Alabama fans are used to wearing the target. In many ways, they bring it upon themselves with their perpetual harping about their National Championships (the nerve!) and insistence upon remembering the greatest college football coach to walk a sideline (can you believe it!?). Hiring Nick Saban is not going to make any of that any easier.Saban is an easy target for malcontents, Alabama haters, and those wishing to engage in the repeated construction of large, natural elevations of the earth's surface from little more than the mounds of small burrowing mammals. He provides a lot of material. Most of it would be no big deal if anyone else did it, but since he's a mean and prickly, people are going to talk.Take, for example, the recent story about alleged, potential, and minor recruiting infractions. The title of that linked article is "Allegations of NCAA Violations a Joke to Saban". One could scarcely write a more sensationalist and misleading title for the article. The basis for it was a glib and sarcastic comment that Saban made about the source of the allegations: Miami. Now, the sarcastic comment came only after he stated that he does, has, and will respect the recruiting rules. Funny, the title wasn't "Saban very respectful of NCAA Recruiting Rules." I wonder why that is.
One might guess that the allegations are somewhat amusing because this is the kind of violation that every single D-IA coach has committed and one which the vast majority commit multiple times each recruiting season. And that's to say nothing of the vagueness of the rule itself. But there's no sense in getting into the excuses or defenses. The point is simply that there were some allegations that came out of Miami. Saban thought that was amusing, and one can see how he might think so. He made a comment that the media ran with.
And people wonder why he hates reporters.
Of course, bloggers are not immune to the Saban-the-Antichrist Hype. The Shreveport Times reported a non-story about Saban making a comment to Richt about some Georgia players being at club where a band was playing. This apparently got Princess Richt's panties all askance. One Blogger (MaconDawg) at DawgSports tells us just why this verbal pea was so irksome to Her Royal Highness.
Now, if I were an Oklahoma fan, I have to admit I would find this little anecdote pretty funny. But knowing both a)the trouble we've had recently with alcohol-related conduct issues, and b)Coach Richt's personal faith, I have to say that if true, this was incredibly poor form.
Now I see. Because Richt personally believes that alcohol is the devil's drink and some of his players have been caught breaking the rules with it recently, it should be a faux pas for a coach to comment that he saw some of that other coach's players at a show where they were -- woe is me -- serving alcohol. Gosh. How insensitive!
MaconDawg's allusion to Steve Spurrier a bit later brings to mind the reason that none of this should be that interesting or appalling -- even if this were some sort of veiled insult or jab, the SEC has had one of these mean ol' jerks since 1990 when Spurrier took the job at Florida.
With all of the available material, one has to wonder why folks have to work so hard to make hay out of Saban's every word and action.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
6-04-2007 @ 4:01PM
yo sup said...
Saben and Bama are the perfect match. He has no loyalty to teams and Bam ass has no loyalty to coaches. A match made in hell. What are the whinny bama babies gonna do when they find out you can't buy championships. It has allways been fun to bama bash because they are simply so pathetic but now its gonna be just fantastic to dawg em.. Go LSU
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6-04-2007 @ 4:23PM
Pussycat hater said...
You might want to learn to spell, or at least use a spell check, before you start blabbing on the Internet for the world to read how ignorant you are. You are really giving your Louisiana natives a bad image. Oh wait…I forgot that the world already knew you were dim-witted to begin with! And before you can “dawg” ‘Bama, as you say, you should probably wait until you reach our platform of excellence. Looking down at you little pussycats from up here is amusing! Thanks for the entertainment. Hopefully, you can find a thesaurus if any of these words are too big for you!
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6-04-2007 @ 4:37PM
tikritpd said...
Whos the bigger Scoundrel?
Nick 'the Slick' Saban or Billy-Flop Donovan ?
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6-04-2007 @ 4:51PM
shane said...
Tom Rathman needs to be the Head Football Coach for the Nebraska Cornhuskers.
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6-05-2007 @ 3:21AM
Xfan said...
He was lying before he ever became coach and cheating before he ever fielded a team. A fine fit, I would say.
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6-05-2007 @ 7:32AM
Norman said...
So fer all I hear is a bunch of whining Alabama haters.Why don't you keep the cry baby stuff to yourselfs? Why keep picking on Alabama, try some of the other schools like asskinsas,or L,ousy,Stinking,Uncouth or for those of you who can't get that try LSU. All of you pick on Bama beccause of jelousy. Find something else too whine about ok. Norman W.
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6-05-2007 @ 11:37AM
MaconDawg said...
Hey Pete, thanks for the link. By the way, isn't it even more pathetic that you can't find anything to blog about other than me blogging about Saban? That's irony on a shingle my friend.
Ya'll got a great coach, one who'll win you a lot of games. At least more than little Shula. But he is a grade-A jackass who can't be trusted any further than I can throw Phil Fulmer, which isn't far. But a winner, nonetheless.
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6-05-2007 @ 11:56AM
Pete Holiday said...
It was just an excellent example of the silly hand-wringing and feigned outrage that the media-types have been going on about for months. He may well be a grade-A jack-ass, but I hardly think that your post even bordered on coming close to spitting-distance to jack-assery. There really is much better material if you want to dog the guy, and it's not hard to find.
