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Alabama Waiting for Saban, New Year in Coaching Search

Paul Gattis reports that Mal Moore and the clowns heading up the Alabama coaching search are in no hurry.

Alabama athletic director Mal Moore seems to be waiting for the end of the college bowl season and the NFL regular season before making a push for another candidate.

But the search perhaps got some good news Sunday when the Miami Dolphins lost 21-0 to Buffalo. That defeat eliminated the Dolphins from playoff contention, meaning their season will end Dec. 31. Alabama is expected to make one last overture to Dolphins coach Nick Saban – who won the national championship at LSU in 2003 – before it makes a hire to replace Mike Shula, who was fired on Nov. 26. Saban has been at the top of the Tide’s wish list from the beginning and by waiting until the NFL season ends, it seems logical that Saban will have to tell Moore he’s not taking the job one more time.

[...]

College coaches are now into bowl preparation and it would be inappropriate at this juncture to try to pry a coach away from his team. Today also begins a dead period for recruiting, which limits contact between college coaches and high school recruits to one phone call a week or writing letters. The dead period goes until Jan. 4. With recruiting essentially shut down, there is no special urgency to hire a coach at this point.

There’s something to that. And, of course, if they land Nick Saban at the end of the day, they’ll look like geniuses. The down side, though is that this leaves open the uncertainly at Alabama, which may cause more prized recruits and assistant coaches to jump ship.

 
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“Clowns” is being kind, methinks.

Posted by Steven Taylor | December 18, 2006 | 04:48 pm | Permalink
 

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