Full power.
It’s what Nick Saban wanted with the Miami Dolphins but didn’t get.
The Indianapolis Colts would be able to give Alabama’s head coach full power, which includes making personnel decisions, should they move Chuch Pagano and make a run at college football’s leading man, according to WTHR columnist Bob Kravitz.
Appearing on a podcast this week with Adam Schein, Kravitz speculates about the possibility of Colts owner Jim Irsay pulling out all the stops (primarily money) in his expected ‘big-game hunting’ effort to land Saban.
Many have suggested, including Kravitz, that Pagano’s time is running out in Indianapolis. He’s compiled three consecutive 11-5 seasons, but this year, the Colts are 3-5 in arguably the worst division in the NFL.
“Jim Irsay is going to make the next coaching hire,” Kravitz said during the podcast. “If he brings in a guy who demands full power — like, say, a Nick Saban, who I think he’s going to go after — if he brings in a Nick Saban, he’s going to have full power and that means that Ryan Grigson (Colts general manager) will either be kicked to the curb or he’ll have a different role in the organization.
“If he brings in a Pagano-lite, another offensive or defensive coordinator, I think that Grigson stays. So I think it’s really a 50/50 proposition at this point.”
Saban is college football’s highest-paid coach at $7.1 million annually, but Kravitz believes Irsay could shell out more in contract money.
As competitive as Saban is and the belief that he would want to make good on his mediocre, albeit brief, stint as an NFL head coach, leaving Tuscaloosa for Indianapolis doesn’t seem so far-fetched according to Kravitz, especially if full power is granted.
“Well I think that, you know, look: Jim Irsay is willing to pay the money,” Kravitz said. “He’s been willing to pay the money on players. I have no question in my mind that he’s willing to spend mega-millions on a head coach. Look, if they could give Nick Saban full power — and I fully believe that they are willing to do that — I see no reason why Nick Saban wouldn’t, because when you more or less fail at a job, you want so badly to get back in the game.
“(Saban) failed in Miami for various reasons, the biggest one being that he didn’t have full power. He wanted Drew Brees and he was told he had to take Dante Culpepper. If he had taken Drew Brees, he might still be in the league. So I think if they could offer him full power, and I think that they would be willing to do that, I could see him coming back in a heartbeat.”
(h/t SB Nation)
