THE CROWD OUT THERE THINKS SABAN'S OVERRATED. From Emilion of East Windsor, N.J.: "Peter, you base all of your writing on facts and your football knowledge, so it really surprises me that you bought all the hype and keep bringing up Nick Saban as a top-five NFL coach. I'll take Belichick, Cowher, Reid, Shanahan, Dungy, Holmgren, Fisher and Fox any day over Saban. That's eight far more accomplished NFL coaches. I'd even argue in favor of Gruden and Billick over Saban.''
Opinions make the sports world go 'round. My feeling is this: I liked Saban a lot coming into this job, and his year and a half in Miami has only very slightly dimmed his luster in my eyes. He's 12-13 in trying to revive a sinking ship. Give him time, and I think at the end of Year Three you'll see a very good NFL team. Saban's too bright a football mind to fail.
STEVE WANTS ME TO RANK THE COACHES. I WILL, WITH AN ASTERISK. From Steve of New York City: "Regarding your assertion that Nick Saban is a top five NFL coach, could you please let your readership know which eight of the following NFL coaches who have, you know, actually accomplished something at this level, don't quite measure up to Saban: Parcells, Belichick, Dungy, Holmgren, Reid, Cowher, Gibbs, Fox, Shanahan, Billick, Fisher and Gruden? I don't understand how anyone could rate Saban higher than all but four of that list of coaches. In 10 years, who knows, but right now, he sure hasn't shown it.''
Steve, it would be pretty easy to line up the winningest coaches, in order, and say they're the best coaches in the game. Chuck Knox has more wins than Paul Brown. Steve Owen has more wins than Bill Belichick, Jim Mora (the father) more than Bill Walsh. But would you say Knox, Owen or Mora was a better coach than any of the other three? No. The number of wins is not the way to rank coaches, particularly one who has coached 25 NFL games. But you asked for my top five NFL coaches. I'm going to answer the question this way -- which coach would I take if I were starting a team right now? Because it's silly to pick guys who might be in their last year, or last two years (e.g. Parcells, Holmgren, Gibbs), in my opinion. In some order, my top six: Belichick, Shanahan, Fox, Reid, Saban, Dungy. Hard to cut that to five. All of them are premier coaches.
