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TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — It was the summer of 2011 and the University of Alabama was getting ready to host its first football game since the devastating spring tornado.
In terms of attention both that and the quarterback competition between AJ McCarron and Phillip Sims had understandingly overshadowed the opponent being Nick Saban’s alma mater, Kent State. Some stories were recalled and a few members of the Golden Flashes visited during the summer to help with rebuilding efforts, but there was really only one person who could put the right perspective on it, Don James.
So I called him. Believe it or not the legendary coach was listed in the phone book.
“He was solid, he was good,” James said about Saban, a quarterback turned defensive back for the Golden Flashes from 1970-72. “You could see he was trying to learn more about the game that just his position.
“Some coaches are just luckier than others and I was just lucky.”
If there’s one person who would appreciate Saturday’s matchup in the SEC Championship Game between Alabama and Missouri (4 p.m. ET, CBS), it’s James. Saban and Tigers coach Gary Pinkel were teammates in college and at one point they both worked for him.
“Gary and I have always been good friends,” Saban explained. “We were good friends in college. We also started out coaching together. I was actually one year ahead of him in school. He played as a senior when I was a first-year graduate assistant, then he became a graduate assistant. We actually were graduate assistants together, started out coaching together.
“I have a lot of respect for Gary and what he’s done in his coaching career. I think he’s one of the finest people as a person in our profession that I know. I’ve always had a tremendous amount of respect for him personally and professionally.”
But it was because of James that Saban got into coaching. Terry had another year to go in school and the coach offered him the GA spot. That’s when he figured out that coaching was what he wanted to do.
So did James know all those years ago that he was starting someone down a College Football Hall of Fame path?
Not even close.
“You can’t predict those things,” said James, who was inducted in 1997. A lot of it was simply right place, right time.
“He knew our system, our drills and our coverages. He could help with the guys right away.”
While Saban moved on and started climbing the coaching ladder — from Syracuse to West Virginia, Ohio State, Navy and Michigan State, not to mention the Houston Oilers and Cleveland Browns in the NFL — Pinkel followed James to Washington (tight ends 1976, wide receivers 1979-83 and offensive coordinator 1984-2000).
It was because of Saban, though, that he first became a head coach, based off his friend’s recommendation about who should follow him at Toledo in 1991.
The Rockets went 73–37–3 before he was hired away by Missouri.
“I know that Gary was exposed to the same things and actually was with Coach James for a lot longer, and I felt bad about leaving Toledo after one year, and I knew the best person out there for the program would be Gary,” Saban explained before Alabama and Missouri met for the first time in the Southeastern Conference, a 42-10 victory in 2012. “I was just happy that he got the job. He did a fabulous job there for a long time, and he’s done a great job at Missouri.”
In terms of coaching philosophy and approach, though, what Saban discovered during his travels was that James was way ahead of the curve when it came to attention to detail. Both coaches still use what they learned from him about how to run a program – like how to recruit, evaluate talent, add people who are a good fit, deal with players, develop prospects, academic support …
James laughed when I mentioned that Saban calls it “The Process.”
“I guess the thing that Coach James was, he was an organizational genius,” Pinkel said. “The detail of organizing every little tiny aspect of your football program, having a plan in place for everything, evaluate everything you do after you do it. I’ve been a head coach for 24 years now. We have an infrastructure in place.
“I would say that in itself is probably as important as anything I’ve done, I’ve learned from him. Not only having this detailed infrastructure, but constantly evaluate yourself to make yourself better and to learn, in everything we do. Those things are very invaluable to me as a head coach and our organization.”
Don James died last year from the effects of pancreatic cancer. He was 80 years old.
Saban said at the time: “We probably all have three or four really significant people in our life that you say that having a relationship with this person really impacted the direction of my life, the quality of my life, a lot of the personal decisions that I made and philosophically the way you live your life, the way you do your job. All kinds of things get affected by those people. Don James was certainly one of those people for me.”
“I’m indebted to him forever,” Pinkel said.
The Don James quotes originally appeared in an article published by BamaOnline in 2011.
Christopher Walsh has covered Alabama football since 2004 and is the author of 19 books. In his free time, he writes about college football.
