Good god. How is this arrogance or delusion? I maintained the whole time that I didn't think he would come to Texas and that it didn't make sense for him to leave the current top program in football. That said, there was a time earlier this week that a good portion of the mainstream media (not just the Texas or Austin-based outlets) was reporting Saban to Texas as a done deal. Perception is reality, and we are perceived to be able to hire a guy like that. That's all I'm saying. Jesus Christ.
Right, so what is the contention here? If Sexton/Saban had these same discussions with Baylor or Texas Tech, it wouldn't have bought them any leverage. There are a select few programs that could, and Texas is one of them. Bama just threw the guy a 40% raise to make him the highest paid coach in college football by nearly $3mm. That doesn't happen without a perceived threat.
In the deluded longhorn insiders world, perception is reality. In the real world, Nick Saban says "I never considered going to Texas." You don't see the parallel to Laker fans? That arrogance is there.
Just fire Mack. They can do it. Don't expect him to fall on the sword. This has been his whole life. Just grow some balls and fire him. I get the blame in recruiting and handling of assistants. I don't get the hate in that he won't fire himself.
There is no contention. I'm just saying that just because Texas could be perceived as a threat doesn't mean they ever were a threat.
Whatever, man. I'd like to live in your world where employers hand out 40% raises to guys under contract for 7 more years without a perceived threat.
No mainstream media was reporting Saban-to-Texas as a done deal. None. There were some reporting it as a possibility and others laughing it off, but no one except "insiders" at Texas ever claimed it was a done deal.
No one has ever questioned that the richest athletic department in the country could get almost any coach they wanted or that Texas isn't one of the 2 or 3 top jobs in college football. I think the only perception this enhanced was that Texas thinks they can simply buy anyone they want. And in this case, it turned out they couldn't, which just makes Texas look even more ridiculous.
That statement is not supported by history. Just look at where UT-Austin branch's most recent head coaches came from. UNC, Illinois Champaign-Urbana, Texas Tech and Purdue.
The most recent hire was 15 years ago, in a different conference, in a different media landscape, during a time when games never sold out, etc. Texas' position today is very different from then. It wasn't the richest program in the country back then.
On the plus side, anything that takes away power from the big money donors is a good thing. They are fans like anyone else - they shouldn't be running things just because they have money. The AD should be in charge and have full authority - no one else. Right now, Mack seems to be in charge, and that's no better - but in the long run, anything that weakens the influence of BMDs is a huge plus.
We should censor it like hoops world. I think he just reposted something a random guy said on the message board. Don't blame Mack that you were wrong about being positive saban was coming. That's what you get when you take rumors as fact and dare others to prove them wrong.
