Witt satisfied with Saban's first year

By Dana Beyerle

Montgomery Bureau Chief

MONTGOMERY | University of Alabama President Robert Witt said Friday he’s satisfied with Alabama head football Coach Nick Saban’s 6-6 regular season performance.

“He’s done a very good job,” Witt said after a meeting of the Alabama Commission on Higher Education.

Witt said Saban needs time to recruit his own players and it may take four or five years to get Alabama’s football program on track. Saban was hired this year.

“Coach Saban inherited a program that’s going through a transition and he had yet to recruit his personnel,” Witt said.

Saban’s team includes players recruited mostly from previous head coach Mike Shula’s tenure. Shul had nearly had a better-than-.500 record his first year.

Losses to LSU, Mississippi State and Louisiana-Monroe, not to mention the loss to rival Auburn turned a hopeful year into a repeat of Shula’s 6-6 regular season finish for 2006. It was Alabama’s sixth straight loss to Auburn.

Alabama hired Saban from the Miami Dolphins on an 8-year, $32 million contract, making him the highest paid college coach at the time. His contract started at $3.5 million and will escalate to $4.5 million over time.

Alabama will play the 6-6 Colorado Buffaloes on Dec. 30 in the Independence Bowl in Shreveport, La., giving the Crimson Tide an opportunity for a winning season.

The game could command a national audience and exposure for Saban. The Independence Bowl is the only college bowl game that day and will be shown on cable.

Witt said he didn’t set goals for Saban when he was hired. “He set his own goals,” Witt said.

Saban last coached at the college level at LSU, winning a national championship in 2003. The LSU Tigers under Les Miles who succeeded Saban are in the national championship football game against Ohio State, with some of the last of Saban’s recruiting class.

At LSU Saban also won two SEC championships, three SEC West Division championships, and went to the Sugar Bowl twice and the Peach Bowl once.

He was named the 2003 National Coach of the Year by the Associated Press and earned both the Paul W. “Bear” Bryant National Coach of the Year Award and the Eddie Robinson Coach of the Year Award by the Football Writers Association of America.