Best caption of the month

Some editor at Al.com deserves a raise for this one.

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You don’t know me, Nick. You just think you know me.

Nick Saban, bless his heart, is trying very hard to make me love him.

Big Ten Conference schools have talked about not scheduling any more football games against teams from the FCS.

That, of course, is the Football Championship Subdivision, formerly Division I-AA. That would mean no more games against teams such as Northern Iowa in Big Ten country and Western Carolina in the South.

What would Nick Saban think of the Southeastern Conference going in that direction?

“I’m for five conferences – everybody playing everybody in those five conferences,” the Alabama coach said Thursday night before speaking at a Crimson Caravan stop. “That’s what I’m for, so it might be 70 teams, and everybody’s got to play ’em. …”

Saban reiterated his desire for the SEC to expand from eight conference games to nine per year for each team.

“For the guys who whine about their fixed rivalries, we have games until 2017 with opening games, so we’re going to play somebody else,” Saban said. “I mean, strength of schedule is important, but also, how about the fans? Don’t they want to see good games and all that?

And then he had to go and spoil it all by saying something stupid.

“And the better the games – maybe you don’t have to win every game to be in the championship game. You know? The Giants won the Super Bowl, and what did they lose? Six or seven games a couple years ago? It’s called competition.”

Coach, if I wanted that sort of competition, I’d just go buy Falcons tickets.

SEC pain, baby.

Nick Saban says this conference can chew you up and spit you out if you’re not careful.

“I think we had 33 guys drafted out of the first 99 in our conference,” Saban said Tuesday of the SEC. “Some people say that guys in the SEC have more injury history.

“I think it’s the nature of the league, but I also think it’s the reason a lot of guys are getting drafted from our league. … It’s physical. It’s more bigger guys. It’s more better athletes. It’s more NFL-like in terms of what players are going to be expected to do at the next level. I guess you’ve got to take the good with the bad.”

That’s what he told Eddie Lacy.

Saban said he told Lacy that if he could be a first-round pick if he came back to Alabama and played injury-free this fall. Otherwise, he probably would be drafted early in the second round.

“I told him … ‘I’ll support whatever decision you make. You’ve been here for four years, you’re very close to graduation, and you have a short shelf-life as a player,’” Saban said. “When you’re a running back in the NFL it’s the shortest shelf-life of any position. So I kind of get it, I get where you’re at.’ We were on board with that one.”

Now you know why ‘Bama has eighteen tailbacks on its roster.

Nick Saban thinks the selection committee should have time for this.

Anything big happens in college football and it’s not validated until somebody gets Nick Saban’s opinion on the matter, right?  So he’s asked about the new playoff system and speaks very generally about it in his response.

With one exception, that is.

“I don’t think there’s enough weight put on the quality of your schedule and the opponents that you play, which in our league is very, very important, because we had six teams in the top 10 last year at the end of the season. We play each other, and that has a huge impact on the quality of team you have, regardless of how many games you lose. There are things like that that I think we can do better.”

Expect to hear more and more of this kind of talk from SEC coaches, especially if the pressure to go to a nine-game conference schedule increases.

Wednesday morning buffet

It’s a buffet.  Just a buffet.

• “I don’t think you can ever go too wrong calling something what it is,” Scott said. “Things that make sense tend to stand the test of time.”  So how long should we give a four-team playoff?
• Alabama and Georgia are poised to dominate this year’s NFL draft.
• Preseason homerism, Gator style.
• The AJ-C breaks down Georgia’s 2013 schedule.
• SEC! SEC! SEC!:  “The ACC, the Pac 12, the Big Ten and the Big 12 all now have a “grant of rights” agreement. The SEC doesn’t have one, but it doesn’t really need one.”
• The new playoff, and a cry in the wilderness for economic fairness.  I was wondering if somebody would step up.
• Todd Gurley:  Georgia warhorse.
• They’re excited about football at Kentucky.

Sometimes, it’s about not letting the Joneses keep up.

Remember how Bear Bryant used to stockpile more players than he’d ever need, just to keep them out of the hands of rival programs?  It looks like Nick Saban’s taking a page out of the same book, albeit with a twist:  he’s collecting recruiting coordinators.

Ole Miss’ coordinator of recruiting development Tyler Siskey — who was AJ McCarron’s quarterbacks coach and offensive coordinator during his four-year stint at Mobile’s St. Paul’s Episcopal School — is set to take a position on Nick Saban’s support staff at Alabama, a source confirmed to AL.com.

It’s unknown what title Siskey, a 35-year-old Anniston native, will hold with the Crimson Tide.

Keep in mind this move comes a week after the NCAA’s Rules Working Group announced its intention to suspend Prop. No. RWG-11-2, “which eliminated the definition of recruiting coordination functions that must be performed only be a head or assistant coach, be suspended until appropriate modifications can be made.”  So either ol’ Nick is skeptical they’re going to go through with the suspension, or he just doesn’t care.  Either way, Ole Miss is down a guy.

“He’s going to commit to me just like I’m committed to them.”

You know, if Michael Carvell wanted to do something entertaining that didn’t involve Georgia’s program, he might try calling up Nick Saban and ask if the coach has a reaction to this comment by Alabama’s newest commitment:

“Me and my dad talked last night, and we decided that I definitely needed to go ahead and commit to a school. It was because my head coach (at Camden) was leaving and we didn’t know what kind of coach is coming in, and if it would change anything. Also, spring practice is coming up, and, in case I get injured, I need to be committed to a school.”  [Emphasis added.]

That sure worked for Justin Taylor.

And before you say Nick Saban wouldn’t have time for that shit, don’t forget he’s made the time before.

Here’s hoping Mr. Bessent has a happy and healthy senior season.

Sunday brunch buffet

The chafing dishes are ready.

• I get that the Packers want to talk to some college coaches about how better to defend the spread-option, given how they got shredded by Kaepernick in the playoffs.  And I see that they intend to go to more than one place for that.  But Sumlin?  Why not talk to the guy who made Kaepernick into a quarterback in the first place?  (Plus, it’s not like Ault doesn’t have some spare time right now, anyway.)
• Interesting interview with Ellis Johnson about his 4-2-5 defense.  I just wonder how long it’s going to take him to get the right personnel to implement it at Auburn.
• “It’s like a mini-NFL.”
• The highest paid member of Georgia’s non-assistant coaching support staff is Dave Van Halanger, at $168,570.
• Bet Florida appreciates this Mike Slive observation:  ”If you watched Georgia play this past year and you watched Alabama play, it would be hard-pressed to say that Georgia isn’t one of the top four teams in the country, right?”
• John Infante points out that one of the biggest hits the NCAA has taken with the Miami debacle is that it’s made itself less likely to survive a split in D-1.
• Missouri’s got a nice home schedule this season but elects not to raise general season ticket prices.
• A look at how Alabama will get down from 95 to 85 players on scholarship.

It’s Nick Saban’s world and Mack Brown’s just living in it.

So what does it say when the guy running the richest football program in the land admits he’s not keeping up with Alabama?

“So, I know in your little fantasy football world…”

What’s the over/under on how many of these kids will still be in Tuscaloosa three years from now?