By Hunt Palmer
Nick Saban held offers from a legend from Miami and a legend in Miami.
And he made a mistake.
Those aren’t my words—they were his on Ryan Clark’s podcast, The Pivot, released this week.
Saban recalled the story of his excruciating decision between staying at LSU—where he had won a national championship two years earlier and had set in motion a program destined for greatness—or leaving to coach the Miami Dolphins at the highest level of the sport.
Skip Bertman made his offer. Wayne Huizenga made his.
Saban stood on the balcony outside Bertman’s office with agent Jimmy Sexton as decision time drew near. Sexton posed an ambitious, now prophetic question.
“Do you want to be Vince Lombardi or do you want to be Bear Bryant,” he asked.
Saban answered without hesitation.
“Bear Bryant.”
Somehow, Saban chose Lombardi’s path that day and still secured a legacy comparable to Bryant’s—at the expense of LSU, whose campus he stood on when making that decision.
Nick Saban only has one regret… leaving LSU. Sitting on then LSU athletic Director’s Skip Bertman’s balcony Nick’s agent Jimmy Sexton asked…
“Do you want to be Bear Bryant or Vince Lombardi?”Without hesitation Saban answered “Bear Bryant”. Still, he made the decision to… pic.twitter.com/l6ikTPa9RC
— Ryan Clark (@Realrclark25) January 21, 2025
On Christmas Day, 2005, Saban bolted for Miami, wrecking a Louisiana Christmas in such a fashion even The Grinch could have only fantasized about it.
Since that day, his relationship with the state has been complicated. Some pulled for his Dolphins, even in a bizarre Tiger Stadium game against the hapless Saints who were displaced by Hurricane Katrina. Some detested him the second Iowa walked off his tenure at LSU with a Drew Tate Hail Mary to Warren Holloway in the Capital One Bowl.
As he told Clark this week, Saban quickly came to realize he preferred the college game, but the runway he had built Les Miles led to far too much success for an immediate return to LSU. Alabama’s job opened up and back to the SEC West he came.
The roster he left Miles included—let’s just list them all: Joseph Addai, Andrew Whitworth, JaMarcus Russell, LaRon Landry, Dwayne Bowe, Craig Davis, Glen Dorsey, Chevis Jackson, Jacob Hester, Early Doucet, Craig Steltz, Matt Flynn and Tyson Jackson.
That’s seven first round picks, which don’t include Whitworth, who is headed to the Hall of Fame, Kyle Williams, who played 13 NFL seasons, and Flynn, who quarterbacked a title team.
Saban left Miles seven first rounders on one roster. Texas has produced seven first rounders since 2008. Auburn has produced seven since 2006.
It’s not hyperbole or wishful thinking to suggest Saban at LSU, with the Alabama Mike Shula left behind presenting very little threat, would have won more than Saban’s Alabama program. Instead, Saban directly derailed at least two LSU title bids in 2011 and 2012.
Say what you will about 2015, when an unbeaten LSU team was smoked in Tuscaloosa, or 2023, when a Heisman winner had to be helped off the field Bryant-Denny Stadium turf.
LSU was only able to return the favor once in 2019, when its team was good enough to beat Clemson to hoist another trophy.
Outside of that, Cam Newton and the Kick Six were all that stood between Saban and more titles.
Over that period, Saban’s approval rating plummeted in Baton Rouge. There’s only so much respect and loyalty you can have for the bully who built you up and then turned around and kicked your tail for a decade and a half.
I believe two things.
First, Saban is content with the greatest run in college football history he enjoyed at Alabama.
Second, bringing LSU from the ashes to never-before-seen heights would have been preferable to being the next legendary coach and the third title coach in 30 years at Alabama.
His mistake wasn’t becoming the head coach at Alabama. That decision saved his career. His mistake was failing to realize LSU was where he could become Mike Krzyzewski, Bobby Bowden or…Bertman.
While Saban may have eclipsed what those men accomplished in terms of titles, they turned relatively obscure programs into national powers.
Many Tiger fans spent 15 years detesting the wrecking ball that Saban constructed in Tuscaloosa. It destroyed nearly every November from 2008 to 2022.
Now that he’s adorning the Gameday set, instead of roaming the sidelines, his presence doesn’t feel as menacing. And this week’s quotes may provide closure to some.
On Tuesday, every outlet churned out way-too-early rankings for 2025. LSU was in the Top 10 of nearly all of them. The Tigers are seen as a threat nationally nearly every summer.
Two decades later, that’s largely due to Saban.
When the 2003 team reconvenes for its 25th anniversary in three years, Saban will finally be able to attend. After two decades of boos, the Tiger Stadium chorus should shift that day.
There’s only one team to honor from Saban’s time in Baton Rouge, not the six in Tuscaloosa, but two more climbed the mountain after he left.
I’ve seen worse mistakes.
