By RON HIGGINS, Written for the LSWA
When Nick Saban arrived by private plane in Tuscaloosa in early January 2007 after agreeing to become Alabama’s head football coach, he was mobbed by adoring fans.
But when he appeared in Baton Rouge in late November 1999 at his introductory press conference announcing him as LSU’s coach, the reception was “Who’s Nick Saban and why is LSU paying him $1.2 million a year?”
“I couldn’t believe the response and the attitude people had toward me,” Saban said.
“I was shocked. I was thinking, ‘Maybe I ought to go back where I came from.’”
Thankfully for LSU, he didn’t, and now he’ll be inducted into the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame – at last. The Class of 2025 Induction Celebration in Natchitoches is June 26-28, with information available at LaSportsHall.com.
Saban was initially elected to the LSHOF’s Class of 2020, but that spring’s global pandemic postponed ceremonies. It also altered the NCAA football recruiting calendar, which prevented then-Alabama head coach Saban from being inducted until after his retirement in January 2024.
“It’s an honor I’m really excited about,” Saban said of his upcoming induction. “I never thought I’d be considered. I know there’s a lot of great sports folks in Louisiana.”
All Saban did in five seasons from 2000-04 was save the Tigers’ program with a national championship, two SEC titles, and a 48-16 record (.750) before chasing an NFL dream as the head coach of the Miami Dolphins.
He came to Baton Rouge at a time when LSU was thirsting for success, stability, and a coach with a vision, including the elements required to build and sustain a national power.
After LSU had just two head football coaches (Paul Dietzel and Charles McClendon) in 25 years from 1955-1979, the Tigers had six coaches in 20 seasons from 1980-1999.
In that period, LSU won SEC championships in 1986 and 1988, but after the ’88 title, the Tigers had eight losing seasons in 11 years.
When LSU fired Gerry DiNardo with one game left in 1999, it already had a list of coaching candidates it wanted to pursue.
But Saban wasn’t originally on it. Saban didn’t know about the situation until he did some research.
“One of the things that piqued my interest was that when I was in the NFL, somebody did a study, probably (Bill) Belichick because he was notorious for this kind of detail,” Saban said. “The study revealed per capita which state had the most players from its colleges playing in the NFL. Louisiana was always ranked third or fourth. I always remembered that.”
It wasn’t long in Baton Rouge and especially at LSU that Saban became a force of nature.
For instance, LSU had one of the worst graduation rates in the SEC when he arrived, so his priority was obtaining a new academic center for athletes. He was told it would take two to three years for LSU to procure the money from the state legislature for such a project.”
“I told (then-new LSU athletic director) Skip (Bertman) `Let’s go raise the money,”’ Saban recalled. “Then, we were told `You’ve only got to raise $8 million for the academic center, but we want to redo this other thing here and make a big auditorium because we don’t have a big auditorium at the university, and that’s going to cost another $7 million.’
“I told Skip, `Let’s just raise $15 million and build the damn thing.’ And we raised it about three months. I kind of tricked them, though. I gave about $50,000 to start it off, so everybody I asked almost had to do that.”
Saban also noticed there wasn’t much revenue available for capital improvements. He suggested LSU finally start seat licensing, but met stern resistance.
“I was told we had loyal fans that had the same seats for years and years,” Saban said. I said, `Look, a lot of schools have done this.’ They said, `If you don’t win, we’ll get crucified for doing that.’ I said, `Put it on me then because if we don’t do it, we’re never going to have the kind of program we’re going to need to compete with all these other people.’”
Saban immediately upheld his end of the bargain.
Saban never won fewer than eight games in all of his LSU seasons. He had three bowl wins, including the BCS national title game victory in the Sugar Bowl over Oklahoma. His SEC championship game victories came against Tennessee and Georgia.
After a pair of superb recruiting classes, in 2003 Saban’s 13-1 Tigers delivered the school’s first national championship since 1958 by beating Oklahoma 21-14.
“The 2003 team had so much character that it didn’t need a leader. They thought they would win the championship long before I did.”
At the end of the 2004 season, given a $5 million per year contract and assured he’d have control of player personnel decisions, Saban became head coach of the Miami Dolphins.
But Saban and the NFL was not a good fit. He had a 15-17 record in two seasons with the Dolphins, and began looking at college vacancies.
“The best job that was available was Alabama, which happened to be a rival to the place (LSU) in which I had a tremendous amount of pride in terms of what we were able to accomplish, what we were able to do and a lot of the relationships we made,” Saban said.
Because of that, Saban became public enemy No. 1 to a segment of LSU fans who forgot how he rescued the Tigers’ program from the garbage heap.
It didn’t help Saban’s relationship with the Tigers’ faithful that he won six national titles with the Crimson Tide in 17 seasons and had a 13-5 record vs. LSU.
Upon his retirement, he joined ESPN’s College GameDay before the start of the 2024 season. He’s also had time to reflect on his career move from LSU with a tinge of regret.
“You live and learn, do things, and you find out about yourself,” Saban said. “LSU has a great atmosphere, the people are so supportive, and I have a tremendous amount of respect for that program. It’s one of the greatest places athletically in the country right now.
“Terry and I still have as many good relationships in Louisiana as any place in the world, great friends and good people. We cherish those relationships.”
It’s why Saban is genuinely touched to become the fourth LSU head football coach in the LSHOF.
“I’m very grateful to many people who contributed to the success we had when we were at LSU,” Saban said. “We had a lot of really good players and people.”
Contact Ron at ronhigginsmedia@gmail.com