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Odd Poll: Saban overrated?

Chukker Veteran

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There's a story in today's al.com feed that tells about a recent coaches poll. Saban was voted second most overrated college coach.
Hold on before your head explodes...it's not nearly as bad as you might think when you see the particulars. I've included the link, and it has a link to the original CBS story about the poll results.

When you look closely, it boils down to one guy saying Saban's quality players cover for an average coach. "Howitzer verses a musket" is the way one sees it.

But that misses the fact the recruiting is one coaching duty, and here Saban is the best. It's not fair to seperate the recruiting from the game prep and game calling.

http://www.al.com/alabamafootball/i...ome_pop?li_source=LI&li_medium=default-widget

I think what this article most clearly demonstrates is the length sports writers will go to find something to fill space while we are waiting for kickoff.
 
Chukker Veteran

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Intl.Aperture said:
If memory serves, I think we had another thread discussing this already.
Click to expand...
My apologies, I thought I had checked, maybe I missed it. Perhaps a mod will combine them, or zap this one away.
##########
Edit: I looked again, nothing on the last two pages of posts, and the al.com article I linked was new today.

The closest thing I could find was a discussion whether Saban was outcoached in champ game, but that's a little different issue.

https://www.tidefans.com/forums/showthread.php?t=287457

My original post may not be a dupe, I'll let the mods decide.
 
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B1GTide

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RTR91 said:
FWIW, Saban agrees with the poll...
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As a coach, Saban is probably correct. But as a college football program "CEO", he is the best of the best - probably the best to ever do it. If he has to share credit with players and coaches within his program for their success, he also has to receive exclusive credit for bringing in the right people in those roles to allow for the success. No program has ever had this type of success over this time period. That is all Saban.
 
Chukker Veteran

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RTR91 said:
FWIW, Saban agrees with the poll...


https://twitter.com/abc/status/899749218423717888

Click to expand...
From an old-timers perspective...Saban is following the Bryant tradition of never taking credit for anything good, and passing it on to the coaches and players under him.

I LOVE IT!

Another quality the two giants shared was the only time they take credit is when something goes wrong, covering and taking the heat off those under them.

That, my Tide fans, is leadership to be proud of.
 
Elefantman

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I don't think CNS believes he is a football genius. But he is a fantastic judge of talent and gifted manager of that complex organization: college football. It is his CEO talents not his X and O talents that have put him way ahead of the pack.
 
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Mystical said:
If all things are equal talent wise who would you guys say is the best coach in college football.
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I know it's bad form to keep bumping your own thread but heck, it's less than two weeks til kickoff and I'm just real excited.

So many say it's Saban's player's talent that gives him such a high winning average, but I'm not ready to discount his game coaching ability. I know the OC and DC call the actual game, but maybe the reader will know what I'm getting at. I think he's a very good coach regardless of the quality he has available.

I do remember his first season at Bama, when his record wasn't that good, but I think he was dealing with other problems in addition to perhaps not having as much talent available.
 
CrimsonTheory

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I don't think people who created that poll and the people who voted actually knows what the word overrate/overrated actually means.

Urban dictionary defines overrate as: A term used to describe something that gets more hype and credit than it's actually worth.

Dictionary.com defines it is as: to rate or appraise too highly; overestimate.

merriam-webster.com defines it as: to rate, value, or estimate too highly.

Under any version of the definition of the word, does this describes Nick Saban? Jim Harbaugh? Sure. Chris Petersen? Yep. Les Miles? Oh yeah. Kevin Sumlin? Yep. Tom Herman? We'll see. But Nick Saban?
If Nick Saban is overrated then I sure as heck do no want an underrated coach. I could see the argument that Saban is overexpose as a coach (it would be a stretch, but I could see that point from jealous other teams and fan bases)but overrated? All but Ohio State would dump their current head coach if it meant they could get Nick Saban? Is that overrated? Not at all.
Quite frankly, with the admit of dislike going around for Nick, I think Saban is closer to being underrated rather than overrated.
 
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I think that B1G nailed this one. I can think of a few coaches who probably do this or that element of the game better than Saban (though not recruiting and developing talent). And he is getting to the level where the talking heads are saying stupid things "he's ruined competition in the SEC, blah, blah, blah". Truth is, though, that for the whole package I cannot actually think of anyone who has done it better than Saban -- and I go back as far as Bryant, Hayes, Broyles, Wilkinson, etc.

He is certainly the best in the business right now and head and shoulders above more than 99% of those in the FBS. So, I'm not quite sure saying he is "overrated" carries the same meaning as it normally would. I can certainly pretty quickly name 5 or 10 coaches who are doing a lot less with plenty of advantages that probably deserve the overrated label more than Saban.

But just on the scale where (mostly less sophisticated) people are expecting him to pull the football equivalent of walk on water and feed 5000 with a few loaves and fishes, I understand the thinking. I've never heard of Saban, publicly or privately, describing himself as particularly terrific at anything besides recruiting. So I understand his thinking, too.

My challenge would be this: You know what you know today. Go back to 2007 and you can hire any coach in America to coach your favorite college football team. Who would you pick?
 
GrayTide

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So much is said on here about the legacy and tradition that is Alabama football as a major draw in recruiting. Is that legacy and tradition a result of luck in hiring Wade, Thomas, Bryant, Stallings and Saban? What about Perkins, Curry, Dubose and Shula? Were they just bad coaches or did the legacy and tradition not draw the type players the coaching legends drew to Tuscaloosa? Prior to Dubose, not much is known about the overall quality of the recruiting classes.

I know Perkins, Curry, Dubose and Shula each had at least one ten win season, was that coaching or was it having superior talent or both. IMO, with Alabama's talent since Saban, most any coach could have won 9-11 games easily in most seasons. So is CNS the difference in winning 13-14 games and 4 NCs or is it purely the talent he recruits and the staff he hires? IMO he is the difference.
 
CajunCrimson

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CrimsonTheory said:
I don't think people who created that poll and the people who voted actually knows what the word overrate/overrated actually means.

Urban dictionary defines overrate as: A term used to describe something that gets more hype and credit than it's actually worth.
Click to expand...
I thought the only words in the Urban Dictionary were

"I invented" and "I'm having chest pains"
 
rtcjny

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Just reading some old threads and came upon this. Saban ranked the same as Kiffin and where is Urban Meyer in the list.
Top 5 most overrated coaches:
1. Gus Malzahn
2. Kevin Sumlin
3. Jim Harbough
4. Urban Meyer
5. Brett Bielema

I know that the first two are getting a lot of heat but still overrated.
 
theballguy

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What CrimsonTheory says, overhyped aint the same thing as overrated. Besides, there's only one coach that's up there with CNS in my book: Urban Meyer. No one else is even close.

I get that Bama haters will say CNS is overrated but no objective fan of the game would ever even think that. If you want to blame CNS for being over-hyped, then go after the media.

I felt the same way about Tebow. He was a great player. Certainly over-hyped but that was not his fault. Therefore, I never felt Tebow was an overrated college football player.
 
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