re: From The Big House Blog

If you want to go off of Saban's performance at Bama, sure. However, he had plenty of games where he got out coached and was overly conservative in his tenure here. His 3 loss SEC title in 01 was backed into the same way Miles' 07 BCS title was. He had one dominant team, a great finish in 01, a solid building year in 2000, but a horrible season in 02 and a pretty mediocre one in 04, as well.

I guess many of you have also forgotten how Saban and Fisher handled the QB situation in 04, when Marcus Randal, who was only slightly better than Jennings, started over a more talented but not quite ready JR. And how about the never-ending revolving door of assistants, many of whom made lateral moves just to get away from Saban because of how he treated them.

Looking at Saban now, you don't see ANY of these things. His offense has gotten more wide open. His assistants are very loyal. He doesn't seem to be as much of a jackass. Despite early criticism, it looks like he handled his touchy QB situation this year pretty well. He keeps on winning big, no matter what.

Don't get me wrong. As a pure, pound for pound coaching talent, Saban is the best who has ever come through the doors at LSU. But in terms of success while here, his actual performance isn't any better than what Miles has pulled off. It isn't about what could have been if he had stayed. It's about what Saban actually did here. His performance at Bama has no bearing on that, which muddies the water. It's so different, and so much better in many ways that's it's easy to forget or gloss over the flaws in the past.