The crazy part is Stanford could come in and crush us all in today’s landscape if they actually wanted to. I just don’t think they care to.
It will, but like you said, it's way more nuanced than that. The goat retiring plays a huge role but it won't get near as much play as the nil and transfer portal. Granted those things played a large role in him retiring but him retiring and Bama coming back to earth helps even the field a lot tbh.
Knowing I experienced the greatest dynasty in major college sports during the prime years of my life always helps me sleep at night after a bad day.
Those assholes would run absolute circles around everyone else from both a money and strategy perspective. I can only imagine the analytics department they’d put together for player evaluation.
Right, if there are two teams who's fan bases I won't feel bad for in the slightest over the next few decades, it's Bama's and the Patriots. Also you assholes have my Dolphins to thank for that. If Saban never leaves LSU for the pros there's no telling if he would've ever gone to Bama
If it wasnt already, it should have been. Know Ive posted that nearly every major cfb reform this century was done for competitive parity i.e. to export and disperse a concentrated talent base. (still think the sport enterprise wide needs reform - via the NFL - on that front esp with declining participation rates out west.)
bama fans now hanging their hats on graduation rate while nd is in the championship, I might have been shipped to an alternate universe.
We thought we had Downs out of high school, then when Saban left he transferred. Let’s not use the bag as the narrative for that one. Judkins yes. McLaughlin, you ran off.
You know you're heading towards rock bottom when you start talking about academics in a sport where the players are just on the payroll now
It was that way under Saban as well. Honestly, one of the greatest parts of his legacy. He put as much emphasis on getting a degree and preparing kids for life after the game as he did playing the game itself.
yeah I know, that was part of his genius. He was recruiting the best of the best but also making sure the kids were bought in. A true coach that was developing men to be the best they could be in life.
Saban was just a damn good dude and you can see that by the way “most” and I put an emphasis on most here carry themselves as professionals in the league and not single one of those guys has a bad thing to say about Saban. In a sport where most coaches are chuds the best one of all time wasn’t and helped turned his players from boys to men It’s not talked about enough how Saban was not just as a great coach but seemingly a great person. Seems a like a great dude at least from a far
ND fans tend to only look at NIL through a narrow lense of bag vs non bag school it’s a problem for us and yes Northern schools cheated prior to NIL including ND
He knew that he couldn’t expect full discipline on the football field without expecting it off the field too. You can’t allow it to become an on/off switch. That’s one of many reasons why he’s the GOAT
He’s far from perfect, but I hope now that he’s removed from Bama, more laid back, and accessible to the general CFB public other folks realize this too.
One of the things that brought down Urban, and we saw what happened when Urban went to the pros. His Florida teams were a reflection himself, fantastic coach, dogshit human
Lol Downs got a huge bag. That's known. Bama was going through a huge change and OSU pounced. Not mad, that's the game now. Yea Seth couldn't come back. He needed a change, his head was toast at Bama.
There’s a reason every one of his peers is clamoring for him to become the commissioner of college football. He was so incredibly good at realizing how changes in the landscape would open holes that would get taken advantage of over time. And to his credit he was always super transparent about it. He would call it out as an issue to everyone. Tell everyone why it’s a problem. And then he would be more excellent at taking advantage of that problem than everyone else. He’s the perfect person for that job.
Saban campaigning for Doug Jones when he ran against that fucking pedophile kind of gave everyone a hint the kind of guy he was. It's prob what helped Jones get the Senate seat too
Saban complaining about OL blocking downfield on RPOs and how it would ruin the sport after an Auburn loss. Everyone chalked it up as sour grapes. He then hires Sark to run an RPO offense and puts together the best offense college football has ever seen. Ruthless That’s the dude I want running the sport. He’s an absolute visionary in an occupation full of glorified Neanderthals.
Saban going from ground and pound offense with a bunch of statue whites at QB to running a wide open fuck you up spread with athletes at QB (which I'm sure his boosters weren't exactly too keen on at first) was not something I saw coming
Lane made the transition and then Sark took it to another level. Yall enjoy the natty while I reminisce.
And this is why I like continuing engaging with dbl. You can find common ground after an initial disagreement and then it just becomes dudes talking ball. I think it’s a good example of why a lot of people stick around here long term
Saban nuking ND in 2012 with size caused Brian Kelly to spend 7 years building a Bama knock off only to get nuked by Saban’s new look Tide in the CFP’s was hilarious. Both those games were like watching two teams playing different sports Saban is untouchable on that football coaches mountain
No doubt we paid Downs, but we were also heavily involved in his initial recruitment. He didn't just come to Ohio State for money. He is too good of a football player for that.
Gwinnettians don’t come cheap. And they rarely pan out, which makes Downs worth it and then some. Kid was NFL ready mentally since his junior year of high school.
Sure he got paid. He would have been paid if he stayed at Alabama too. He didn’t leave because of money.
You’re right. He left because Saban retired and money. He wasn’t leaving if Saban stayed, I promise you that. And after he entered the portal, OSU had to make pops an offer he couldn’t refuse to keep him from UGA. It is known, and as I said prior, worth every penny.
No one ever said he did. We lost the Downs recruitment because of Saban and we got him back because of Saban. Downs’ dad grew up with our DB coach Tim Walton and we finished second because of Saban. When Saban left, we finished first.
“My football team won and you’ll never experience that feeling. Have fun posting on your message board” He posts on a message board. Amazing
If it’s a bit, which I’m no longer sure of, steamengine is as good of a character actor as you’ll find.