It's always in the variables and intangibles because in the end almost everything is based on teamwork. It's an old cliché; but when it's about teamwork, the weakest link is the key. It not necessarily the coach, but if the pieces don't meld together properly, it's not going to work. The collegiate coaching world recently got a couple of other huge variables tossed in, too - NIL and the portal. Now there are even other skillsets involved beyond the normal recruiting, teaching, molding, and directing. I'd tend to bet that Saban looked at it all and decided he didn't need all this new crap to deal with - things that go beyond coaching but have to be managed to make the coaching work.
Johnny Majors did well coaching at Pitt, and was mediocre here. Doug Dickey worked well here and flopped at FL. Doug Dickey and Bill Battle were iffy as coaches but both were successes as ADs. Fulmer was pretty good as a coach, but not so much as an AD. It just doesn't seem to mean that everything transfers well from one place to another, and success is not guaranteed. That's not to say that it makes sense to go buy a Butch Jones and think you're going to be successful though.
