There were signs that Bama was behind the curve on the way things work now with NIL and the portal. Saban was the best recruiter in the land because he could offer kids the single most reliable way of becoming NFL millionaires. Today, in a world where kids can become millionaires without ever reaching the NFL, that is just slightly less compelling of an offer. If you're a hot prospect, you have literally never failed on a football field in your life before, and you are confident that you will make it in the NFL no matter what you do because you're 18 and feel invincible, do you come to Alabama to work hard and Trust the Process or do you come to Miami to party on booster money?
Lane Kiffin gets this new reality. Lanning does too. Dabo, no. Saban, to me, looks like he grudingly got it (the same way he grudlingly eventually got huddle-up offenses and RPOs) but didn't really want to keep doing it. Maybe he also saw his good friend BB circling the drain and decided he didn't want things ending that way for him.
2023 might be one of Saban's best actual coaching jobs because the team looked awful early in the year and then won the SEC title. How did they get that good between Week 3 and championship week? Coaching probably had a lot to do with it.
Ironically, Saban did better there either last season. I think the big change is that it's much harder to keep a decent qb on the bench because they no longer have to sit out a year. That means you have to get that one position right every year. Lanning looks great now because he bet right on Bo Nix. If he's wrong next year, he'll drop off of everyone's list
