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“Nick basically got the job by default,” Dean said. “We didn’t have a leading candidate.”
Posted on 9/7/21 at 6:09 am
Posted on 9/7/21 at 6:09 am
I've been wondering how LSU decided to hire Nick Saban. Back then I was living in Denver and as a CU graduate wasn't paying much attention to SEC football even though I grew up in Bama. And Saban hadn't exactly set the world on fire at MSU.
So after some googling, I found this great 2004 article from, of all places, the venerable Houma Today website. Turns out Joe Dean, who always has a special place in my heart as an announcer, and ultimate douche Mark Emmert backed into greatness.
Some quotes:
Gil Brandt probably knew about Saban from Nick's time in the NFL, plus a guy who knew Joe Dean from playing bball at Ole Miss and who owned some Taco Bells in Memphis with Saban's agent Jimmy Sexton called up Joe and and got the go-ahead for Sexton to pitch Saban to Dean...
...and voila, I guess Dean, Emmert and crew said what the hell, let's give Nick a try. Blows my mind that he's turned out to be arguably the best football coach in college history. He could have gone from MSU back to the NFL and eventually wound up on the coordinator circuit in relative obscurity.
2004 Houma Today article
So after some googling, I found this great 2004 article from, of all places, the venerable Houma Today website. Turns out Joe Dean, who always has a special place in my heart as an announcer, and ultimate douche Mark Emmert backed into greatness.
Some quotes:
quote:
“In ’94, when they hired DiNardo, the fans had a clear-cut favorite. They wanted Mack Brown,” said Hanagriff, speaking of the North Carolina coach who is now at Texas.
“There was no front-runner in ’99. There was nobody out there they really got behind and said, `This is our guy.' ”
Joe Dean needed help. He hired two headhunters: Chuck Neinas, the former Big 8 commissioner and executive director of the American College Football Association, and Gil Brandt, the Dallas Cowboys’ vice president of player personnel from 1960-89.
“Nick basically got the job by default,” Dean said. “We didn’t have a leading candidate.”
In other words, LSU got lucky.
Really lucky.
Sell-the-ranch lucky.
Championship lucky.
On Nov. 30, 1999, Saban, tired and unemotional delivered his first speech at LSU. Then he answered reporters’ questions with all the flare (sic) and passion of aluminum siding.
Almost immediately, the second-guessing began.
What about his so-so record at Michigan State?
What about his repeated flirtations with NFL jobs?
Is he really a players’ coach?
Why doesn’t he smile?
Gil Brandt probably knew about Saban from Nick's time in the NFL, plus a guy who knew Joe Dean from playing bball at Ole Miss and who owned some Taco Bells in Memphis with Saban's agent Jimmy Sexton called up Joe and and got the go-ahead for Sexton to pitch Saban to Dean...
...and voila, I guess Dean, Emmert and crew said what the hell, let's give Nick a try. Blows my mind that he's turned out to be arguably the best football coach in college history. He could have gone from MSU back to the NFL and eventually wound up on the coordinator circuit in relative obscurity.
2004 Houma Today article
9
Posted on 9/7/21 at 6:16 am to Diseasefreeforall
quote:
plus a guy who knew Joe Dean from playing bball at Ole Miss and who owned some Taco Bells in Memphis
That would be Sean Tuohy, who ended up being the adoptive dad of Ole Miss and NFL offensive lineman Michael Oher. They became the real life subjects of the movie The Blind Side. Your useless trivia for today.
This post was edited on 9/7/21 at 6:17 am
Posted on 9/7/21 at 7:36 am to Diseasefreeforall
Emmert made that hire Joe Dean was out the door and probably would have preferred the clerk from American Market because he was cheaper.
Posted on 9/7/21 at 8:04 am to Diseasefreeforall
quote:
what the hell, let's give Nick a try
It's almost always like this, really. The only two certain-to-succeed coaching hires I can think of recently (who actually achieved the expected results) are Nick Saban at Alabama and Urban Meyer at Ohio State.
