AS SABAN SEEKS TITLE NO. 8, HIS PLAYERS CALL OUT HARBAUGH: A CHEATER
Digging another hole in Michigan’s year of wrongdoing, the Crimson Tide draw attention to signal-stealing dishonesty with caution about practice tape — a reminder of why their coach is atop the sport
To see Mickey Mouse sandwiching two men who’ve been called monsters, or worse, is the chuckle of the year in a sport that stretched millions into billions. College football once created a gruesome scene where Nick Saban was called a “narcissist” by Jimbo Fisher, who added he was “despicable” and “disgusting” while calling him the devil’s child. Now, Mickey is causing Saban to smile in the merry backwater of Disneyland?
“Some people think they’re God. Go dig into how God did his deal,” Fisher said. “You may find out about a guy, a lot of things you don’t want to know. We build him up to be the czar of football. Go dig into his past.”
Shoving that tale into his past is why Saban has become the all-time darling, capable of making others look like heels when Fisher insinuated he was hideous last year. It took only hours in southern California to paint the new and all-culpable monster, Jim Harbaugh, into a coach who can’t be trusted Monday in the national semifinal. Never mind the warm words Saban has for his Michigan counterpart. “A great family, the Harbaugh family,” he said. “I’ve known the dad. He used to help me when I was an old secondary coach. His brother, John? They’re great football people. I’ve got a lot of respect for the entire family.”
But at Alabama’s first press conference, consider Saban’s cunning intelligence in reminding the world that Harbaugh has been suspended six games this season. Three were for alleged recruiting violations during the COVID-19 pandemic, after which the NCAA posted notice he lied during an investigation, which makes me wonder why he’s allowed to appear on the Rose Bowl sidelines. The other three were for an elaborate scheme allowing at least one employee, Connor Stalions, to visit 30-plus stadiums and illegally steal signals. What Saban did was hearsay, per a former associate. What Harbaugh did was wrong, wrong and wrong again.
So, while Saint Nick loves hanging with Mickey and watches a fired Fisher bolt Texas A&M with a $77-million contract buyout, he used his players to take stabs at the opponents. Rather than ignore the institutional dishonesty — leading to another prime story, Harbaugh possibly grabbing an NFL head-coaching job — the Crimson Tide spoke of dramatic changes in watching practice film.
“All that sign-stealing stuff isn’t going to help them. I think they said Michigan was stealing signs the first eight weeks or something like that," receiver Isaiah Bond said. “So we're just watching film with the team, because we're not allowed to watch film on our own. We don't want any stuff like that happening again.”
“We're just trying to secure our stuff," running back Jase McClellan said. “The coaches) didn't do much explaining. They just did it, told us and we adjusted to it.”
While Saban cracked jokes — “Being taller than Mickey Mouse in that picture helped my ego a little bit,” he said — film security was the players’ mission. “We just didn’t want to take no chances,” said offensive tackle JC Latham, referring to a shutdown of iPad usage. “I think we have a really great film staff and guys who makes sure our film is pretty secure, but we’re just taking another precaution to make sure we’re all good.”
“I’m not going to get into the whole film thing like that," offensive coordinator Tommy Rees said. “I’m not talking about it. Like I said, our job is to give our players the best chance to have success on the field. We're focused on what we're trying to do, and that's really it.”
Consider it a sly reminder that Saban is pursuing his eighth championship on the collegiate level, the same number Ohio State has won and three shy of Michigan’s grand total. Harbaugh? He has lost six straight bowl games, twice in the last two playoff seasons, and still dreams of winning one title. There is reason to think his group isn’t the same powerhouse before the Stalions mess went public. His cause can’t be helped by constant NFL rumors and talk about his misconduct, disarray that hasn’t bothered Ann Arbor bosses who’ve offered him a 10-year, $125 million contract if he doesn’t pursue a next-level gig in 2024.
