Could Nick Saban (potentially) leaving for Texas be an opening for Ozzie to leave Baltimore?

[wickedsolo]

Slightly OT...

I know we've all heard and discussed the thought that Ozzie may (one day) want to retire from the NFL and take over his alma matter, Alabama. By take over, I mean as the Athletic Director with the caveat that he would run the football organization as he saw fit. Ozzie has never implied that he wants to coach. However, he'd be able to hire his own coaching staff and be a big part of the recruitment process.

Yes, I am aware that Ozzie has indicate that he has no desire to leave the Baltimore Ravens organization anytime soon, but if Nick Saban (a rather high profile personality) does indeed leave the Alabama program to take over at University of Texas, would that be a good enough opening for Ozzie to leave?

Alabama being a huge football program isn't going to hire just any run-of-the-mill coach to replace Saban, if he leaves. Having someone like Ozzie down there running things may make the transition from Saban to another coach that much easier and more successful. Additionally, Ozzie would have a lot more pull to lure NFL coaches down to the collegiate level. Ozzie is 57 years old right now and has been the GM here since the Ravens came to Baltimore. In that time he has been a key part of one of the best and most winning franchises in the NFL and drafted 3 definite Hall of Famers (Ogden, Ray & Reed) and possibly a few more (Suggs, Flacco, etc). The man doesn't have anything to prove.

A few weeks ago someone posted the schedule of John Harbaugh leading up to the Chicago Bears game. I found it interesting the frequency in which Harbaugh met with Eric DeCosta versus meeting with Ozzie. Is it possible that Ozzie is the GM in name only? I mean, we all know that eventually DeCosta is going to take over as the GM; otherwise Bisciotti wouldn't have paid him and promoted him like he has.

It is a slow day and a slow week right now and I thought this would be an interesting discussion point.

[ravenjoe]

Slightly OT...

It is a slow day and a slow week right now and I thought this would be an interesting discussion point.

Question: Why would Saban want to leave 'Bama (a storied football factory), to go to Texas? Another interesting discussion point.

[HoustonRaven]

Ozzie, IMO, would go be the AD in Alabama one day, not a coach. Does Ozzie even have any coaching experience?

Question: Why would Saban want to leave 'Bama (a storied football factory), to go to Texas?

More money.

And UT has as much history and tradition as Alabama.

[Lord_Calvert]

Question: Why would Saban want to leave 'Bama (a storied football factory), to go to Texas? Another interesting discussion point.

If I had to guess, Alabama is probably under investigation and Saban could be pulling a Calipari. This is all a guess but I can't see anyway that Alabama is a clean program.

[wickedsolo]

Question: Why would Saban want to leave 'Bama (a storied football factory), to go to Texas? Another interesting discussion point.

Not to detour too far from the intent of this thread, but there are a lot of rumors floating around right now that Texas is looking for a high profile coach to replace Mack Brown (who is supposedly resigning this week) and Nick Saban's name has come up quite a bit.

Alabama offered him a contract deal, reportedly in the neighborhood of around $7 mill per year and he hasn't responded yet. Some are thinking that Texas is offering him a lot more.

There could also be ego reasons for Saban leaving Alabama. When he took over at 'Bama, they already had a pretty damn good team and the SEC West was arguably pretty winnable for Alabama for many years there. Saban could go to Texas, which also has quite a bit of talent, and completely dominate a pretty lackluster division.

[wickedsolo]

Ozzie, IMO, would go be the AD in Alabama one day, not a coach. Does Ozzie even have any coaching experience?



More money.

And UT has as much history and tradition as Alabama.

I wasn't implying Ozzie would go there to coach.

I was implying that he'd go there to take over their football program as the AD.

IMO, it would be difficult for Ozzie to take over as the AD in Alabama with a head coach like Nick Saban (who likely has 100% dominance on the football program). If Saban leaves, that means that Ozzie could take over the football program as the AD at Alabama and hire his own coaching staff; possibly even lure some NFL coaches down to Alabama who may be looking to make a name for themselves or re-do their image and resume much like Pete Carroll did at USC.

