Farewell to the GOAT. There will never be another like Nick Saban
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Ryan McGee, ESPN Senior Writer
Nick Saban is the best who has ever done it.
There is no argument to be made against that. None. It is a statement of fact. Any historian who says otherwise is one of those folks who spends their days surrounded by dust-covered books about the single wing, watching black-and-white films on their pocket computers, the ones who so desperately hang on to that overcooked idea that things were always better way back when. Any current observer of college football who pushes back on that point is likely a bitter fan of a team Saban’s squads regularly drubbed, or one the players or coaches who were on the rosters of those teams, denied greatness by greatness.
He’s the best. Period. And now there is a period at the end of his unparalleled career. On Wednesday afternoon, ESPN’s Chris Low broke the news that after 17 seasons as the head coach of the Alabama Crimson Tide, Saban is hanging up his headset.
Over those 17 seasons, he won a half-dozen national titles, 201 games, and 11 SEC championships during the most competitive era of any conference in the 154-year history of college football. He had a team ranked No. 1 at least once during all but two of those seasons.
Statistics like that make no sense. They don’t look real. The math looks like it cheated, and yet it all adds up to the greatest college football résumé ever written. That point is inarguable.
Bear Bryant, he who built Bama and previously held GOAT status in most minds, also won six national championships in Tuscaloosa, thanks to a willingness — after an admitted initial reluctance — to evolve, modernizing his offensive mind. At Notre Dame, Knute Rockne revolutionized the way a true college football program is constructed and steered. Frank Leahy saved what Rockne had built, revitalizing a struggling program and returning it to its former glory. At Florida State, Bobby Bowden forever changed the way rosters are recruited and assembled. Pop Warner championed safety innovations and managed to balance a hefty ego by continually campaigning to keep football healthy at its grassroots. Woody Hayes had a temper that was only slightly less combustible than a barrelful of gunpowder, but he won big games and planted a coaching tree with more branches than one could possibly keep track of.
Nick Saban did all of the above. Not only that, but he also did it all better. And while he has filled college football with his proteges — Kirby Smart, Steve Sarkisian, Lane Kiffin and Dan Lanning, to name just a few — he has also done all of the above for so long that we have forgotten exactly how long. As good as he has always looked in Crimson, he also looked pretty spiffy in Toledo blue and gold, Michigan State green and white, and LSU purple and gold. His first head coaching job was at Toledo in 1990. In the nearly 30 seasons spent on a sideline since, he posted one losing record.
At LSU and Alabama, it is tempting to slash a historical line between his arrival and everything prior. Let’s call it “Before Saban” and “After Saban” but not use the acronyms. Why? Because anyone who has ever talked with the coach knows there is no BS about him.
Before Saban, LSU hadn’t won a national title since 1958. In 2003, he fixed that. After Saban, the Tigers have added two more.
Before Saban, Bama hadn’t won a national title since 1992 and only one since Bryant’s sixth in 1979. After Saban, it has won six since 2009.
Before Saban, no Tide player had ever won a Heisman Trophy. After Saban, they’ve brought home four stiff-armed awards.
The list goes on and on. But perhaps the most telling and impactful dividing line is less BS/AS and more OS/NS, as in “Old Saban” and “New Saban.” Football-wise, that’s about his Bryant-like willingness to change his offensive philosophy. As the game increasingly sped up and spread out, he openly campaigned for rules that would keep offensive football slower and closer to his longtime pro-set, run-first beliefs. When he realized that was a losing battle, he not only embraced up-tempo offenses, he accelerated their development. He hired west coasters like Kiffin and Sarkisian. Against all odds, Alabama became the new Wide Receiver U.
But anyone who has spent even the tiniest amount of time around the coach in recent seasons knows his personal evolution has outpaced his on-field one. There has been a noticeable change in demeanor. The intensity has never wavered, but he has learned to pick his explosive spots. During a conversation in the days leading up to what turned out to be his final game as Alabama’s head coach, the 2024 Rose Bowl, he became emotional when talking about how this team and its collective personality had kept him laughing all season, even when that team looked lost just three weeks into the season. He credits his last national title team – the 2020 squad that was forced into a close-quarters bubble due to the Covid-19 pandemic – for teaching him to appreciate what was around him more, while keeping his legendary hyperfocus toward maintaining the Crimson Tide empire.
“People tell me that I smile more now. I don’t know if that is true or not. I do know that I pause to enjoy things more now than I did before. Perhaps that’s just getting older, aight? But I like to think that it’s growth. Personal growth. Proof that we never stopped growing, even when you are an old West Virginia guy with stiff joints and grandkids and dealing with a hundred teenagers every day.”
Saban chuckled.
“Here’s the deal. I love what I do, aight? I always have and always will. But yes, maybe I do appreciate it more. One day I will look back and miss it. But I don’t think that will be anytime soon. I’m too busy right now.”
That was on Dec. 15. Anytime soon, it turns out, was less than a month later. But his impact certainly won’t subside anytime soon. Because that line, the one between “Before Saban” and “After Saban” has never applied to just Alabama, or LSU, or even the SEC. As of Jan. 10, 2024, that designation of eras applies to the entirety of college football.
Aight?
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Jesse Rogers
CHICAGO — Fireworks in Chicago began early on Independence Day as the Cubs set a franchise record for a single game, hitting eight home runs on Friday, including three from first baseman Michael Busch in a rout of the St. Louis Cardinals.
