David O'Connell

Have seen lots of reaction to the ESPN series on Nick Saban. A lot of history, reported then and subsequently (wrote a book on this, in fact), has been forgotten: Saban left MSU in 1999 for two reasons, both tied to then-President Peter McPherson. McPherson had welched on a $150,000 (not $100,000) raise committed to Saban. The stock market in the late '90s boomed and McPherson did not believe he could sell that raise to the MSU Board of Trustees. Saban then was making less than Tom Izzo. That violation of pure financial principle set the stage for Saban at least listening to another offer, even though he and Terry through their coaching stops had always most loved East Lansing, had wanted to return there, and most definitely wanted to stay in November, 1999. Another factor was McPherson's indifference to Saban's coaching. Even though the president had not been to a college football game between his college days and his arrival as MSU president, he "didn't believe Saban was a good second-half coach." True appraisal. What might have been considered by the president, even if he had been on firm ground -- and he certainly wasn't -- is that in 1998 the Spartans had only 71 players on scholarship within a roster's 85-man limit. That was due to attrition inherited from George Perles' NCAA probation sentence. Small wonder some second-half leads in 1998 had washed away. By 1999, Saban had a full scholarship roster, and a 10-2 record. But the tensions and intolerances had grown too severe, and Saban was at least open to LSU's offer. Even after Terry visited Baton Rouge and told him it was a "diamond in the rough" they were going to stick in East Lansing. A long night of talking and not sleeping preceded a 5:30 a.m. phone call from McPherson who, in Saban's view, was "belligerent" and insisted Saban wasn't going to put MSU over a barrel. The Sabans decided at that moment to leave for Baton Rouge.