[Beau Petard]

wicked-
I've seen various references to Ozzie's possible departure, but I have some questions -

-Regarding Newsome going to Alabama, has he said he wants to (head) coach, or is that the general assumption? I ask since he's a GM right now, not a coach.

-Follow-up to that, I think he has a lot of really positive qualities that would seem to make him a great head coach candidate, but I also wonder about the concept of translating his abilities and talents from being an FO guy to the field as the HC. It seems like a slam-dunk given, but I suspect there have been many instances of guys who were great players or FO types who just didn't translate well into coaching. Thoughts?

-Given his success and value with the Ravens, is there enough "dissatisfaction" (maybe not the right word, but...) with his current situation that he would want to move onward and "upward" to 'Bama? He was born in 56, so he'll be in his late 50's/early 60's over the next 5-8 years, and I wonder if maybe he might want to "retire" and watch from the stands or at home on a 100' wide TV screen? ;)

Whatever the guy decides to do, I wish him the best (especially if he remains with the Ravens!)

[wickedsolo]

If I had to guess, Alabama is probably under investigation and Saban could be pulling a Calipari. This is all a guess but I can't see anyway that Alabama is a clean program.

Definitely a possibility.

Their starting safety, Haha Clinton-Dix, was suspended for multiple games this year for accepting money.

[wickedsolo]

wicked-
I've seen various references to Ozzie's possible departure, but I have some questions -

-Regarding Newsome going to Alabama, has he said he wants to (head) coach, or is that the general assumption? I ask since he's a GM right now, not a coach.

-Follow-up to that, I think he has a lot of really positive qualities that would seem to make him a great head coach candidate, but I also wonder about the concept of translating his abilities and talents from being an FO guy to the field as the HC. It seems like a slam-dunk given, but I suspect there have been many instances of guys who were great players or FO types who just didn't translate well into coaching. Thoughts?

-Given his success and value with the Ravens, is there enough "dissatisfaction" (maybe not the right word, but...) with his current situation that he would want to move onward and "upward" to 'Bama? He was born in 56, so he'll be in his late 50's/early 60's over the next 5-8 years, and I wonder if maybe he might want to "retire" and watch from the stands or at home on a 100' wide TV screen? ;)

Whatever the guy decides to do, I wish him the best (especially if he remains with the Ravens!)

Beau, I suppose I wasn't clear enough in my initial post, so I went back and added that I don't see Ozzie as being a head coach anywhere. To my knowledge, he has not indicated as such at all.

I do think that he could have some legitimate interest as the AD for Alabama with a focus on the football program.

[HoustonRaven]

I wasn't implying Ozzie would go there to coach.

I was implying that he'd go there to take over their football program as the AD.

IMO, it would be difficult for Ozzie to take over as the AD in Alabama with a head coach like Nick Saban (who likely has 100% dominance on the football program). If Saban leaves, that means that Ozzie could take over the football program as the AD at Alabama and hire his own coaching staff; possibly even lure some NFL coaches down to Alabama who may be looking to make a name for themselves or re-do their image and resume much like Pete Carroll did at USC.

I don't see it.

It's not very likely Saban leaves Alabama. UT is going to go after him but I don't think he's going to leave.

And Bill Battle was just selected as the AD for Alabama. They're not going to fire him to bring in Ozzie less than a year into Battle being the AD.

[houstonravensfan]

The moves (Saban to U TX and Oz to Alabama) make emotional as well as monetary sense. Saban gets the opportunity to be the savior of a once-great program fallen on hard times and Ozzie gets to be crowned king of Alabama sports. The $ will be there for each of them -- anything they want. At this point in their careers, ego and posterity could mean more than "mere" millions.

[Beau Petard]

wicked-
The old foggy brain here didn't even consider AD, thus my comments directed towards the HC slot, but you're correct, maybe that would be his target. OTOH, HR's point about "Bill Battle was just selected as the AD for Alabama. They're not going to fire him to bring in Ozzie less than a year into Battle being the AD" makes an awful lot of sense, plus if it did happen (i.e., fire Battle/hire Ozzie), he'd be walking into a probable shitstorm that I would think take away from what he could do if without an AD-firing controversy.