Saban wins 2008 Eddie Robinson Award

January 06, 2009

By Ken Rogers

Chalk up another national coach of the year award to Alabama’s Nick Saban.

Saban won the 2008 Eddie Robinson Award Tuesday night, presented annually by the Football Writers Association of America.

“Nick Saban has proven to be a winner wherever he has gone,“ said 2008 FWAA president Ron Higgins. “He has re-established Alabama as a national power in quick fashion. He was an overwhelming choice by our members for this very prestigious award.“

Saban is only the second coach to win the award at two different schools. He also won it in 2003 at LSU. Lou Holtz won it in 1988 at Notre Dame and 1977 at Arkansas.

In Saban’s second season, Alabama won the SEC West for the first time since 1999 and earned the regular season No. 1 ranking for the first time since 1980. The Crimson Tide went 12-0 in the regular season, but lost to Florida in the SEC Championship Game and to Utah in the Sugar Bowl to close out the season.

The FWAA coaching award was named for Eddie Robinson in 1997. The legendary “Coach Rob” led Grambling State University for 55 years. He has more Division I victories (408) than any other coach. Coach Robinson died on April 4, 2007.

Saban warns that Alabama players must respect Utes

January 01, 2009

By Ken Rogers

Kyle Whittingham and his Utah Utes have spent most of this week defending the Mountain West Conference and other non-BCS leagues, as if they had to apologize for their Allstate Sugar Bowl appearance against Alabama.

Whittingham patiently has pointed out that Utah, at 12-0 and ranked seventh in the nation, didn’t exactly win a lottery to get here.

The Utes have the longest winning streak in the nation at 13 games. They also have the longest current bowl winning streak at seven games.

They started the season with a road win at Michigan. They’ll end it in the Superdome Friday night against Alabama. They beat five bowl teams in between.

They have won with offense — scoring 40 or more points in six games — and with defense — holding opponents to under 17 points in six games.
They have won by blowouts — six victories by three or more touchdowns — and prevailed in nail-biters — three wins by a field goal or less.

Through it all, they have won 20 of their last 21 games.

But he was asked, again, about how big this win would be for his program.

“We’ve been here before,” Whittingham said. “But you always want to play well, regardless of circumstances. It’s a chance for us to certainly make a positive statement for the Mountain West Conference, for the non-BCS schools.

“Like I’ve said several times since we got the invite, it’s a process. One game is never going to make or break the entire non-BCS structure or the entire Mountain West. It’s just a process.

“When we beat Pittsburgh, it was a positive. When Oklahoma got beat by Boise State, it was a positive for the non-BCS. Last year, it was a setback when Hawaii lost (to Georgia). It’s a positive when we go out and beat a team like UCLA or Michigan or Oregon State.

“So it’s all a process. It’s just one more cog in that process of trying to play your way into respectability. You can’t talk your way into it; you’ve got to play your way into it. Nobody really pays attention to what you say; it’s what you do on the field. It’s just another opportunity for us to line up and see how we fare against an extremely good opponent.”

Saban blasted the media for creating the impression that Alabama will dominate the Utes.

“That’s why you people are in the media and you make predictions,” Saban said. “When the preseason poll comes out ... I say it means nothing. When you’re ranked No. 1 the seventh week of the season and you ask me what it means, I say it means nothing. ...

“I don’t think you have the proper respect for the team that we’re playing. But it’s only because they don’t have a big name, play in a big-name conference. But they have good football players that have beaten big-name teams from big-name conferences this year. Our players need to respect that and understand what they’re going to need to do to play and try to dominate the guy they play against for every play in the game ... or they won’t have the success that they would like to have.”