The Bodda Getta

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jadennis said...

It's Nick Saban.

I've been thinking the same thing that panic posted earlier....

Auburn fans need to just get on board with the reality that Alabama is dominating college football right now. Does that suck to spell out that plainly? Sure. But it makes it no less true. Reality is what it is.

We can sit around here, and month after month, season after season, waste our time trying to blame everything from the REC and ESPN, to Finebaum, to the refs, or steriods....NONE of which explain away the reality of the success they are having.

Alabama has some built in advantages with their history and support within the state. But beyond that, they aren't much different than any of the other top programs like Texas, Ohio State, Oklahoma, USC, etc.

Blame the media? The media loves ANY team that is a big time name and is winning. They'll love USC, then Texas, then Alabama...it doesn't matter to them who it is. You have to win first to get the love. They can cover you all day and night and you can still suck (see Notre Dame). The media loving you doesn't guarantee victory.

Blame the REC? I know Auburn fans will claim all kinds of theories on that one...some true, some aren't, at least not these days. But don't we hear similar stories at other programs? They've been accused. We've been accused. Almost every other program has been accused.

The fact is, at the the end of the day, they get great recruits, just like Texas, just like Florida, just like FSU, just like Georgia....and often, just like us. That doesn't guarantee victory.

Steroids? Today's popular accusation. Anyone ever look closely at Michael Goggans? How about Mario Fannin? Trey Mason? Craig Sanders? Eltoro Freeman? Craig Stevens? Ronnie Brown? How about players from all the other SEC teams? I didn't see Alabama throwing around Texas A&M or LSU or Georgia. Just because Notre Dame fielded a JV squad last night doesn't suddenly mean Alabama must be the ONE team in college sports using steroids.

So what is it? Why are they winning?

Well, can we consider that it might actually be that Nick Saban is just as great as he seems to be? Can we manage to accept that he is very, very good at what he does? Can we just respect that he, as annoying as it may be, and as big of an ass as he may be while doing it, is very good at running a program that instills discipline, develops talent, maintains incredible focus, breeds "team" unity, and results in incredible success?

Why do we feel the need to make excuses? Are we that affected? Is our world so fragile that admitting and respecting their success would cause too much mental anguish, so instead, we have to rationalize it away and drag it down with excuses? Enjoy it? No way. Diminish it to make ourselves feel better? Lame.

Nick Saban got to Michigan State and found the program under NCAA sanctions in his second year due to violations from the previous coaching staff. He won 6 or 7 games each of the first few years, then won 10 his last season there (one of the four ever at MSU). His teams went 1-11 against ranked teams to start his tenure, but then ended 8-5 against ranked teams from there on out. He was 2-1 against Top 5 teams his last two years there. (that's 2 of their 10 all-time)

Saban arrived at LSU on the heels of 4-7 and 3-8 seasons. They went 8-4 in year one, 10-3 in year two. With three full classes under his belt, he went 13-1 and won a national title. (most wins in school history by 3).

Saban then walked into Alabama after they had been up and down, with lots of down, struggled to a 7-6 season to start, and has now rattled off a 61-7 record in the last five years with three titles.

If you combine all the coaches in the last 25 years at Florida, Texas, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Michigan, Ohio State, Georgia, LSU, Auburn, Tennessee, USC, Alabama, Penn State, and Florida State, you get 65 men who have led some of the best programs in history. 65.

There have been some great ones, like Bowden, Spurrier, Carroll, Osborne, etc. But out of 65 coaches at the nations best programs, for a five year period, there are only a handful that can even beg legitimate comparison with what Saban has done the last five years.

And it's NOT just because he's at Alabama. It's not because the media loves them. It's not because of steroids. It's not because of some favorable calls by the refs.

He's done what he's done because he's him. The others didn't do what he's done, because they aren't.

It's pretty much that simple.

And every Auburn fan breathing on earth would be better off to accept that reality and turn their focus and joy back to what Auburn football is doing, and not live our football lives wasting time and killing joy by making excuses for how Alabama hasn't actually been as good as they seem. (run-on sentence of the year so far?)

Like panic said in his post...it will end. And when it does, we should be so focused on Auburn football that we hardly notice.

War Eagle.

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whamil77 said...

I will agree with pretty much all of that EXCEPT....I really do not believe they are as good as they seem. aTm beat them at home much more convincingly than the score indicated. We all knew Notre Dame wasn't even close to being ready for Bama (or LSU or aTm or UGA for that matter). They are a very good football team. But it was a down year for college football in general. The biggest evidence of that is Notre Dame and Ohio State going undefeated. Neither team was very good. With eight new starters, Bama had a bone-crushing defense....except when they played teams with an offense (UGA, aTm). Ole Miss had one bad quarter against them (KO return for TD, 2 INTs on Bama's side of the field). Otherwise the game was very close.

Anyway, it's not as bad as it seems. We can be back in their faces much quicker that most would believe.