The other recent greats
Dabo Swinney- WR coach who happened to be at the right place at the right time
Bob Stoops- Florida DC in the mid 90s (not known for defense)
Pete Carroll- then a lackluster NFL coach
Jim Tressell- very successful FCS coach at YSU
It's a complete crapshoot though coordinators to top-programs seem to fare worse in general and for every coach who did well with G5 schools who performs well at his next program, there's two guys who completely bomb
Posted on 9/7/21 at 9:00 am to Bama Bird
quote:
The only two certain-to-succeed coaching hires I can think of recently (who actually achieved the expected results) are Nick Saban at Alabama and Urban Meyer at Ohio State.
How many were complete failures? A lot.
Rich Rodriguez and Charlie Weis come to mind.
Posted on 9/7/21 at 9:17 am to Diseasefreeforall
I was 14 when we hired Saban and remember when his MSU team knocked off #1 Ohio State. I also remember announcers mentioning his name as a potential future NFL HC because of his ties to Parcells. I also remember some dickbag BR reporter asking him if he had ever had gumbo at his introductory presser and Saban giving like a 3 minute philosophical answer on having never tried gumbo and how that was likely to change now.
Posted on 9/7/21 at 9:22 am to Bama Bird
I would say
Petersen at Boise and UW
Holtz at Notre Dame
Stoops at OU
Mason and Kill Minnesota
Fitz Northwestern
All reached exactly what they were hired to do
The catastrophic failures are
Willingham Notre Dame and UW
Rich Rod
Hawkins CU
Riley NU
Any UCLA coach after Donahue to Kelly
Petersen at Boise and UW
Holtz at Notre Dame
Stoops at OU
Mason and Kill Minnesota
Fitz Northwestern
All reached exactly what they were hired to do
The catastrophic failures are
Willingham Notre Dame and UW
Rich Rod
Hawkins CU
Riley NU
Any UCLA coach after Donahue to Kelly
Posted on 9/7/21 at 10:07 am to Diseasefreeforall
Though it wasn't mentioned in that article, I had always heard that Saban rolled into that meeting and basically laid out how it was absurd that LSU was not a perennial Top 10 program given their per capita numbers of players in the NFL. From his perspective, all it would take is to build a wall around Louisiana and you'd have all the talent you'd need...while picking up a handful of additional players from the surrounding states.
And he was clearly all about that, because if you recall that 2001 recruiting class was the core of the 2003 championship team, and vast majority of talent was from Louisiana.
LINK
5 5 Stars, 4 from LA, plus Marcus Spears as a 4 Star and Rudy Niswanger as a 4 Star. Shy Carey was also in that class, but I'm not sure if he had to sit out that year or the year before and resign in 2001. Plus you had Ben Wilkerson (5) and Joe Addai (4) out of Texas.
And he was clearly all about that, because if you recall that 2001 recruiting class was the core of the 2003 championship team, and vast majority of talent was from Louisiana.
LINK
5 5 Stars, 4 from LA, plus Marcus Spears as a 4 Star and Rudy Niswanger as a 4 Star. Shy Carey was also in that class, but I'm not sure if he had to sit out that year or the year before and resign in 2001. Plus you had Ben Wilkerson (5) and Joe Addai (4) out of Texas.
Posted on 9/7/21 at 10:11 am to sms151t
quote:
The catastrophic failures are
Rich Rod
If he stayed at WVU he wouldn't be on this list.
Posted on 9/7/21 at 10:18 am to Dawgwithnoname
I’m not sure how much success he would have continued to have at WVU though I agree he would have been better off there than Michigan.
Putting a guy like him who believed in a “speed kills” philosophy in the Big Ten was a horrible fit. Especially since a lot of the kinds of players he brought in tended to be damaged goods that a Big Ten school wouldn’t have bent the rules to admit.
He would have done better at an SEC or Big 12 school.
Putting a guy like him who believed in a “speed kills” philosophy in the Big Ten was a horrible fit. Especially since a lot of the kinds of players he brought in tended to be damaged goods that a Big Ten school wouldn’t have bent the rules to admit.
