Who was/is the better coach: Bear Bryant or Nick Saban?

#27
#27
Some are confusing when certain conference tie-ins began to take shape. For a while, the Rose and the Sugar were the only bowls with guaranteed spots for conference champs. The Orange and Cotton had little more than handshake agreements with the Big 8 and SWC, respectively.

And the Sugar often worked with other bowls to trade off teams from year to year in order to produce 'championship' matchups. Notice that Bama won the SEC in '64, '65, and '66. They played Texas in the Orange in '64, Nebraska in the Orange in '65, and Nebraska in the Sugar in '66. The hard and fast bowl tie-ins are a fairly recent deal.
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#28
#28
Better still is the four team playoff scenario coming soon. The more the actual results depend on coaching and opportunity, the better coach Bryant would have done. That's all anyone really needs to know in this debate.
 
#30
#30
bamawriter said:
Not true. Depending on when we're talking about, Ok St would have been contractually bound to the Orange and Bama likely would have gotten the at large spot in the Sugar. The Sugar has been played between two SEC teams on a few occasions.

If it had been during the brief Alliance/Coalition days, Bama would definitely have gotten in as they were #2 in both polls.
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The last time two SEC teams played each other in the Sugar Bowl was 1964. You're probably right about Okla St being bound to the Orange or Fiesta, but that would match LSU against a team like the ACC/Big Least champ, or an at large like Boise.
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#31
#31
VolFan4Life87 said:
In all honesty I would have to say "to be determined." Saban still has some years in him but if you really wanna compare the two, compare Saban's years at Mich. St. vs Bear's tenure at KY. Could Saban win an SEC championship at piss poor KY? Who knows. I love speculating about this kinda stuff though
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We aren't talking about the modern SEC here..
 
#32
#32
Yes and no. We are critiquing the relative accomplishments of two great coaches whose careers spanned disparate eras.
 
#33
#33
TUSKalooa, you hint at an interesting point and one that I did not make explicitly clear in my original question. I was thinking in terms of comparing the two men based primarily on their careers at Alabama, without reference to preceding tenures at other universities. I figured that such a question might elicit particularly interesting responses from the Alabama faithful.
 
#34
#34
Volosaurus rex said:
TUSKalooa, you hint at an interesting point and one that I did not make explicitly clear in my original question. I was thinking in terms of comparing the two men based primarily on their careers at Alabama, without reference to preceding tenures at other universities. I figured that such a question might elicit particularly interesting responses from the Alabama faithful.
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It's difficult to compare six seasons to 25.

That said, I think the modern era is much more difficult, what with scholarship limits and a much more competitive SEC.
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#36
#36
bamawriter said:
Not true. Depending on when we're talking about, Ok St would have been contractually bound to the Orange and Bama likely would have gotten the at large spot in the Sugar. The Sugar has been played between two SEC teams on a few occasions.

If it had been during the brief Alliance/Coalition days, Bama would definitely have gotten in as they were #2 in both polls.
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So now we are talking WWF days?
 
#37
#37
99gator said:
during some of bear's time, the national title was given before the bowl. so, that would have caused some problems. then, there is the old bowl system

2003 season. this was a split title as it is. without the bcs and lsu playing oklahoma, i don't know if they get the votes over usc on the coach's side. just a possibility

2009 season. alabama and texas would not have played one another. alabama would have at least earned a split title, if not the whole thing. but, it's also possible the title would be split.

2011 season. no way in hell. lsu would have played someone else in bear's era. no doubt in my mind. the only way bama wins the title is if someone else beat lsu and then there would have been a whole voting dilemma. because of conference tie ins, i'm not sure lsu would have played someone good enough to do it.

2012 season. alabama would have gone to the sugar. notre dame could have chosen to duck alabama and go to another bowl. not saying notre dame would have ducked alabama, but that kind of crap used to happen. if notre dame goes somewhere else and wins, they are champ.

sometimes the old system worked to a school's advantage, sometimes it doesn't.

florida doesn't win the national title in 1996 without the format that existed at that time. any earlier or later in time, they don't get a rematch with fsu. today, fsu would have played arizona state and that would have been it.

under the old system in 2006, #1 ohio state goes to the rose bowl. maybe they beat usc, maybe they don't. but, it would have been out of their control.

under the old system in 2008, oklahoma goes to the orange bowl and florida goes to the sugar bowl. who knows how the voters would vote?

basically, under the old system, in most years if you weren't #1 going into the bowl, winning a national title was usually out of your control.

i don't know how often that worked to bear bryant's benefit or detriment
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LSU wouldn't have been playing Oklahoma in 2003 for the same reason you gave for 2008.
 
#38
#38
YorkVol said:
Didn't Bryant win everywhere he went? Saban has been successful but not a champion at each stop, so it would seem Bryant even though he couldn't beat the General.
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TAM won 1 game his first season there. Case in point here -- in 1969 and 1970 his Alabama teams were 6-5 and 6-5-1 -- yet he didnt get fired like CPF did for 2 lousy seasons. I pick the Bear also just because he came back from those down seasons a winner
 
#42
#42
508mikey said:
TAM won 1 game his first season there. Case in point here -- in 1969 and 1970 his Alabama teams were 6-5 and 6-5-1 -- yet he didnt get fired like CPF did for 2 lousy seasons. I pick the Bear also just because he came back from those down seasons a winner
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He had no losing seasons at Bama. CPF had two in his last four seasons. And, CPF did it in an era where schools change coaches a lot quicker than in Bryant's time.
 
#43
#43
508mikey said:
TAM won 1 game his first season there. Case in point here -- in 1969 and 1970 his Alabama teams were 6-5 and 6-5-1 -- yet he didnt get fired like CPF did for 2 lousy seasons. I pick the Bear also just because he came back from those down seasons a winner
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Wasn't he also the AD?
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#48
#48
Here is an impressive nugget of information to chew on with respect to the success Saban has enjoyed in recruiting: "The [2013 draft] picks upped Saban’s total of first-round draft picks to 14 during his six seasons at Alabama. That mark is significant: Saban’s 14 first-rounders pushes the coach past legendary Crimson Tide coach Bear Bryant in that regard, as Bryant produced 13 first-round picks with Alabama. The difference? It took Bryant 25 seasons to get to that number in Tuscaloosa, according to AL.com’s Jon Solomon" (Nick Saban passes Bear Bryant for most first-round NFL draft picks at Alabama | Campus Union - SI.com).

With the scholarship limitations now in place, one really has to be impressed by Saban's stockpile of talent. He has replaced Pete Carroll as the "Pied Piper of college football recruiting."
 
#49
#49
Nick Saban is the greatest college football coach in the sport's history. Maybe someone will usurp him 50 years down the road, but right now it's not even close.
 
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#50
#50
Two superior coaches. Two very different era’s.
Ponder this…what if Bryant had had access to the same resources ---from allocated (University) funds, to more efficient travel, to media, to technology, etc.--- as Saban? Would he have more success in terms of W’S vs. L’s? Produced more AA’s? Won more NC’s? Had more players drafted (NFL)? Etc.,. And, would Saban had been as successful if he had coached during Bryant’s time?
 
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