The AP named Alabama’s Nick Saban coach of the year for 2008.
This season, Saban led a team with only nine scholarship seniors to a 12-1 record and a Sugar Bowl date against Utah for only its second Bowl Championship Series berth.
In voting by college football writers, he drew 32 of a possible 62 votes. He outdistanced Texas Tech’s Mike Leach (nine), Utah’s Kyle Whittingham (six), Georgia Tech’s Paul Johnson (five), Penn State’s Joe Paterno (three) and Ball State’s Brady Hoke (two). Five coaches got one vote apiece.
Saban led the Tide to a five-game turnaround after going 7-6 in his debut season after he was hired for a then-college football record $4 million a year. No other Alabama coach has engineered such a Year 2 turnaround.
The transformation happened faster than the most ardent fan could have anticipated.
Alabama was in the chase for a BCS national title shot until losing to Florida in the Southeastern Conference championship game, an unexpected rise for a team that entered the season ranked No. 24. The Tide hadn’t topped a regular-season AP poll since Bear Bryant’s 1980 team.
This makes LSU and Miami Dolphin fans want to punch a hole in their bedroom wall, but Saban really has done an incredible job at Alabama. No one expected Saban to turn things around this quickly and to have that team playing in the SEC Championship Game was remarkable.