“Such a one-track mind, that’s the way we’ve gone about things,” Harbaugh said of the pros. “It’s literally whatever day we’re in, looking to get the most out of it. Dominate the day, then we’re gonna go to sleep tonight and wake tomorrow, and see if we can’t dominate that day. It’s a single-minded group and just very focused on taking care of business today and see if we can’t do the same tomorrow.”
Alongside him was Saban, who seems relaxed after the best coaching job of his career. His quarterback, Jalen Milroe, is larger than his latest weapon. He is the projection of Saban at age 72, still capable of gradual in-season adjustments and coaching on the fly like no other. Said Michigan defensive coordinator Jesse Minter of Milroe: “It's like Reggie Bush running the ball. It's not like a quarterback that's scrambling, and he's going to slide and (you) make sure you don't hit him so you don't get a penalty. This dude is going to run like a legit tailback or like a legit slot receiver once he's in space.”
Meantime, it’s just another season for Saban. If he wins eight titles in 20 years, seven at Alabama and one at LSU, he’ll have more in a shorter period than Tom Brady won at the Super Bowl. Or any other football coach on the planet, including Bill Belichick, who is about to be dismissed yet said of his friend: “There's nobody I respect more in football than Nick Saban. And I don't think there's anybody that's a better coach than Nick Saban.” How does the man carry on after so many years in a thankless endeavor that swallows his brethren?
“What is good, bad and ugly?” Saban said. “There’s some good plays, there’s some bad plays and some ugly plays. Aight? And everybody needs to see them.”
He shows film to players. “And I'm doing all the talking," he said. “The good ones they need to see. When they do it right, this is what happens.” And when the plays are ugly, he wants to show “the fumbling of the ball or whatever.”
The teachings are a bit deeper than that. Saban has adapted through NIL and the transfer portal as college football becomes a super-expanded creature. “We’re moving in the sort of semi-pro direction in terms of, there’s pay-for-play now. We call it name, image and likeness, but that’s pay-for-play, basically — and I’m all for the players sharing in what’s happening,” he said. “You’ve got guys transferring from one team to the next at will with very little guidelines as to how to control any of these things, and we’re gonna have a playoff very similar to the NFL. And I’m not saying any of those things are bad. I’m just saying they’re all completely changes from what we had five years ago, 10 years ago, whatever.”
And the 12-team postseason next year? “I made the statement way back when we started the playoffs, way back when we expanded the playoffs to four teams, that as soon as you have a playoff, it’s gonna minimize the importance of bowl games,” Saban said. “And that’s exactly what has happened. The more we expand the playoffs, the more we will minimize the importance of bowl games and the significance of bowl games. So no longer will you have the tradition of anybody getting reinforced for having a positive season. It’s all gonna be the playoffs.
“The traditionalists who think there should be a Pac-12 and a conference that used to be, that ship’s already sailed. It’s never gonna happen again. Decisions are gonna be made for business reasons, not traditional reasons. And I’m not saying that’s bad, either. I’m just saying it is what it is. That’s the landscape of college football, changing dramatically. We all have to adapt to it and be able to continue to compete at a high level.”
He does so by playing the ballgame much better. Whatever Jimbo said about him is lost in the man’s absurdly paid disappearance. Our focus is on Alabama’s players and the message they sent to Harbaugh. He can’t cheat against Nick Saban.
“It honestly doesn't even matter to me because, at the end of the day, they still got to go on the field to play us,” Bond said. “You can know my route, but they still got to guard me at the end of the day.”
That would be known as a double edge. Notice how Harbaugh, in the photo, holds Mickey Mouse tightly around his back. Saint Nick is a few inches away, wanting nothing of the nonsense except the signal-stealer in the Michigan hat.
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Jay Mariotti, called “without question the most impacting Chicago sportswriter of the past quarter-century,’’ writes general sports columns for Substack while appearing on some of the 1,678,498 podcasts and shows in production today. He is an accomplished columnist, TV panelist and talk/podcast host. Living in Los Angeles, he gravitated by osmosis to film projects.