Saban does it his way, which is a winning way

By Art Spander

GLENDALE, Ariz. — The thinking is that the only thing that matters at Alabama is football, but there in the school’s playoff brochure, a mere 128 pages compared to the 208 of the season media guide, are photos of head coach Nick Saban shaking hands with players wearing mortarboards and clutching sheepskins, not pigskins.

That the photos are on the page following pictures of Derrick Henry and Saban posing with Henry’s Heisman Trophy and Ryan Kelly clutching his Rimington Trophy as outstanding college center provides a sense of perspective. Yes, education is important at this institution of higher education, but at the University of Alabama, nothing is important as football.

In the Southeast Conference — SEC, not the S&EC, or Securities and Exchange Commission — nothing is important as football (except at Kentucky, where basketball is No. 1.) If it’s not one SEC school, Auburn or LSU, winning the national title, then normally it’s another, Alabama.

The number for the Crimson Tide is 15, four since Saban took over in 2007. The school and the man go for another tonight against Clemson, whose head coach, Dabo Swinney, is an Alabama grad, at University of Phoenix Stadium.

Two teams from the Deep South meeting for the national title. Imbalance?  More an issue of propriety. Success breeds success, and, heavens, that little corner of the United States has been inordinately successful. The Big Ten has tradition. The Pac-12 was competitive with USC, then Oregon, now Stanford. But nothing quite compares with the South, or with Alabama.

A New York Times article a couple of months ago by Joe Drape called the football field “the center of the Alabama universe,” pointing out “over the past decade, the success of Crimson Tide football can be measured off the field as well, as it has become a powerful engine for the university’s economic and academic growth, a standout among other large public universities with a similar zest for capitalizing on their sports programs.”

In other words, the $7 million a year earned by Saban (who graduated from Kent State, outside Cleveland) is a wise investment for a place that prizes Saturday’s Heroes, even if on this January 11 they have the opportunity to become Monday night’s heroes.

Coaches come in different varieties. Some, such as the late John McKay or Jerry Glanville, were quick with one-liners, quotable if not always personable. Others treat interviews like trips to the dentist, necessary but painful.

Vito Stellino now covers the Jacksonville Jaguars for the Florida Times Union, but he spent many years in Pittsburgh, where he said of conversations with then-Steelers coach Chuck Noll, “He talks to you like there are only two people who understand what he’s talking about, and you’re not the other one.”

Saban, who surely has earned his arrogance, fits in that category. When on media day for the championship game he was asked about stopping quarterback DeShaun Watson of the No. 1-ranked, 14-0 Tigers, the coach did his best to avoid a sneer.

“Well, I don’t know that there’s anything specific that you would be able to understand,” he said, “without me having a grease board up here and draw stuff up, but I think that would be really kind of hard to explain.”

So, buzz off, and we’ll discuss something any sports writer would understand, like pizza and beer.

What Swinney, not quite as protective as Saban, is willing to talk about is 14-1 Alabama, not only his alma mater but arguably the standard of undergraduate football.

“It’s incredible,” said Swinney, “Coach Saban and what he has done. I mean he’s one of the greatest coaches that’s ever coached the game. Regardless of what happens Monday night, you can’t argue that. He’s already won four national championships (one at LSU) — this is the first one I’ve sniffed at — and he’s going for his fifth.

“People will say anybody can win at Alabama. Well, no, that’s not the case. Not everybody can coach a great team. Not everybody can coach a great player, and I think he has a gift to be able to do that. You have to be able to recruit consistently. You have to be able to put a stand together and build that, so you have to have a vision for what you want to do … and the consistency is unprecedented.”

Saban, 64, seems caught between a shrug and a gloat in post-game victory photos, especially those in which he’s lifting a championship trophy of some sort, sort of “OK, I’ll smile, but I’m not holding it.” He contends we misunderstand the look.

“I’m a very happy person,” Saban insisted. “Maybe my demeanor, the image created by a lot of you (the media) doesn’t reflect that. I’m a very happy person. And I’m a serious person about trying to do things to have a very good program that benefits the players personally, athletically and academically.

“I think I’m guarded in terms of what I do because everybody has a camera, and I think my image as a leader for our organization is very important, and I think it’s important for everybody in our organization to try to represent it in a first-class way.”