Nick Saban won his fifth national championship last night as a coach. It was his fourth title in the last seven years at Alabama. Saban has built a dynasty in Tuscaloosa but last night was proof that the dynasty that he has built is not strictly built on talent but coaching as well.
Saban and his staff proved last night that they are the best coaches in college football. It’s not about the pooch kick that Saban called last night, that’s not what makes him a great coach. It’s about the emphasis on fundamentals, it’s about positioning your players to succeed, it’s about the attention to detail. No program emphasizes those things more and no program gets more out of their players than Alabama.
Saban caught flack for hiring Lane Kiffin as his offensive coordinator two years ago but Saban saw a lot of himself in Kiffin. Despite the fact that Kiffin had burnt bridges in both the NFL and college, Saban saw a good coach who would be a good fit with him philosophically. The union has been perfect thus far. Alabama continues to win championships and Kiffin is rehabbing his image.
Defensive coordinator Kirby Smart coached his last game last night. He is taking over at Georgia starting today. Smart is a Saban disciple. When he got the job at Georgia, Saban could have gone in a myriad of directions with his defensive coordinator hire. He kept in the family. He hired former Alabama assistant Jeremy Pruitt. Pruitt is a rough around the edges kind of guy but he is a good coach and his approach is fine with Saban because he fits the Alabama way.
Alabama isn’t a power house program because they have the most four and five star recruits of any program in the country. Obviously that helps. They are the elite program in college football because they are well coached and they are talented. You can say what ever you want about Nick Saban the person but Nick Saban the coach is a tremendous leader and expects perfection from his teams. That’s why Alabama is on top of the mountain again. They do things a little bit differently than everyone else and the end result is championship success.