“Especially to do it at Wrigley Field,” Busch said after the 11-3 win. “It’s really cool. I think that was my first three-homer game, ever. That’s one game I’ll never forget.”
Busch, 27, took Cardinals starter Miles Mikolas deep in the second and third innings then set a career mark with his third home run in the seventh off reliever John King. It was the first time a Cubs player hit three home runs in a game since Rafael Ortega on Aug. 1, 2021.
Busch wasn’t the only Cub to hit multiple home runs as Pete Crow-Armstrong hit two after making a diving catch in the first inning. Both Busch and Crow-Armstrong went 4-for-4 on the day, driving in seven of the team’s 11 runs. Busch drove in five.
The Cubs have been near the top of the league in most offensive rankings since early in the season as they extended their lead on the Cardinals to 6.5 games.
“It’s really easy to appreciate what we’re doing right now,” Crow-Armstrong said. “It’s also easy to just keep it going and not let that be something that we are dwelling on. It’s the best offense I’ve ever been a part of.”
Also homering for the Cubs on their record-setting day was designated hitter Seiya Suzuki, catcher Carson Kelly and shortstop Dansby Swanson. Manager Craig Counsell was asked to put the day in perspective considering the lengthy history of the franchise. It came a day after they beat the Cleveland Guardians 1-0.
“It’s the sport,” Counsell said with a smile. “It took us 10 innings to score one run yesterday. That’s what’s crazy about it. That’s why you turn the page every single day. We had a really good day, today.”
Mikolas set a Cardinals franchise record, giving up six of the eight home runs — all of which came in the first three innings. The Cardinals did break a scoreless streak on offense extending back to last Sunday when second baseman Brendan Donovan homered in the fourth inning. St. Louis scored two more times in the ninth off Cubs infielder Jon Berti, but by then the game was in hand.
Busch is the third Cubs player with a three-home run game against the Cardinals. In an odd twist, all three did it on Independence Day: Moises Alou on July 4, 2003, and Hank Leiber on July 4, 1939, according to ESPN Research.
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Jorge Castillo
NEW YORK — Juan Soto‘s second Subway Series experience in a Mets uniform was a far cry from his first.
In mid-May, Soto received a three-day onslaught of boos from scorned crowds in his return to Yankee Stadium and looked increasingly uncomfortable as the weekend progressed. On Friday, he felt right at home in the teams’ series opener at Citi Field, receiving a standing ovation from his home crowd before his first at-bat and reciprocating the love with a signature performance against his former team.
The soon-to-be five-time All-Star went 3-for-4 with a home run, double and single, falling just a triple shy of the cycle in the Mets’ 6-5 comeback win over the Yankees to continue his scalding stretch over the past month as the Mets won their third consecutive game and the Yankees lost their fifth straight.
“That was awesome,” said second baseman Jeff McNeil, who slashed a go-ahead two-run home run in the seventh inning. “He had a great day. Huge home run. That’s just who he is. It’s fun to watch and I feel like every time he comes to the plate, he’s going to do something cool.”
The day began with the Mets needing a quick counter after the Yankees took a two-run lead on back-to-back home runs from Jasson Dominguez and Aaron Judge to open the game and put rookie Justin Hagenman on his heels in his first career major league start. Soto, moments after absorbing the warm reception, delivered one, lifting a two-run home run to left-center field for his 21st of the season to tie the score and put Hagenman at ease.
“Juan responded right away, just getting the momentum right back,” Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said. “That was the setting-the-tone moment. ‘OK, they punch, we’re going to punch back. Here we are.'”
The 26-year-old Soto followed the two-run blast with a 108.6-mph rope of a double to center field in the third inning and a single in the fifth before cracking a 106.8-mph flyout in his final at-bat in the seventh. Two batters later, McNeil, after Pete Alonso walked to extend the inning, drove a changeup from Luke Weaver down the right-field line to give the Mets the lead.
“I just feel good right now,” Soto said. “I’m seeing the ball really well. I feel like I’m trying to take my chances when I swing the bat. I’m trying to do damage every time and try to help the team win some games.”
Much is different from the first time the Mets and Yankees met this season. Both teams have fallen from first place following dreadful stretches stemming from June 12. Both teams are dealing with various injuries to pitchers, the Mets to a greater extent. And Soto, a Yankee last season, has returned to his usual form for his new club.
Soto emerged from that three-game set in the Bronx earlier in the season with a .246 batting average and .822 OPS on the season. The relative struggles continued over the next two weeks, sinking his batting average to .229 and his OPS to .797 through June 5. The relative struggles drew the ire of fans and New York talk radio. The early return on the Mets’ $765 million investment was one of the few blips in the team’s splendid start.
The storyline has since flipped. Since June 6, Soto is hitting .348 with 10 home runs and a 1.185 OPS in 27 games, earning National League Player of the Month honors for June. On the season, his 21 home runs are tied for ninth in the majors and his .916 OPS is seventh. It’s production the Mets expected — and the production the Yankees know all about.
“It’s pretty special,” Mendoza said. “Every time he’s at the plate, you feel good about your chances. And when we got guys that are getting on base and we’re turning the lineup over and getting him at the plate as many times [as possible] when he’s going like that, it’s a pretty special feeling.”
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