What coach out there has very similar background/experience that Saban had that Skip liked

Skip was coaching baseball at the time, Emmert hired Saban.

You need to find a coach at a mid-level P4 school that probably has just over a .500 record with a good year sprinkled in that consistently punches up out of their weight class.

If you look at Saban at MSU, he was:

6-5-1 (beat #7 Michigan)
6-6
7-5 (beat #4 Penn St.)
6-6 (beat #10 ND and #1 Ohio St.)
10-2 (beat #3 Michigan and #10 Florida)

You can see the building process and the ability to punch up with less talent. Then, when you have the talent, you see the results.


This is why people are high on Key:

4-4 (beat #24 Pitt and #13 UNC) (lost rivalry to #1 UGA 14-37)
7-6 (beat #17 Miami and #17 UNC) (lost rivalry to #1 UGA 23-31)
7-6 (beat #10 FSU and #4 Miami) (lost rivalry to #7 UGA 42-44 in 8OT)
8-0 (beat #12 Clemson so far)

I'm not saying that Key is the next Saban, but when you see a coach whose team shows consistent improvement and punches up out of their normal weight-class, it's usually a sign of good coaching.

OK but don't believe that Skip didn't have a major say so with Emmert since Joe Dean was the actual AD, but on his way out.

When Miles' 2007 team was in NOLA for the Championship Game with OSU, Bertman was interviewed on BR radio. He was asked how he landed on Miles. Bertman responded that he used the process he understood Emmert used to find Saban. Look for a coach at a major conference (to me, all jumbled up after all the realignments) at a second-tier football school in that conference, but whose team will "punch above their weight". Ok State beat OU 2/4 under Miles, and that was what got Bertman interested.

Sounds like a great strategy now.