Larry Brown Sports

Nick Saban is the best coach in college football, so that means he has his share of detractors. People really can’t get on him for his accomplishments (though Steve Spurrier once tried), so they often resort to dissecting the Alabama coach’s personality.

In January, Vanderbilt coach James Franklin apologized after it got out that he called Saban “Nicky Satan.” An apology may be coming from Florida assistant coach Tim Davis, who upped the ante by reportedly calling Saban “the devil himself.”

Davis, who coaches the Gators offensive line, was speaking to the Space Coast Gator Club when he made the remarks, according to Gaitor Bait.

“Will [Muschamp] and I go back to the Miami Dolphins,” Davis said, per 247 Sports. “I’ve always wanted to work with Will. Will’s got a plan. Will coached under the devil himself for seven years. I only did three. He did seven. And his DNA is not any different than Nick.”

Davis was talking about coaching at the Dolphins when Saban was the team’s head coach. Will Muschamp, now the head coach of the Gators, was an assistant under Saban at LSU and Miami before going to Auburn, Texas, and then Florida. Davis continued to compare the two.

“[Muschamp's] like the other guy, only he’s got a personality,” Davis said, per Gator Bait. “He’ll smile at you. He’ll talk to you. You understand? That’s what he’s all about. That’s Will. I’m proud to work for him.”

One thing many of these trash-talking comments seem to have in common is that they’re made in booster club-type settings. That’s what happened with Brady Hoke this week. These guys are trying to fire up their fans and they get carried away sometimes.

All I know is that you can now safely add Florida to the list of Vanderbilt and South Carolina when it comes to teams Saban will want to hand it to. What do all three have in common? They’re in the SEC East, of course.

Helmet smack to College Football Talk

Nick Saban does not have time for Bob Stoops’ anti-SEC remarks. He made that clear when speaking with reporters on Thursday, though he did say it in a nice way.

First, let’s start with Stoops’ comments. During a caravan stop in Tulsa, the Oklahoma coach defended the Big 12 and said all the hype surrounding the SEC was “propaganda.”

“It depends on who you want to listen to,” Stoops told the Tulsa World when asked about the gap between conferences. “Listen, they’ve had the best team in college football, meaning they’ve won the national championship. That doesn’t mean everything else is always the best.

“So you’re listening to a lot of propaganda that gets fed out to you. You’re more than smart enough to figure it out. Again, you can look at the top two, three, four, five, six teams, and you can look at the bottom six, seven, eight, whatever they are. How well are they all doing?”

Saban wasn’t about to let those comments bother him. In fact, he says he did not even hear about them.

“I didn’t even know he said it, so you’re going to have to tell me what he said,” Saban said, via AL.com. “I’ve got more important things to do than sit around and read what Bob Stoops has to say about anything. But I like Bob Stoops, and I respect him as a coach, but I’m really trying to manage our business.”

Saban said he respects the Big 12 and what Oklahoma does, but he did defend his conference.

“Well, we don’t play everybody in the Big 12 or whatever it is, so I really don’t know much about their league,” Saban said. “We have a lot of respect for what they do at Oklahoma, and I really don’t think that people that don’t play in our league really don’t understand the quality of our league from top to bottom.

“I think there’s probably a lot of animosity out there because of the success that we have in our league, but I think that kind of goes with the territory. I understand that. But we certainly respect the great program that they have at Oklahoma and the other good programs that they have in the Big 12.”

I used to firmly be in the “SEC is overhyped” camp and I would complain about an East Coast bias. I thought the Pac-10 was disrespected in conversations. But the truth is the SEC is the best conference in college football. It’s undeniable. They have the most money, the best players, the best resources, the best coaches, and it shows on the field.

You can see his comments around the 3:30 mark.

Read The Rest of the Story…

Reuben Foster has officially signed his letter of intent with Alabama. Most of you have probably heard of the five-star linebacker recruit from Auburn (Ala.) High School. Foster is the dude who committed to Alabama last July before switching his commitment to Auburn and getting this tattoo to prove it. It turns out that getting the ink was a bit of a rash decision, as Foster later decommitted from Auburn and went back to — you guessed it — Alabama.

On Wednesday morning, Foster made it clear that he is excited to play for Nick Saban next season by dressing up like the three-time SEC Coach of The Year.

Foster has signed with Alabama. And his attire makes it pretty clear that he’ll fax it, too. twitter.com/oanewspreps/st…

— OA News Preps (@oanewspreps) February 6, 2013

Saban typically comes across as a pretty serious guy, so Foster must already be pretty comfortable with him to go down that road. Five-star recruits can probably get away with a little more than the average high school player.

Helmet smack to Dr. Saturday

Vanderbilt football coach James Franklin phoned Nick Saban to apologize for calling the Alabama coach “Nicky Satan” while speaking at a Georgia high school banquet on Monday.

Video of Franklin speaking at the Macon (Ga.) Central High School fall sports banquet went viral on Wednesday, leading the Vandy coach to smooth things out with the Crimson Tide coach.

“There’s this guy at Alabama, I think his name is ‘Nicky Satan,’” Franklin said during his speech. “I think you guys have probably heard of him before. I’m going to outwork him. I’m going to outwork him. And that’s kind of our plan every single day.”