But, hey, it's your blog... and if you want to whine about some big mean man being mean to your sweet, defenseless coach... well... I guess that's what you'll do. You can count me among the "So what?" crowd, though.
Let me know me when y'all get something a little more impressive than "Saban said something which might have been vaguely related to some professional issue that Richt has been try to fix and, by gosh, it really might've bummed him out a little bit."
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6-05-2007 @ 1:27PM
MaconDawg said...
Tad touchy about little Nicky, aren't we? I mean really, the AOL juggernaut behind you and the best you can do is "this Georgia blog is stupid"? No wonder Fanhouse had to downsize. I'm not going to spend my daying arguing about which one of us is doing the least pointless offseason blogging, but you are after all the one posting about our blog, not the other way around. As they say in the Auburn sociology department, "That there iz a fact."
And I don't think Mark Richt counts as "defenseless" until he learns to stop beating Alabama, which so far he's been powerless to do. Addiction truly is a sad thing.
While the post does have a little handwringing to it (touche), your explosive overreaction to it makes my point for me: Alabama fans are going to spend a lot of time defending this guy from everyone else in the SEC and the media at large. Having lived through the Harrick era in Athens, I know of which I speak here. It's not a lot of fun.
Good luck finding something better to write about than our dinky little blog, and I really do want to thank you for the link.
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6-06-2007 @ 11:12AM
Blake said...
i dont think little nicky wants to talk to piss coach richt off too much...i surely hope he remembers the shellacking he received the last time he was in Athens for a football game. i think it was along the lines of 45-16?
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6-06-2007 @ 1:45PM
Tommy said...
Let's remember that our glimpse of this incident comes courtesy of a reporter known for stirring the pot, and one who resides in the back yard of Saban's former employer. Given the reporter's surname, I take him to be a native. If this were merely a poor choice of words by Saban or a non-issue to Richt, would it serve any of Guilbeau's purposes for any of us to believe so?
A year after Saban left LSU, he attended a UGA practice and the quotes from Richt and Saban indicated that there was a shared respect and friendship between the two.
Additionally, given the beatings Richt has administered in his last encounters with Saban and Bama, I'm that much more skeptical that Saban is taking shots at Richt, who likely will have a more than ample response this fall in Tuscaloosa.
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6-06-2007 @ 1:52PM
TheDawgKiller said...
If Alabama and their coach are so bad and unimportant, why is everyone talking about them? If I was Alabama I would love to be hated by everyone. Its better to be hated and feared. Its truly nothing but fear. Fear of the possibility Alabama will return to their glory days of Football. Fear of the SEC being dominated again. If it wasn't fear, why would anybody be talking about Alabama. Nobody would care what they did. People talk about USC and possible violations with reggie bush all the time due to them winning so much recently. Nobody talks about Colorado as much as USC or Alabama.
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6-06-2007 @ 8:57PM
Tommy said...
The only reason anyone ever talks about Alabama is when there is literally nothing else to talk about. We call that time of the year summer, which, not coincidentally, is the season we're in now.
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6-07-2007 @ 1:56PM
will said...
Why wasn't Saban so bad 4 years ago when he brought LSU a national title? Do you think the guy has changed since leaving LSU? LSU fans need to be worrying about their team and coach(or excuse of one). All you people do is help Bama fans focus on their team a little easier.
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6-08-2007 @ 9:51AM
Mox said...
I would be concerned if the rest of the sec was not bashing The Tide. Let's see...Bama returns 12 starters, has a great recruiting season, is off probation, poised for a great season...oh yea, they hired the BEST AVAILABLE COLLEGE COACH.
That my friends is fear you are smelling.
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6-09-2007 @ 12:28AM
BamaINtenn said...
It's really amazing at the other school's fans who are constantly bashing Bama. Why do they do it?? Jealousy. Nothing more than that. Why are they jealous? Bama's long standing tradition that they DON'T HAVE. They didn't bash Saban at LSU or Miami. But now that he's at Bama; they are jealous and probably very CONCERNED about Bama playing better and winning MORE GAMES.
Petty, childish and immature!!! Oh well, one thing about it all is; they KNOW ALABAMA football now.
Thanks for lifting Bama up into the SPOTLIGHT again.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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6-14-2007 @ 12:39AM
Michael said...
I think us BAMA fans are a little tired of the irrelevant label that has been given to us by the media. In fact when sports personalities speak of Alabama, they never mention the excessive probation the program has suffered. They just project the idea that we are in a slump. Well at least Shula got us a #11 recruiting rank before he left, and Saban topped that, according to scout I believe, after a 6-7 season, while assembling a coaching staff in a limited period of time. As long as recruits know where to go to win, Bama fans can rest easy.
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6-14-2007 @ 1:52AM
Michael said...
And to the Auburn fans. It has been five long years now, but the time has come once again to show ya'll who the big brother in the state of Alabama is. We've just been grounded for a while and you guys never really had an impressive win over us these past five years. Even in the "championship year" Bama had 3rd string backfield and was ahead at half time. Alabama had some lackluster teams these past five years and Auburn hasn't managed an impressive victory over any of them. We have a real coach now. I hope you all enjoyed the past five years. I know what finger Bama fans will start counting on!
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6-17-2007 @ 3:04PM
BAMAPERRY said...
Saban will play in the SECCG his 1st year. That's why they're bashing him.
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