For The Culture

In the world of college football, new coaches mean new attitudes, new voices and new ideas. Those “new” things can sometimes be good or bad for a program. Those aspects that a new coach and his assistants bring to a program are often referred to as culture. 

Culture, according to Merriam-Webster, is the set of shared attitudes, values, goals, and practices that characterizes an institution or organization 

As a coach myself, I know how tough it is to instill a set of values, goals and practices into a program. An even tougher task is to maintain that culture throughout the entire time you are there. 

One of the model programs in all of sports is headed by one of the greatest coaches of all time, Nick Saban. In fact, some even regard him as the best coach in sports history. Saban’s accolades as a head coach include six National Titles (one at LSU, five at Alabama), eight SEC Titles, 12 SEC West Division Titles, 4x SEC coach of the year and 100+ players drafted into the NFL.

Since he stepped foot in Tuscaloosa, Nick Saban has put his print on the Crimson Tide program. Saban is the culture. The arms folded, pacing back and forth on the sidelines during games; the numerous amounts of AT&T headsets that have been broken on the sideline; the number of players drafted, especially on the defensive side of the ball; the seven #1 ranked recruiting classes (and a potential eighth this year). That’s the culture of Alabama. That’s Nick Saban.

But wait, will too much success from the Crimson Tide eventually be the downfall of the dynasty that Saban has built? Do the Crimson Tide have a culture problem? These questions may seem silly, but they are based on a pattern that I have witnessed in the past few years. The amount of turnover the coaching staff has seen throughout Saban’s tenure has been substantially more than any other program in the country.  

Alabama can be seen as the junior college for coaches. As you know, players enroll in junior colleges when they either don’t qualify academically, get dismissed from one team and do not want to miss a year of eligibility or they simply do not like their options out of high school and feel like they should improve their game. So how does this relate to coaches at Alabama? Since Saban arrived in Tuscaloosa, his staff has been a revolving door for either retread head coaches or young hotshot position coaches. Let’s dive deeper:

2018

·     Former WR coach Josh Gattis is in Ann Arbor as Michigan’s Offensive Coordinator (OC).

·     Former QB coach Dan Enos is now in Coral Gables heading the Hurricanes’ offense as OC.

·     Former OC Mike Locksley is now Maryland’s head coach.

·     Former Co-DC Tosh Lupoi moves up a level and takes a job with the Cleveland Browns.

·     Former interior OL coach/Special Teams coordinator Brent Key takes a job at his alma mater, Georgia Tech.

2017

·     Brian Daboll leaves Tuscaloosa for the Buffalo Bills after one season to take the same position he held at Bama, OC.

·     Former secondary coach Derrick Ansley heads to the NFL (Oakland Raiders) to take the same position.

·     Former defensive line coach Karl Dunbar accepts the same duty with the Pittsburgh Steelers.

·     After returning to Tuscaloosa after winning a National Title with FSU, then leaving after a year to lead the Georgia Bulldogs’ defense, Jeremy Pruitt takes the Tennessee head coaching job.

2016

·     Tackles and TEs coach Mario Cristobal accepts a job as the co-OC at Oregon. 

·     Lane Kiffin leaves his OC post and accepts the head coaching title at FAU.

·     Kiffin’s departure before the National Title game paves the way for offensive assistant Steve Sarkisian to become the OC. Shortly after the title game, Sarkisian accepts the same position with the Atlanta Falcons. 

·     WR coach Billy Napier leaves to become Arizona State’s OC. 

With that amount of turnover in only a three-year span, any other program outside of the Tuscaloosa is likely to falter. But it begs the question — Is this a good or bad problem to have?

Well, it’s good for coaches who know upon arriving in Tuscaloosa that their main goal is to learn as much as they can from one of the best coaches of all-time, which will eventually lead them to more opportunities in the future. It’s bad for continuity sake within the program, however, because eventually recruits may become weary of the stability of the coaching staff they are being recruited by (i.e. Clemson’s freshman WR Justyn Ross).

If there’s one man, one coach, and one leader who can continue this great deal of success with the amount of turnover this program has endured over the years, it’s Nicholas Lou Saban Jr. I mentioned the seven #1 recruiting classes, but the most impressive part is that those seven recruiting classes all came consecutively from 2011-2017. I mentioned the constant turnover with coordinators (six leaving in the past three years) but the one constant is Nick Saban — the real leader of that defense (particularly the secondary). At the end of the day, it all goes back to hardware, and Saban has a grand total of six national titles, five with the Tide.

So, I ask the question again: does Bama have a culture problem? I say yes. Is the problem a good problem? Again, I say yes. When everyone inside and outside of your program knows the standard, knows your expectations and want to model those qualities to their program, then you’re probably pretty successful. That’s the culture you want. 

This is the good. This is the elite. This is the greatness of Nick Saban.