Why Didn't We Hire Saban in '95?

Were you born retarded or did society make you this way?

Saban was a coach at Toledo just a couple of years before going to the NFL. He wasn’t even hired by any other major program. He was hired by MSU while they were on probation, so they were forced to take a risk.

DiNardo was an SEC coach that had made Vanderbilt from a laughing stock to respectable. They didn’t win a ton of games and he was a national champion at Colorado as their OC.

Had much more of a proven track record than a couple of years for Saban.

I don’t thin Saban is as successful at LSU if he took over in 1995.

Dinardo's last game at Vandy, he lost 65-0....LSU hired him anyway.

quote:

---

Toledo in 1990.

---

You are right, I always mix up where he played and coached the first time. My point is he had only been a head coach in college two years at a lower level team.

It didn’t mean he wasn’t great, but NFL coaches coming back to college wasn’t working out that great at the time.

Gerry and Nick are almost the same age. Nick began his coaching career 2 years earlier than Gerry.

Gerry has never coached in the NFL. He coached four seasons at Vandy but never had a winning season. Nick had been a DC in the NFL and coached Toledo one season (going 9-2).

So where's the big difference between the two? There wasn't any. If anything, Nick had a more well-rounded background than Gerry did.

Prior to Gerry (and in my lifetime), we had hired:
Cholly Mac - promoted from asst coach
Bo Rein - HC 4-years at NC State but tragically died in an accident before coaching at LSU
Jerry Stovall - stop-gap in the wake of Rein's loss but no prior HC experience.
Arnsprager - dismal failure as an NFL HC but an accomplished NFL DC.
Archer - no prior HC experience
Hallman - only 3 years prior HC experience
DiNardo - 4 years HC at Vandy with no winning seasons

Some had HC experience; some didn't. And some who did weren't very good at it. So there was no precedent to say we couldn't hire someone like Nick then.

But there was no great separation between the two or no precedent that precluded us from hiring Nick. So the question is a fair one. Maybe rephrase the question: why was DiNardo on our radar and Saban wasn't?

I think it was for the best the timing of it happened the way it did. I don't think as an athletic department they were committed enough to give Saban what he wanted/needed at the time of Gerry's hiring and it was also for the best for Saban to get major conference experience before getting here as well. Gerry brought back a lot of pride to the program even if his last couple of years didn't go well Saban had more to work with following Gerry than he would have following Hallman

Also not for nothing Gerry beat Saban in the bowl game in 95