Armchair Quarterback: Staying put Saban’s best option
I have some advice for LSU head coach Nick Saban fresh off the Tigers’ national championship run. STAY AT LSU!
As the NFL coaching carousel continues to spin at dizzying speeds, Saban’s name has come up for several jobs, most notably Chicago and Atlanta, with the latter of which filled by the hiring of San Francisco coordinator Jim Mora Jr. Thursday. Saban appears to be one of the cherries left in the market as several teams try to cement their coaching vacancies for the coming season.
With the Cowboys landing the Big Tuna last year and the Redskins this week enticing Joe Gibbs back to the gridiron from the NASCAR pits, there are several teams trying to bring in their dream coach. It seems every off-season, there are seven or eight teams who send their old coach packing in hopes of magically changing their losing ways by the wave of the head coaching wand.
For folks like Parcells and Gibbs, returning to the game after their respective long vacations is not a big deal. Both have proven professional track records, although it should be noted Gibbs departed for racing the year before the current salary cap began and free agency changed the game forever. That being said, Gibbs is still among the professional coaching elite and should be able to turn the Redskins around in a couple of years.
Things are different for college coaches, however, as they are enchanted by the prospect of playing on Sunday and don’t seem to notice they are entering a completely different game. Just ask Steve Spurrier, who fell on his face and quit after just two years in the bigs. He left a very successful job as Florida Gator coach to experience the bright lights and big city. The bright lights, he found out, was a train coming right at him.
The transition, college coaches are finding out, is an extreme one as they go from coaching kids, most of whom will never play on Sunday aside from a local flag football league, to coaching a bunch of millionaires with egos, agents and personal agendas. They also face the prospect of having to answer to meddling ownership who expect results.
The clock begins ticking the minute the ink is dry on the dotted line and if a team isn’t playoff worthy in two years, the revolving door starts spinning. It doesn’t matter who you are, the shelf life of an NFL coach is shorter than mayonnaise in a hot house.
Right now, Titans Coach Jeff Fisher is one of the longest tenured coaches in the NFL, but make no mistake, a couple of losing seasons and he’ll be sent packing just like the rest of them. This goes doubly true for incoming college coaches who are given a short amount of time to make impact.
This is one reason some NFL coaches are seeking refuge in the college ranks. Nowadays the payroll isn’t that much different between pro and college, plus college coaches have more control over their programs and are given a bit more leeway when it comes to building a program. They are finding out its better to be a big fish in a little pond than a little fish in a big pond.
Former Raider Coach Bill Callahan did the right thing after being run out of Oakland by taking the job at Nebraska this week.
Remember, just one year ago, he took the Raiders to the Super Bowl but after one subpar season, he was kicked out like an unwelcome visitor.
This should send a loud message to Saban, who may be considering a move to the big time. Stay at LSU where you are considered a king, instead of going to Soldier Field where you will be discarded like Tuesday’s trash when you don’t beat the Packers.