Even though I acknowledge that they’re probably better coaches than Kiffin (certainly more proven), I don't think they're realistic options.
So I’m going with Kiffin. If due diligence discovers that he hasn’t changed his off-field behavior, just gotten better at concealing it, I’m going with Napier, fully understanding that he’s much more of a roll of the dice.
What say you? Disagree with Kiffin all you want, but if you do, please name somebody who would actually leave their current job, would be better than Kiffin, and why you think that.
