Earlier today I saw the thread about the Top 25 and a post about how the SEC had only one team in the Top 15. Is it possible the SEC is no longer considered the premiere conference in the FBS? And then I found this.
How Nick Saban's dominance impacted coaching futures of Mark Richt, Les Miles
Dan Wetzel
3 hours ago
Yahoo Sports
Each situation is unique, with many disparate reasons for finding itself in a state of tumult, but there is one item on every list across whatever plagues the (insert name) SEC program near you.
Nick Saban.
Alabama hired Saban in 2007 and by 2008 he had college football's modern-day juggernaut up and firing. He's won three national titles since while going for a fourth this season, will play in his in fifth SEC championship game Saturday against Florida and has gone 57-5 in regular-season play, including 35-5 in the SEC, over the past five seasons.
Essentially, no one can beat Saban's Crimson Tide, at least not regularly.
This is a key reason why Georgia and its longtime, highly successful and high-class coach, Mark Richt, parted ways on Sunday and why LSU tried to fire its longtime, highly successful and high-class coach, Les Miles, on Saturday (public sentiment forced the administration to reverse course).
Since 2008, Saban is 7-2 against Miles and LSU, including winning the past five, one of which was for the 2011 BCS championship. 'Bama's 30-16 Nov. 7 dismantling of previously unbeaten LSU this year led to the three-game slide that almost cost Miles his job, despite the Tigers being 8-3 overall. That Saban won the 2003 BCS title at LSU and recruited the upperclassmen that Miles won the 2007 title with, doesn't help.
Since 2008, Saban is 3-0 against Richt and Georgia, including one for the 2012 SEC championship, which was the de facto national title game since the winner got to play undermanned Notre Dame ('Bama throttled the Irish 42-14). Alabama's October domination of previously unbeaten Georgia led to the Bulldogs losing two of their next three games, essentially ending Richt's tenure despite a 9-3 overall record.
That Kirby Smart, Saban's defensive coordinator, is the favorite to take over in Athens is the most obvious sign of Tuscaloosa envy.
his would be an if-you-can't-beat-him-hire-as-close-to-him-as-possible move.
Richt and Miles are great coaches, future Hall of Famers who conduct themselves well, are beloved by their players, and yet neither is as good as Saban. Of course, maybe no one else in college football is.
The closest competitor is Ohio State's Urban Meyer, who battled Saban head-to-head for part of his tenure at Florida. He won two national titles – including in 2008 just as Saban got it going – but then struggled with the pressure of the job. Much of that was self-induced – Meyer is famously tightly wound and recruited way too many troubled kids. Some of that pressure, though, had to come from the reality of dealing with an immoveable object across the way.
Meyer's Gators entered the 2009 SEC title game as defending national champions on a 22-game win streak. Saban and 'Bama won. Meyer was hospitalized that night with chest issues and a few weeks later briefly quit as coach, only to return the next day, but never truly recovered. A year later he left for good, rematerializing in Columbus in 2012 – his Buckeyes beat 'Bama in last season's playoff.
The Florida program has floundered about ever since. Whether it's true or not, there's a perception that Saban at least played a role in pushing Meyer out. Saban gets his latest chance to humble Florida on Saturday in the SEC championship game, as 'Bama enters as a heavy favorite to advance to the playoff. Of course, the Gators are there, in part, because they hired Jim McElwain … Saban's old offensive coordinator.
There's more, too.
Auburn is on its third coach since Saban's arrival, always searching for his kind of stability, despite winning a BCS title in 2010 and playing for another in 2013. The Tigers are a combined 38-37 in the other seasons since 2008. They just finished 6-6, with coach Gus Malzahn promising another fix.
Tennessee fired its long-time, national-championship-winning-yet-old-school coach, Phillip Fulmer, after the 2008 season. He'd already been blown out by Saban's Alabama twice. The program has done little to nothing ever since. Three separate coaches have yielded a combined 43-44 record, with perhaps Butch Jones ready to turn the corner next year. We'll see on the third Saturday of October.
Essentially, Saban is the sun in which the entire SEC rotates around – everyone trying to find the solution to Alabama's relentlessness.
He's the key figure in the surge the conference enjoyed as the commanding league in college football, but eventually he's left the place with such insecurity that it has been gutted back to a level toward average. What was once the unquestioned top-to-bottom best conference in the country now has just one elite team – Saban's of course.
It's not that the Tide can't be beat – they've lost an SEC game in each of the past six seasons. It's that they don't crumble after they do lose.
Sure, Johnny Manziel and Texas A&M might step up and shock them once (2012), but the Tide doesn't fall off a cliff. Alabama still won the national title that year and have beaten the Aggies ever since – the past two with a combined score of 100-23.
There is a consistency, whether it is the play on the field or through racking up No. 1 recruiting classes on an annual basis, often with recruits from Atlanta, New Orleans and central Florida – the backyards of Georgia, LSU and Florida. That creates its own form of wistfulness.
Maybe if SEC teams were truly taking turns winning titles – national and league – it would be easier to handle others' success.
It's almost certain if Alabama were a little more "good" than "great" that both Miles (in 2011, where the Tigers had to have a rematch with the Tide in the BCS) and Richt (2012) would have recent national championships that would have extended their goodwill.
They don't, though.
So Georgia dumped a good man and a good coach on Saturday, for a variety of reasons but mostly because, despite a 145-51 record, he couldn't make the ultimate leap to the title. And LSU tried to dump Miles despite a 111–32 record, because he couldn't do it either since 2007.
Miles survived, but the soap opera will be difficult to rally from as rival coaches use the job uncertainty with recruits and everyone in Baton Rouge tries to figure out who is backstabbing whom.
As the smoke circles from all round the South, Saban stands in the middle, preparing his team for another trip to Atlanta, another trip perhaps to the playoffs and another national title. It's business as usual, the process churning along.
"To have the opportunity to play for the SEC championship against a very good Florida team is certainly an opportunity that this team deserves and worked hard for," Saban said while actually smiling Saturday.
"It will certainly be a challenge for us."
Florida scored two points on Saturday in a loss to Florida State.
Originally Posted by BetterSoonerThanLater