Though Franklin’s words may have backfired, they did serve a purpose. Franklin got Central linebacker Nigel Bowden to commit to the Commodores, so he was definitely playing to the audience. Bowden even referenced Franklin’s passion when he spoke.

“This man right here has so much passion,” said Bowden. “And I believe this is a man I can look up to for four years. He is what he says he is. He walks the walk and talks the talk. I’ve never met anybody with so much energy and so much passion with what they do.”

After the video went viral, Franklin called Saban to apologize for what he called a “joke.”

Read The Rest of the Story…

One could sense the bitterness and jealous coming from Urban Meyer as he spoke on ESPN’s postgame show following Alabama’s win over Notre Dame in the National Championship Game. The Crimson Tide had just won its third national championship in four seasons, and it was clear the program had done something Meyer did not think was possible.

“There was a time where I really believed that couldn’t be done because of the parity in college football,” Meyer said on ESPN’s postgame show. “The SEC — you saw Georgia, LSU and A&M take Alabama right to the ropes, so I really didn’t think that could be done.”

Meyer, whose Ohio State Buckeyes went 12-0, understands how difficult it is to build a dynasty in college football. You have to bring in the top recruits each year, hope they develop properly, and you need little calls or plays go your way in several games. There is also a lot of turnover to overcome; players graduate, transfer, and turn pro, and assistant coaches leave for other jobs. Knowing all this, Meyer, who won two national championships at Florida, can’t believe that Nick Saban has been able to build such a dominant dynasty at Alabama. He even made it clear after Bama beat Notre Dame that he hopes Saban’s coaching staff gets raided in order to weaken the program.

“He doesn’t lose coaches. I’m still trying to figure that out. We had that thing going at Florida and it was a turnstyle — head coaches here, head coaches there. How do you not go hire one of those assistant coaches at Alabama?” Meyer asked.

Meyer is not entirely accurate; Saban lost offensive coordinator Jim McElwain after last season, but he has managed to keep Kirby Smart as his defensive coordinator since 2007.

What’s amusing is that this is the second prominent college football coach in a week who’s tried to weaken the Bama program. These guys have a hard time topping Bama on the field, so this is all they can do to take down Alabama. It was pretty weak of Meyer to use his platform on ESPN for that purpose.

Photo Credit: Greg Bartram-US PRESSWIRE

Nick Saban wants his players focused for the national championship game and not getting lost in all the hype surrounding the team. In his quest to have his team achieve the proper mindset, Saban reportedly banned ESPN in his players’ hotel rooms.

According to ESPN’s Brett McMurphy, Tom Rinaldi said Saban had the team’s hotel make ESPN unavailable in players’ hotel rooms since Sunday.

Yahoo! Sports Dan Wetzel reported something similar.

That’s a classic Saban move, if true. It’s also smart.

The last thing Alabama needs entering Monday’s BCS National Championship Game is to hear how great they are and how they’re favored to beat Notre Dame by 10 points. Believing one’s hype often leads to teams playing with less motivation for a game.

Remember how things were leading up to the 2006 Rose Bowl? ESPN spent weeks fawning over USC and trying to decide where they ranked among the best college football dynasties of all time as if they had already beaten Texas. Sure enough, the Trojans lost to the Longhorns. Saban is doing what he can to make sure Alabama avoids the same fate. He has Bama in contention to win its third national championship in four years, which would be pretty incredible.

Steve Spurrier is still doing his best to nudge Nick Saban back to the NFL. The South Carolina coach recognizes that his chances of winning the SEC championship are slim as long as Saban is coaching at Alabama. That’s why every chance he gets, Spurrier seems to try to push Saban back to the NFL, whether it’s by using mind games or other tactics.

On Friday, Spurrier continued his sneaky ways during an interview on “The Dan Patrick Show.”

“I don’t know if he’ll take that Cleveland job or not, but I dunno, it’ll be interesting,” said Spurrier, who was referencing rumors that the Browns wanted to hire Saban. “He’s done almost all you can do in college football. Whether or not the challenge to win the Super Bowl hits him — only he knows.”

Patrick then asked Spurrier if he really thought Saban would consider the Browns job.

“Oh I wouldn’t advise him to do anything — he can make his own decisions. But if winning a Super Bowl is something he’d like to do before he hung up his coaching whistle, some job somewhere, he might go for it.”

Patrick recognized what Spurrier was doing and pointed it out, but Spurrier defended his thoughts by saying Saban has already won three championships in college.

“How many do you want to win before you go win a Super Bowl? … If winning a Super Bowl is something down the line on his bucket list, you couldn’t blame him … he’s already done everything you can in college football.”

If you doubt whether Spurrier had a purpose in mind with those comments, I present you this interview from April where Spurrier used similar tactics to try to get Saban to leave Bama.

At least Saban knows Spurrier’s game.

“I think it’s great, I love Steve. I’m always anxious to hear what he has to say — it’s always funny,” Saban said of Spurrier in August.

Saban recognizes what a great gig he has going at Alabama. Maybe one day he might decide to try the NFL again. I just don’t think that’s happening any time too soon.

You can listen to Spurrier’s comments below:

Read The Rest of the Story…