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Chasing Nick Saban
Sunday, January 07, 2007
KEVIN SCARBINSKY and IAN R. RAPOPORT
News staff writers
When he first heard it, Nick Saban didn't want to hear it.
He didn't want to hear that the University of Alabama might have a job opening and that Alabama might want him to fill the void.
Saban was troubled enough at the time. His Miami Dolphins had started 1-6. Midway through his second season, his big step up to football's mountaintop, the NFL, had brought him down to a personal and professional valley.
He knew he'd made a mistake in leaving LSU and college football for Miami and the NFL, and he had an exit strategy in mind. He was all but convinced he would leave the Dolphins when the season ended and take a year off to renew his enthusiasm and review his options.
Much as Steve Spurrier did, Saban would come back a year later rested and ready to look for a big-time college job, much like the one he'd left at LSU.
And then came Alabama.
Both the Saban camp and the Alabama camp say the other side made the initial contact between them, but they do agree on two key points: The initial contact was an inquiry to see if the other side would be interested, and the initial contact came about the time of Alabama's embarrassing Nov. 4 home loss to Mississippi State.
Whoever made first contact, it apparently was not initiated by Saban himself. When his agent, Jimmy Sexton, first mentioned the Alabama job to him, Saban shot him down with a blast of four-letter words. The coach told the agent he didn't want to hear it. Saban's reaction was so over the top, he later called Sexton back and apologized.
"When he called me the first time, I said, `I'm not interested,'" Saban told Florida reporters Thursday. "`It's the season. I'm not interested.'"
So how did Saban get here from there? How did a coaching search that began with an angry private denunciation from the primary target end with a delirious public celebration when he deplaned Wednesday afternoon at the Tuscaloosa Airport?
The Birmingham News interviewed sources close to both sides of the search over a six-week period, beginning two days after Alabama lost its fifth straight game to Auburn and six days before Alabama fired Mike Shula. Those interviews reveal a roller coaster of a ride.
The search for Nick Saban truly wasn't over till it was over, but it took its first baby steps before the Shula Era ended.
Top of the list
Alabama fired Shula late on Sunday night Nov. 26. The next day, Alabama AD Mal Moore held a press conference and said he wanted to hire a proven winner as the new head coach.
When Moore made that standard public, he had a private short list of eight names that fit it. Saban was atop that list.
"Without question," Moore said. "At that time, I didn't know where the interest would be. I didn't realize that Nick was interested in getting back into the college ranks. Once that came to my knowledge, we focused more on him."
The list also included South Carolina's Spurrier, West Virginia's Rich Rodriguez, Louisville's Bobby Petrino, Wake Forest's Jim Grobe and Navy's Paul Johnson.
Within a day or two of Shula's dismissal, Moore himself called Sexton to let him know Saban was Moore's top choice.
According to Moore, from the first time that Alabama sent word to the Saban camp that the school was interested in him, word never came back that the coach wasn't interested in the school.
The biggest hurdle was timing. Early in the process, Saban's camp made one thing clear to Alabama: Saban himself would not talk to anyone from the school until after Miami's season ended.
If Alabama wanted Saban, Alabama would have to wait to get him.
That made some members of Alabama's inner circle nervous. As did a Miami winning streak that started Nov. 5 and reached four games and put the Dolphins in playoff contention, potentially extending their season beyond the Dec. 31 regular-season finale.
Elephants have long memories, and some key decision-makers remembered being led on and then turned down by the likes of Butch Davis and Mike Riley in previous coaching searches.
They worried that, without hearing from Saban himself, they could wait for him until January and then get jilted by him.
So, on Nov. 29 and 30, UA representatives made their most fervent push to land Spurrier. On the night of the 29th, Spurrier told close associates he was not taking the Alabama job, which was not officially offered. By midday on the 30th, however, UA officials felt confident the former Florida coach was going to say yes. He didn't. Later on the 30th, Spurrier met with his team and told them, "You're stuck with me." A day later, he received a raise and a contract extension.
Following Spurrier's decision, Moore and Alabama President Robert Witt favored waiting for Saban. But, about a week after Shula was fired, the school's internal debate about Saban coincided with word that Alabama's interest in another coach on its short list, West Virginia's Rich Rodriguez, was not a one-way street.
"Rich was a championship-caliber coach, one of the top coaches on our list," Moore said. "I felt, at that time, I was trying to make it happen a little quicker. I maybe lost a little contact with my contact or source of information with Coach Saban.
"I wasn't sure where I was there, so I made the move to Rodriguez."
Moore made that move at the urging of others within Alabama's inner circle.
On Tuesday Dec. 5, in New York for the National Football Foundation Hall of Fame banquet, Moore interviewed Rodriguez and his wife, Rita, for about 90 minutes. It wasn't the AD's only meeting there that day related to the coaching search.
Moore also met with Sexton, showing him a large portfolio of diagrams and layouts of Alabama's new and improved football facilities.
On Thursday morning, Dec. 7, the Saban camp sent word to Alabama reaffirming the coach's interest in the job, but it appeared to be too late. Later that day, Alabama and Mike Brown, the agent for Rodriguez, reached an agreement in principle for Rodriguez to become the Alabama coach. Alabama was told to anticipate acceptance of the job.
That afternoon, after practice with the Dolphins, Saban acknowledged to the media for the first time that Alabama had contacted Sexton to gauge Saban's interest in the job. Saban also said that he'd told Sexton "on several occasions" that he wasn't interested.
It wasn't the first or last time that Saban's public comments about the Alabama job didn't square with the message his camp was sending to Alabama behind the scenes.
