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Nick Saban Biography
Nick Saban Biography
Nick Saban was born in Fairmont, West Virginia on October 31, 1951. The Kent State Alum has come a long way from West Virginia to head football coach at Alabama. He is also now the highest paid college football coach in America.
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Saban’s $32 million contract over 8 years gave him that honor in January 2007. This wasn’t exactly a direct route for Coach Saban. Making just a few stops along the way, he has had many different coaching experiences in his twenty years since college.
Saban was an assistant football coach at Kent State, Syracuse, West Virginia, Ohio State, the United States Naval Academy and Michigan State in NCAA Division I-A. In 1988 he made the crossover into the NFL, assistant coaching for the Houston Oilers.
Later, after spending a year in his first position as a college Head Coach at the University of Toledo, Nick went back to the NFL again as a defensive coordinator for the Cleveland Browns. This would not be the last time Saban would coach a professional team.
In 1995 Nick Saban accepted a position at Michigan State University as Head Coach of the Spartans. MSU was coming off five straight losing seasons. Coach Saban took the struggling team and led them to a 9-2 season by 1999. However, after accepting his next coaching position with Louisiana State University, Saban resigned from Michigan State.
It would seem that things like this happen every day, and they do. However, the resignation came weeks before the team was to play Florida State in the Citrus Bowl. This left Saban's assistant head coach, Bobby Williams (who would succeed him) to coach the bowl game. MSU defeated FSU, resulting in a great 10-2 record for the '99 season.
There is a story that makes the rounds about Saban supposedly telling his MSU assistants they had 24 hours to board a plane for Louisiana if they wanted to join him there (or something like that). Supposedly none joined him. Not sure the veracity of all that, but certainly the way he left MSU left a bad taste in some mouths.
Saban coached at LSU from 2000-2004. His credits while coaching LSU include a 2001 and 2003 SEC Championship; accompanied with an NCAA College Football Championship in '03. That year Saban also won the Paul 'Bear' Bryant Award, which is given annually to college football's coach of the year.
At the end of the 2004 season, Coach Saban decided to try his hand in the NFL again. He accepted the job of Head Coach for the Miami Dolphins. The team began the season with a disappointing 3-7 record. They pulled it together for the final 6 games, which they won consecutively to end the season at 9-7. Still, the playoffs were not in the cards for them that year.
Nick Saban has been hailed as the savior of Alabama football by most Crimson Tide fans. We shall see. The SEC is so tough. After accepting the head coaching job at the University of Alabama in January 2007, Saban has already faced some criticism.
Most notably is the criticism about Saban's restriction of the media’s access to his players and coaching staff. Coach Saban has begun alternating those days which he and the players will be available for media questions.
Although this policy has not made him any friends in the media, Nick speculates he will let up once his trust builds for the media that covers his team. Until then, we will all have to wait and see what the 2007-2008 season holds for Coach Saban and the Crimson Tide.
Update: Nick Saban had a tough first year at Alabama. But, they did win their bowl game and landed the Nations's top recruiting class in 2008. So, things are looking up.
For more information about Nick Saban and Alabama Crimson Tide Football, see 2007 Alabama Football and Alabama Crimson Tide Football History
Nick Saban Biography
Nick Saban Biography
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