Randy Smith: Saban Or Meyer?

I have always found it hard to compare athletes and coaches, especially when you are talking about two different eras of the sport. For instance, comparing Alabama's Nick Saban to the late Paul "Bear" Bryant; two great coaches yet from two completely different times in college football. After Ohio State's convincing 42-20 win over favored Oregon in the first ever, College Football Playoff National Championship Game, Coach Saban now has a foe who can not only compete with him but can actually beat him.

Let's do some comparisons shall we? Saban has a career record of 182-59-1 in 19 seasons. That's a winning percentage of better than 75%. Saban has won four national championships at two different schools(LSU and Alabama). Urban Meyer is 141-26 (84%) in just thirteen years as a head coach at Bowling Green, Utah, Florida and Ohio State. Meyer has won three national titles at two different schools and has an 8-2 bowl record. He is 1-2 all-time against Coach Saban, including an upset win over Bama in the Sugar Bowl's national semi-final match up. 

Now, matching up the numbers in the last 13 years, Saban is still behind Meyer with a record of 139-33. The only difference is one more national title for Saban. That's pretty impressive for both men but if you're an athletic director looking for the best head coach in the game, who would you choose?

Both are now coaching at all-time great college football programs, Alabama and Ohio State. They each have multi-millon dollar salaries with multi-million dollar budgets. Both men are highly competitive, and both men recruit some of the same athletes.

That was the case when Von Bell was a senior at Ridgeland High School. Both Saban and Meyer recruited the highly talented Bell as hard as any athlete in the class of 2012. They each made the maximum number of trips allowed by the NCAA to Bell's school and home. They each made a perfect selling job, but Meyer may have had the best line ever given to a recruit. Recognizing that Bell was being courted by the "evil" Nick Saban, Meyer told Bell, " We (Ohio State) are going to the same place that Alabama is going. So, you may as well just ride with us." Bell chose the Buckeyes and was a key factor in OSU's rise to the top of the college football world. 

Getting Bell to sign with Ohio State was a small yet significant victory for Meyer over Saban. Beating Alabama in the national semi-finals, on the way to a national title was an even bigger win for the Buckeyes.

So, who is college football's greatest coach.....Saban or Meyer? I really can't decide. We'll need a few more years and a few more national championships to make thaqt decision. 

-----