Alabama broadcaster Eli Gold discusses what keeps Nick Saban in college and away from NFL
Do you think Alabama head coach Nick Saban would ever jump back into the NFL? If you asked that question to Alabama radio broadcaster Eli Gold, the answer is clearly no.
The voice of Alabama football joined Pro Football Talk Wednesday to discuss the 10 former Crimson Tide players heading to the NFL Combine next week, as well as the current state of the football program. According to Gold, Saban would never return to the NFL for one very simple reason — he genuinely loves coaching and teaching young players at the college level.
“He loves what he does and this is what he is,” Gold said to PFT host Mike Florio. “He is a football coach. He is a teacher who is also a football coach. He teaches these young men how to be better players, how to be better people and that was the thing he didn’t like about the National Football League.
“Once he got the players in the NFL, they were who they were. You’re not gonna to be a coach and I just pick this name out of a hat so don’t take anything from it. But you’re not gonna be a coach in the NFL and change a Flozell Adams, he is who he is. Vince Wilfork, he is who he is. You’re not gonna come in and start changing guys, as wonderful a player as those two gentlemen are and were.”
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The other aspect of Saban’s job that he loves and wouldn’t be able to do in the NFL, recruiting, is also something Gold believes keeps the Alabama coach in the college ranks.
“I don’t care who you are if you enjoy getting up in the morning and go to work you’re gonna do better than the guy who’s going because he has to and he’s just putting in his time,” Gold said. “Nick Saban loves recruiting, loves coaching, he thrives on this stuff he really does.”
Recruiting is much more fun when you win far more battles than you lose, something only Saban has been able to say as a head coach over the last seven seasons. While Gold’s opinion is likely biased, he surely has more intimate knowledge than most when it comes to the Alabama program and its leader.
As far as Gold sees it, Saban will always be a college coach at heart.
To play devils advocate based on other articles I’ve read over the years regarding “how difficult Saban is to work for”, I would believe that Saban knows EXACTLY how he wants the program to run and has a plan each year to implode the that. With respect, he has been successful at that. In the ranks of the NFL, he was unable to run things the way he wanted and as a result, the program did not, nor could it ever, have the success he has enjoyed at the collegiate level. With nothing but respect to Saban, he can not “control” the program in the NFL the way he has in college.
Larry, you’ve hit the proverbial nail squarely where it counts: Saban MUST have control, virtually autonomous control, to run HIS program, and he’ll never have that breadth of authority in the NFL. After all his success at the college level, can anyone with a clear head seriously imagine Saban at age 65 bending to the wills of owners, executive Vice Presidents, or general managers; or enduring input from directors of football operations, directors of scouting operations, and others in the reporting hierarchy? Yes, Saban loves the art of coaching, recruiting and molding young men, and grooming assistants for the next step. But more than anything else Nick loves winning, and has come to realize his “process” is his own, and requires very little operational oversight to enable him to win consistently.
Implement, not implode. (Damn autocorrect)
“Implement that plan.” Not “implode the that.”
At Bama, Saban is the king. It’s good to be the king.
He can’t get an advantage in the NFL by maximizing his roster. He out-man’s college teams by out-recruiting. He’s an average coach when it comes to Xs and Os. I don’t care for Belichick, but he can coach circles around Saban.
Saying Saban is an average X’s and O’s coach is honestly one of the most idiotic statements I have ever heard in my life. If that is true, how did he make Alabama a 12 win team with only one of his signing classes in the system? How did he turn Toledo into a conference champion in one year? How did he have the number one defense in the NFL in Cleveland, giving up the 5th fewest points in the history of the NFL? How did he have a top 5 defense in Miami? Was that all out-manning teams by out-recruiting? Anyone who knows football recognizes that Saban is a defensive genius, and saying otherwise is simply ignorant.
You’re wasting your time. Weagle constantly bashes Bama and Saban. Save your breath. No reason to waste it on a Auburn fan.
You are correct, Saban’s coaching a lone is average at best. The truth is unlike what the Bama fans on here have said, only a person that doesn’t know football would think otherwise. Take Michigan St. for example, Saban’s coaching alone because he had to play with equal talent could only produce a 34-24 record with only 1 season with less than 5 losses. Basically the same thing in Miami, he couldn’t just out talent the other teams. His coaching alone only produced a 15-17 record. Now if Saban is this so-called defensive genis as one said, well than why hasn’t he firgured out a way to stop an elite spread offense yet ??
If he is this so-called great coach, well than why couldn’t he just simply out scheme everyone else when he coached at Michigan ST. and in the NFL so that he would have a better coaching record because he was having to play with equal talent as the other teams, right ??
Look no further than Eddie Jackson. I remember watching videos of Tide practices when Eddie was a freshman; he couldn’t do anything right and Saban rode him like a two-dollar horse. Now look at him. Eddie’s a beast and likely to go in the first round. I wonder what he has to say about Coach Nick Saban. RTR!!!
Eddie is not projected to go in the first round. Many have him going in the third round, due to his injury. He may still go in the second, but I’m hoping he falls to the Jags in the third.
Total control that’s what keeps him with the Bamtards
Hey, maybe Ole Miss will actually do something with all that talent and make it to the playoffs next year…oh wait, nevermind, that’s right, you guys can’t play in a bowl game because you cheated, my bad. Hugh Freeze will probably get canned and Ole Miss will once again go back to being a 6-7 team. Enjoy!
saban is a damn good college coach and he knows it.. he sucked as an NFL coach and he knows it.. simple as that.
I don’t think he sucked in the NFL, he just wasn’t anything special.
maybe sucked is too strong of a word… he blew…