He would have done better at an SEC or Big 12 school.
Posted on 9/7/21 at 10:28 am to Diseasefreeforall
People were big mad about the hire. I remember some media were even calling him Nick Satan. 
Posted on 9/7/21 at 10:31 am to sms151t
quote:
Any UCLA coach after Donahue to Kelly
Bob Toledo wasn’t highly successful, but he certainly shouldn’t be considered a “catastrophic failure.”
Posted on 9/7/21 at 10:31 am to sms151t
quote:
Petersen at Boise and UW
Probably the closest other than Jimbo Fisher. I was talking more 'successful head coach at P5 program goes to another P5 program and meets expectations'.
Not ready to call Harbaugh a failure considering he's done better than Lloyd Carr did at this point but I don't think Michigan has the patience anymore. If so, he goes on this list
Posted on 9/7/21 at 10:38 am to boston vol
Well after he had his run off other coaches recruits he went .500 and lost 4 straight to SC. He also had the parking lot thing going on as well. The Foster car thing, the cover ups of DUI (may have just been Paus' first one) and was only coach at that time to be fired from UCLA since 1964. His last team only had 14 seniors and set UCLA back for years.
This post was edited on 9/7/21 at 10:39 am
Posted on 9/7/21 at 10:47 am to sms151t
quote:
Any UCLA coach after Donahue to Kelly
You’re acting like he took over some juggernaut and ran it into the ground. In Terry Donahue’s last seven seasons UCLA was 43-35-1. Again Toledo wasn’t a great coach, or even a very good one. But he was far from a catastrophe.
Posted on 9/7/21 at 10:52 am to boston vol
Well considering he won 3 Rose Bowls only losing 1, and probably other than Prothro was their best coach, Donohue was a damn good coach and a juggernaut out in the PAC 10.
His down years were the probation years when every school in LA was on probation as was every school in Texas
His down years were the probation years when every school in LA was on probation as was every school in Texas
This post was edited on 9/7/21 at 10:53 am
Posted on 9/7/21 at 10:53 am to Diseasefreeforall
LSU got Nick Saban at the right time. Before the '98 season, he was just another coach trying to make his way through football. He often cites that 1998 upset win over #1 Ohio State as the game where everything changed for him as a coach. That is when he began to develop his patented "Process" that turned him into tGOAT.
He used the Process to great success in 1999 as Michigan State finished 10-2 that year, their first 10-win season since 1965.
He used the Process to great success in 1999 as Michigan State finished 10-2 that year, their first 10-win season since 1965.
Posted on 9/7/21 at 10:59 am to sms151t
quote:
Well considering he won 3 Rose Bowls, and probably other than Prothro was their best coach, Donohue was a damn good coach and a juggernaut out in the PAC 10.
Of course he was a damn good coach. Who is disputing that? That has nothing to do with the issue that we are discussing. His ‘93 team that won the P10 was very, very good. But as I pointed out, on the whole the program clearly slipped after Aikman graduated.
Posted on 9/7/21 at 11:30 am to Diseasefreeforall
As said, Dean wasn't involved in the hire at all and was talking out of his arse here. Saban was given the 3rd highest pay in the country when lsu hired him $1.3 mill, only below Bowden and Spurrier.
Dean and Brandt did choose Curley Hallman. Dean bragged how Brandt told him hire Hallman and don't like back!
Dean and Brandt did choose Curley Hallman. Dean bragged how Brandt told him hire Hallman and don't like back!
This post was edited on 9/7/21 at 11:31 am
Posted on 9/7/21 at 11:38 am to Maximus
Curley was such a great coach. Single-handedly mentored Favre and led his team to upsets over bigger teams. And then displayed his charisma in those Golden Flake ads.
I’ll never understand how that home run hire for Joe Dean, who always had a unique eye for talent in football coaching searches, didn’t pan out.
I’ll never understand how that home run hire for Joe Dean, who always had a unique eye for talent in football coaching searches, didn’t pan out.
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