Terry Foster: Nick Saban Is The Donald Trump Of College Football
By: Terry Foster
@terryfoster971
Move over Bear Bryant. Nick Saban is the greatest coach in University of Alabama history because he is the Donald Trump of college football.
More on that later.
Saban is also the king of modern-day college football and could go down as the best in history. Saban reached that status after leading the Crimson Tide to the school's 11th national title with an exciting and dare devil 45-40 victory over Clemson in the 2016 National championship game. It was Saban's fifth national title and the fourth in the last seven years.
His first title came at LSU.
How does Saban compare to Trump? Here we go.
Talent is the life line of collegiate football and Saban's high profile puts Alabama in front of recruits on an almost daily basis. Trump, the Republican front runner for President, uses a similar strategy. Saban does not say stupid things like Trump unless you want to count his tirades before the media with that Coca Cola bottle next to him. Saban is constantly being interviewed on national television which puts Bama in front of recruits.
Trump leads many of the Republican polls because he is a news maker that CNN, Fox News and MSNBC cannot get enough of. Saban is a sports news maker that earns a lot of air time and that helps with recruiting.
Did you see what happened when the Crimson Tide played Michigan State? They were bigger, stronger, faster and of course better. In their last four meetings against MSU, Michigan and Notre Dame, all regional powers, Alabama owns a 170-45 scoring advantage. My esteemed radio partner Mike Valenti tried to make a case that MSU coach Mark Dantonio is a better coach than Saban.
That argument went in one ear and out the other for me. There is no comparison.
The detractors will say that Saban has big time boosters, a high profile school and better weather than we have in the Midwest to sell. That does help but USC, LSU, Florida State and Texas have similar selling points. All of those schools would drop their coach in a heart beat for Saban.
Bryant was a great coach and a man ahead of his time. He wanted to coach black players before the schools he coached were willing to break the color barrier. If he got his wish, Bryant might have accomplished more.
He has better numbers than Saban. He was 232-46-9 at Alabama and was 323-85-17 overall. Saban is 100-18 at Alabama and 191-60-1 overall. Greatness isn't all about numbers. Saban revived a program at Michigan State that was on probation and hemorrhaging.
Bryant also coached where you had five plays in the playbook and the better teams simply out muscled weaker opponents. There are more top-notch programs to compete with today and Saban coaches with unreal expectations. He is expected to win every year and he comes close to doing that each season.
Here is my list of top five current coaches
Gregg Popovich San Antonio Spurs: He'd rather give credit to his players but he is a big reason the Spurs have won five NBA titles.
Bill Belichick New England Patriots: The man is standoffish and shady but the Pats are always a threat.
Nick Saban Alabama Crimson Tide: He wins everywhere he goes.
Bruce Bochy: San Francisco Giants: Three World Series in five seasons with a team that is not expected to challenge for greatness.
Mike Krzyzewski Duke Blue Devils: He is the winningest coach in college basketball and has five NCAA titles.
Terry Foster can be reached at Terry.Foster@cbsradio.com.
