So, who’s gonna be the idiot? No offense, but who’s it gonna be? Because you’d have to be absolutely crazy to follow Nick Saban at Alabama.
It’s gonna take balls, that’s for sure. And that’s an understatement. It’s also going to take someone who wants to take a major risk with their career. How do you follow a guy who won seven national titles? How do you follow a guy with a 201-29 record at Alabama with a 117-18 record in the death trap SEC? The answer? You don’t. What you want to be is the guy who follows the guy after he’s fired in 2026 for having a couple of 4 loss seasons. That’s the guy you want to be.
The perfect hire, honestly? It’s OC Tommy Rees. He’d make a good amount of money, and he’d keep the culture the same while failing to live up to the expected 11-win standard. Rees could maybe go 16-8 in his two years and create a nice buffer for Dan Lanning, Kalen DeBoer, Mike Norvell, or Lane Kiffin so they can swoop in and run a program that’s not on death’s door but have lesser expectations.
So if I’m an Alabama fan it would be great to land one of the big names out there but whoever it is will be set up for failure. Suffer for a couple of year with Rees, then land that hot, big name coach who can deal with less pressure and go on a nice run.
You’ll never win six nattys in the span of 17 seasons again, we all know this. But your program can be sustained and remain on an upwards trajectory. You just need a sacrificial lamb that no one cares about.
