Saban

July 13, 2015
Sports journalist Burke highlights the career of University Alabama football coach Nick Saban in this affectionate, admiring, no-holds-barred glimpse into the quest for perfection that has driven Saban to win four national titles in his 19 years as a college head coach. With the staccato pace of a great play-by-play announcer, Burke traces Saban’s desire for perfection to his desire to please his father, both on the football field and off, as a child and teenager growing up near Fairmont, W.Va. This yearning pushes Saban to move from one coaching job to another, relocating from Toledo, Ohio, to Michigan State University, Louisiana State University, and finally to Alabama, each time turning a football program around in a short time after his arrival. Burke describes Saban as someone who expected every player to be as focused on the game as he is, and who peppers his conversations with his players with phrases such as, “You can’t hoot with the owls at night and get up and soar with the eagles in the morning.” As decisive as he is on the field, Saban has often been indecisive when it comes to his career; famously, he left Michigan State for LSU, arrived in Baton Rouge, called Michigan State late at night in a moment of terrific indecision and asked to return, and then reversed his request the next morning and remained at LSU. Burke has written a winning, definitive portrait of a fascinating character.

August 1, 2015

Despite, or maybe because of winning four national championships in Division I football--including three in four years at the University of Alabama--Nick Saban is often despised by fans, coaches, and the media. He has been referred to as Nick "Satan" and "$aban" owing to his relentlessness and restlessness that has caused him to jump from job to job. This thorough and fair biography stems from an article journalist Burke wrote for Forbes in 2008. With narratives from over 250 interviewees, including the coach himself, Burke traces Saban's life from his childhood in West Virginia to his current status as the highest-paid coach in college football. There's an emphasis on Saban's wife, Terry, who helped guide his career path, as well as relationships with prominent coaches, such as friend Bill Belichick and rival Urban Meyer, and the results of a peripatetic career. While Saban is noted for his defensive strategies, his greatest strength is recruiting top high school players and organizing an efficient college program that concentrates on "the process," not season-long goals. Similar to Belichick, Saban wants each player and assistant coach to simply do their job and the rest will work itself out. VERDICT Whether you loathe him or respect him, Saban is a giant in college football, and this definitive biography will be widely appealing.

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