John Clay's Sidelines

As you might expect, column on Nick $aban and his salary did not sit well with Alabama supporters.

Some excerpts:

Nathan from Daytona Beach, Fla. wrote:

Pardon me if I say this, even though we are not what you call ld friends, but what an absolutely idiotic and buffoon-like column. All I can say is who would you rather have today leading your team out of the tunnel in Tuscaloosa?. Saban or Rich Brooks. If your answer is Brooks, then you need to retire from sports writing today.

Mike wrote:

I read your article about Coach Saban yesterday.  Don’t you think UK fans would pay $32M over 8 years to have a basketball coach of equal quality to Coach Saban?

Brad wrote:

In your article on Coach Sabans salary and whether it is good for the game you failed to mention that his starting salary was only slightly more than what Bob Stoops was making at that time and after Sabans first season atleast two or three coaches received raises that have them making more than Coach Saban now. Why all the hate for a man that is undoubtedly one of the best college football coaches ? Not to mention that he took a pay cut to come back to the college level.

Cmon, this article is ridiculous.  Do you realize how many coaches are making between 3-4 mill?  Also who the heck knows how much Weiss really makes, but I bet it’s around 4.  You UK people are being just a tad hypocritic.  Let’s say in this last coaching search Larry Brown had shown serious interest in UK?  Would they have said no, 4 mill is too much?  Also I’m sure if UK offered Brooks 4 mill he’d get off his high horse to accept it.

Alex wrote:

I read your article today and, I must say, it reeks of biased and uninformed journalism.  Unfortunately, that seems much more to be the norm than the exception today.

Just thought I’d let you in on a couple little secrets.  Despite all the media frenzy concerning Saban’s hire and “outrageous” contract, he is only the 5th highest paid head coach in division 1, I’m sorry, FBS Football.  Also, at the time he signed that contract, he was only the fourth highest paid FBS Head Coach.

Why is there no outcry towards Bob Stoops, Pete Carroll, Charlie Weis, or Les Miles???

You could make the argument that all but Weis have “earned” those contracts with time and results, but couldn’t that be said of any highly paid head coach?  And as for which of those coaches seems to be “all about the money”, I think the argument could be made that Les Miles takes the cake on that one.  He is, after all, making $1000 a year more than Saban because of a clause in his contract that stated if he won a National Championship he automatically became the highest paid coach in the SEC.  As for Saban being “all about the money”, I would think that a $1 Million donation to the University for a Scholarship endowment would kind of negate that theory.  Perhaps not.