Coaching GOAT statistics-request for Blue@LSU

FYI: Bill Connelly's case for Saban as the GOAT isn't paywalled.

Count the rings. He's the greatest. You can get all the talent in the world you still have to coach them.

If he were at Texas AM they would have multiple trophies.

Getting NFL talent on your roster is part of the job tho...Bo out talented the Big Ten too, so did Kipke and Crisler

He never went 15-0

College coaches have been bending the rules in all kinds of ways forever, including financial inducements, fake jobs, and bending/ignoring academic standards.

Only a few of those cheaters have won NCs, and nobody as many as Saban did in the modern era. He's been a tremendous coach.

Was he really a better coach than Bryant or Royal or Wilkinson or Parseghian or McKay, just to name a few other greats? I don't know, but the results sort of speak for themselves.

I often make the argument against whiners early this season that we, 'hadn't played anybody' that a team can only play the team in front of them.  Win your games.  So that said, Saban played with the players he had and against the opponents he had, and won his games, good on him.

That said, do I think Barry Bonds or Mark McGwire are the greatest home run hitters of all time?  No, sorry, they had an extra boost that wasn't supposed to be used.  It's very easy to say the lack of NCAA oversight on paying players (and the SEC deliberately protecting the schedules of it's top teams) gave Saban an edge - and I don't have proof.  Still, I don't think it's any coincidence that formal opening of NIL and the sudden come-to-earth of the SEC happened simultaneously.  'Bama's still Bama, and they're going to be good, but when Bama's not the big bag anymore, they'll prove to be just another top school.  

Saban will never be the, "GOAT" coach of college football to me.  A good coach, and all due respect for taking care of the opponents in front of him, but dude had a stool to stand on that much of the rest of the country didn't; it sure makes it easier to stand tallest.

Eh he’s pretty obviously one of the best of all time. I used to dislike him but then heard his players talk after the Michigan game. Seemed like great kids; he must be doing something right. 

There are always guys on twitter who try to diminish all of Tom Brady's Super Bowls to say he isn't the GOAT and this post reads like that. Hate to break it to you but winning with more talent doesn't diminish what Saban has done because talent acquisition is part of the job description of being a college football head coach. 

I mean Michigan and OSU have (for decades) had a significant talent disparity relative to the rest of the B1G, I don't think that diminishes what any of our coaches have done so I'd hardly hold that against Saban.

I'm 44 so there was obviously an era of modern college football before me, but to me there's no question he's the greatest college coach of the time that I've observed and I don't think it's particularly close.

Saban was only fired once.

40+ years ago as a DBs coach.

Hard to argue with the record they've had since he got there.  And with recency bias he will be considered GOAT - for now.

But you could argue that Bama was already a major brand and had legendary coaches that built their program.  The foundation was always there.  Add in how the SEC teams, and Bama certainly no execption - skirted rules for decades while the NCAA "enforcers" just looked the other way.  Even when grits topped with cheese were involved.

And saying that you could make the argument that Bobby Bowden, again somewhat recency bias, built an unknown into a powerhouse for 3+ decades.  

Saban doesn't get nearly enough credit for his MSU run, in my opinion.

In 1999, MSU went 10-2, with victories over 5 different teams (ND, U-M, OSU, PSU, Florida*) that were among the 13 winningest programs over the decade of the 1990s.

That was a heck of a year for MSU.  The year prior, they beat a powerhouse OSU team in Columbus.  The year before that, they had multi-touchdown wins over very good ND and PSU teams.  

Saban's MSU teams were a bit inconsistent, they'd lose some games they shouldn't have (and, well, that happened at Alabama too, if we're being honest, strange losses to the likes of Ole Miss and Texas A&M).  But they tended to over-achieve versus the big boys.

Shoot: even his one year at Toledo.  Won a MAC Title right away, they weren't particularly good before or after him (it took Gary Pinkel several years to build them up through the 1990s).

Point being, it's not just LSU & Alabama.  Saban was damn good at ALL FOUR of his college football stops.

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* Bobby Williams was technically the coach for the Florida game (Citrus Bowl), but that was Saban's program.

Thanks for the shoutout, WestQuad. I've been thinking about another data project and this looks like a fun one. I just need a way to either aggregate multiple years of data into a single score or find a way to present multiple data points without it being too crowded. (If anyone has any suggestions, I'd be happy to read them). It's the start of the semester, so it might take me a week or so to put it together. 😊

Like a lot of people here said, I think he's pretty clearly a great coach. But I also think it's a valid question to wonder whether/how much he performed above what would be expected given the composition of his rosters.