Saban left Dolphins as a loser, weasel

BY DAN LE BATARD
dlebatard@MiamiHerald.com

The punctuation on the Nick Saban Dolphin Error is greasy and greedy. You know what he was as Dolphins coach? A failure. A loser. A gasbag. And one of the worst investments Dolphins owner Wayne Huizenga has ever made. He was less of a success than Dave Wannstedt and more of a traitor than Ricky Williams. There has been very little in franchise history that came with more expectations and fewer results than this hypocrite who at the end avoided the hard questions one last time.

Talk like a warrior. Behave like a weasel.

Maybe Saban would be better off in college. Because, in the pros the last few days, he has looked like a complete and utter amateur.

He will be remembered in these parts as a quitter and a liar. He leaves the franchise in last place, with what used to be his good name somehow far lower than that. And for this he’ll get a $25 million raise and more job security in Alabama. Makes you wonder what USC’s Pete Carroll or Ohio State’s Jim Tressel are worth, doesn’t it?

Larry Coker, a decent man, gets fired for his one championship. Saban, a duplicitous one, gets the most lucrative job in college football.

Saban could have fixed his reputation today if he had that mental toughness he is always sermonizing about. We have the meandering spiel memorized by now. About ”competitive character” and ”overcoming adversity” and blah, blah, blah. You preach it, Nick. But you don’t live it. Not when it’s easier to run away and hide.

Miami, 6-10 against an easy schedule, was swept this year by younger teams in its division — the Jets and Bills. The team isn’t better than when Saban arrived, just older. What little winning Saban has done has been with players left for him by Jimmy Johnson and Dave Wannstedt. What’s the best decision Saban has made in two years? Can you name one?

So it makes sense that he would lack hope. But when his players are losing, he asks them to be proud and fight and overcome, even though what they do hurts a hell of a lot more than what he does. But now, reputation in tatters, integrity stained, he runs away from this fight — to be a dictator to kids who question less and have less power to challenge him. Of course he’d go. It’s a good deal easier. And a new crowd eager for a savior can hear his hot-air speeches about being a gladiator.

Saban made Huizenga look like a public fool with all his condescending talk of integrity recently, reprimanding reporters at every turn while his agent secretly kept taking slimy calls from Alabama in the shadows. What a raging fraud Saban sounds like today, every bit as counterfeit as Miami’s Super Bowl expectations.

Oh, a man, even one under contract, is allowed to change his mind and listen to other offers, especially those that double his salary. But what makes Saban’s behavior so unctuous recently is that he had the audacity to question the questioners with super-sized arrogance even while lying all along to his players and his boss. Huizenga has given this man everything he has wanted — given him more than any NFL owner anywhere has given any other coach. He deserves better than this. He deserves better than Saban leaving him to answer the hard questions today.

Makes you wonder, too: Huizenga went after Ricky Williams and his money with cutthroat zeal, and Williams is still paying him back. But Saban just broke a contract, too. There are no outs in Saban’s contract to go back to the minor leagues.

Remember how mad you were when Williams retired? Well, he wasn’t cheating on you. He wasn’t grabbing for more money. His body hurt from a beating, and he wanted to rest. What Saban has done is a more traitorous act — the most traitorous act in the history of the franchise. He’s leaving simply because he couldn’t handle a hard job on the sidelines of a game in which he asks others to be violent. He gave up, in other words. And filing it under ”family” now as a diluter, in search of understanding, rings hollow because you can’t believe anything the man says about this situation. You think he’d be leaving if he were 3-13?

Saban, infomercial sermonizer, talked a lot about loyalty and integrity and toughness.

But, in the end, these were not his guides.

They were only the kinds of things he demanded of others.

i know that the game will be a great one, and i am making the drive down from Boone. See ya on Saturday boys. GO NEERS!

1. You should have lost about 5 games last year. Your team lucked up and if not for more than a few fortunate breaks… they would likely have ended the season closer to .500 than National Champions.

2. You don’t have a proven quarterback… Les Miles kicked Perrilouxx off of the team and now you will be facing a 3-time national champion without a decent quarterback. Our quarterback, Armanti Edwards, will be your worst nightmare as well… If you fear Tim Tebow… Imagine him 200-fold. Armanti runs a 4.3 second 40, he completes over 70% of his passes and has rushed for over 1500 yards and thrown for over 2000 yards each of his first 2 seasons (BTW… He Missed 4 games last year).

3. Jerry Moore is a much better coach than Les Miles. Appalachian State does not leave Boone expecting to lose. They route whoever they play no matter what stage it is on. As someone above stated… We should have beaten Michigan by well over 20-25 points if not for a few mishaps. Our defense is proven… and even though you play in the “SEC” which is allegedly “The best football conference in America”… we will run right past you in every faucet of the game. LSU benefits from a weaker schedule (Mississippi State, Ole Miss, and Auburn are in no way close to the SEC East teams of Georgia, Florida, or even South Carolina). You guys are weak and have never faced a team remotely similar to us. We have a quarterback who is like Michael Vick with Peyton Manning’s arm, wide receivers who are faster, bigger, and stronger than anyone who has recently came out of the SEC, and a defense that doesn’t just go for the tackle… we go for the kill, we will bang you up, frustrate you, and we take no prisoners.

Feel free to email me with your comments. If anyone wants to place a bet as well… I have LSU as a 7.5 point underdog to Appalachian State. Think carefully about what I have said before putting up the house in this one…. because on August 30th you will be in shock as Death Valley will be silent.

LSU won’t be unprepared and will do all to look like repeat champions. If they hit on all cylinders it will be a blowout.

He plays FB position at the goal line on offense and does it well.