(tl;dr warning) Nick Saban vs. Les Miles: Should we pity Nick? Realtalk...

Charles Hanagriff started me thinking about this subject on the Eagle 98.1 Tiger Zone after the AU game. He made some great points about the contrast in styles between Les & Nick, & how those contrasts in demeanor & comportment trickle down to your teams. Off on a bit of a related tangent, he also went into what it means for your program & the men personally, in a broader sense.

He made some absolutely great points. Ones that make me wonder-though only for a brief moment-whether or not we should actually pity Nick Saban?

His reasoning was solid: Saban is an obviously great coach, known as a micromanager but obviously a proven commodity in that he's mastered the art of program building via that micromanagement. This obsessive and yes compulsive attention to detail yields great results, but it also renders him insufferable to many around him.

The stories of Saban's legendarily terse, rude, gruff, & generally dismissing attitude of the vast majority of people around him-from support staff to administrators to coaches and even players-are legion. The price of success that comes with involving Nick in your program is installing a man at the top of your program that has very little-if any-air around him at all. His aholishness (yes, its a made up word. Deal with it.) is matched only by his on-the-field accomplishments.

Hanagriff astutetly points out that this inner drive, this obsessive attention to detail is both what makes Saban great, and what creates this ahole persona. He went on to say that he'd almost feel sorry for him, if not for the incredibly terrible ways he treats everyone around him.

I agree completely. Some people might not think it goes to that level. Hey, aholes are aholes, y'know? But, what drives this point home for me is something that I'd consider totally unrelated yet very informative.

I recently watched a screening of the Ole War Skule-which is a must-see for all LSU Fans, by the way-and afterward, the director was nice enough to do a Q&A session. Some parts of the film & his comments after were very telling.

For starters, Nick absolutely must be mentioned in telling the tale about LSU Football's true return to the mountaintop of the collegiate football landscape. Love him or hate him, he played a huge role, and exacted a price some say is simply too steep in the process, in more ways than one.

So it was that Nick was included in Ole War Skule. The director was asked about how Saban was to work with. Like everyone interviewed about him in the film & folks who dealt with him while here, his answers were familiar: business-like, unfriendly, & exacting. The director went so far as to say Nick told them ahead of time that they could have 21.5 minutes to conduct the interview, & gave them EXACTLY that. 21.5 minutes.

What kind of a consumed, driven individual has his days planned out in such a precious and exacting manner? At first I laughed, of course. Then, I stopped and thought about Hanagriff's little editorial on how eaten up he is with this exacting, endlessly driven mindset.

Then, I stopped and thought back to Matt Mauck's interview in the film itself about Saban. He relayed how business-like he was, & in particular, a story about the immediate aftermath of the 2003 National Title season.

Mauck said that-while still at the SuperDome-Saban called both Mauck & Michael Clayton into a meeting room to have a private conversation. Mauck & Clayton were unaware of what was going on, but they walked in, closed the door, & Saban out-and-out asked them-right then and there, a half hour after winning a national title-if they were going to come back for 2004?

"He told us, 'I need to know right now if you plan on coming back'," Mauck said.

A half hour after reaching the mountaintop of that level of his profession, this cat is worried about the next year? Seriously? You can't enjoy it for half an hour, Nick?

That's when it hit me that Hanagriff is exactly right. Saban-if he weren't such a prick-simply cannot enjoy his successes. He obsesses about his failures, & simply can't stop for an instant to enjoy the fruits of his labor. A life lived in that manner is one I simply don't want.

Granted, its a formula that's meant success, and not just for him, either. But, at the bottom of all of this, I see him almost as a tortured soul. Constantly obsessed with perfection, success, & victory, & being driven slowly crazy by the realization that he can't enjoy it, even if he attains it.

Now, you contrast that with Miles. Do any of us know a guy that lives more in the moment that's in his station in life? Perhaps with the exception of Richard Branson, there's few guys I know that live life like a daredevil everyman, while reaching the pinnacle of success.

The guy embraces the situation. Lives in-and routinely enjoys the hell out of-the moment. Values simple things like family, laughter, & beach vacations. Visits the troops overseas, & rewards players-even those who've crossed him-with many opportunities for 2nd chances. His coaches swear by him, & he's created an oasis of top-flight accomplishment while allowing for human beings to be human beings.

A method that's foreign to Saban. Giving either one of these coaches the other's programs & systems and telling them, "go do it like this" would be like asking a 4 year old Russian kid to translate Tolstoy's War & Peace into Cajun French.

I think none of us would choose the Saban method for our children, friends, or family. Even though none can argue with the end result of the means he uses, seeing someone so totally unable to embrace the joys that success & accomplishment can bring is honestly sad.

This is why-for a fleeting second-I almost pity Nick. In his heart of hearts, I'm guessing he truly envies Les. Because Les has more than shiny baubles & a big house on the Lake or in Destin. Les has a life outside of the fishbowl that Nick cannot comprehend or ever hope to obtain.

Yep. I almost pity Nick. Then I remember what an a-hole he is, and who he coaches for.

Then I stop & think, "Life's a bitch. Then you die."

**I know, I know....tl;dr**