The next morning, as West Virginia boosters were meeting with Rodriguez and offering him inducements to stay, Alabama wasted no time in moving back to Saban.
Before Rodriguez gave Alabama his final answer that he would stay at West Virginia, a friend of Moore's called Sexton to see if Saban still had interest in the Alabama job. Saban was at practice with the Dolphins at the time.
Afterward, the coach talked to his agent by phone and sent a message as strong as his initial refusal. The message: If Alabama could wait, Alabama would have a real shot to hire him.
That message was relayed to Moore.
"Once I realized that was a genuine feeling (on Saban's part)," Moore said, "I really zeroed in on this coach."
Ignored denials
For the next four weeks, Moore continued to consider other candidates as a backup plan - Louisville's Petrino was Plan B in the end - but he never again moved away from Saban as his top choice. Meanwhile, Saban continued to issue denials. The most specific one came on Dec. 21, when Saban told South Florida reporters, "I guess I have to say it: I'm not going to be the Alabama coach."
Moore was not dissuaded by any of Saban's public words, since they differed so drastically from the private messages he sent.
"I know, and had to know, that his focus was that team there (at Miami), and he had to stay there (to finish the season)," Moore said. "I also knew that, in other moves he's made, that he did not communicate (directly) with other teams until his season was over.
"I felt like that would be the case here, and I just wanted to be in position."
By the time Saban's first losing season as a head coach ended with Miami's loss at Indianapolis on New Year's Eve, the coach's camp and the Alabama camp had agreed on the basic financial arrangements it would take for him to leave Miami for Tuscaloosa.
It would take more than making Saban the highest-paid coach in the SEC. Alabama would have to make his contract the richest of any college coach in the country. But both sides were still uncertain what Saban's final answer to Alabama would be.
Last Monday, Saban conducted a regularly scheduled end-of-season team meeting and press conference, where he again dodged questions about Alabama. He also met twice with Dolphins owner Wayne Huizenga, and after the second meeting, Sexton called Huizenga. As a courtesy, the agent asked for permission for Saban to speak with Alabama, and it was granted.
That day, a private plane owned by R & G Aviation LLC out of Huntsville flew to Tuscaloosa, picked up Moore, and flew him to south Florida, even though he did not have a face-to-face meeting set up with Saban.
Moore boarded the plane by himself, carrying only a briefcase and no overnight luggage. He arrived at Opa-locka Executive Airport near Hialeah, Fla., which is 20 minutes from Miami.
"I just wanted to be in position," Moore said. "I felt like I needed to be close by and on hand, and was. It was just a feeling that I had."
Moore didn't conduct this search alone. He consulted with an inner circle of school officials, trustees and personal confidantes along the way, but he was the only Alabama official who made the trip to south Florida.
This was unusual. Most colleges send a small team to meet a prospective coach. When LSU hired Saban from Michigan State, a handful of LSU people, including a few boosters, visited with the coach in advance.
Alabama, despite its reputation as a program with too many cooks in the kitchen, sent Moore as its lone official headhunter.
Once in Florida, Moore spoke with Saban and his wife by phone Monday night. It was a long conversation, during which Moore formally offered Saban the job. The AD didn't get an answer that night, but he was encouraged, especially by what he heard from Terry Saban.
It was the first of two long phone conversations Moore had with the Sabans while in south Florida.
"Once I did talk to his wife, I felt like I really had a chance," Moore said. "I will always tightly hug her because she gave me encouragement not to give up because she wanted back in a college community. And so did he. I knew he did, but I wasn't aware of how strong his wife was for this move."
As strongly as the coach's wife was encouraging Moore, Huizenga was encouraging the coach to stay and finish the job. Saban felt an intense loyalty to Huizenga, and Huizenga played the loyalty card hard Tuesday.
The two men met three times that day. The meetings got heated as Saban expressed his desire to leave Miami for Alabama.
At mid-day, an emotionally spent Saban phoned an old friend from LSU and said he was going to take the Alabama job. About that time, Moore said it looked good for Alabama but the deal was not yet done.
At 2 p.m. CST, the plane on which Moore arrived in Florida was running, with the pilot and the crew on board, ready to take Saban to Tuscaloosa. There was even a call to a caterer to bring food for the Saban family. But the plane never left that day.
Sleepless night
Later in the day, Huizenga told the media that Saban had requested more time to decide and that the two men would meet again Wednesday morning at the Dolphins office. A source familiar with the process said it was Huizenga who asked Saban to sleep on his decision.
Instead, the Sabans said they spent a sleepless Tuesday night. Alabama officials, meanwhile, were growing anxious.
Saban said he and Huizenga spoke by phone early Wednesday morning, "which was another confusing moment."
Huizenga then visited Saban's house. Saban said he didn't make his final decision until Huizenga got there.
Huizenga left alone for the Dolphins headquarters, where he told the media that Saban was leaving for Alabama. Saban gave Moore the news by phone.
Moore and Saban did not meet face-to-face for the first time until about three hours later, when Moore arrived at Saban's house to drive the coach and his family to the Opa-locka Executive Airport. Moore's private plane whisked everyone to Alabama, where the Sabans were greeted like Elvis and Priscilla Presley.
It was the end of the longest coaching search in Alabama history. Thirty-eight days after Alabama fired Shula, Saban arrived to take his place.
Moore admitted that going after an NFL coach "was a real stretch," that waiting for Saban till January "was a gamble."
"But I wanted to hire a championship coach. I didn't want to cut it short and give up on it, so we stuck with it. It happened in the end."
E-mail: kscarbinsky@bhamnews.com irapoport@bhamnews.com
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