It's a good read. Nick Saban is obviously a smart guy. Most of his advice makes sense and he tells some interesting stories along the way. The book starts by telling the story of LSU's national championship season in 2003. The rest of the book is a self-help book on how to be successful in life. This is mostly done through Saban telling challenges he faced in the past, how he handled them, and then he explains how this could apply to “normal” people.

One prevailing theme throughout the book is that of discipline. The way he handles discipline at Alabama is masterful – by handling things “in house” he allows Alabama fans to fantasize about players running up stadium steps until they vomit* when in reality, Saban probably isn't doing anything. Saban discusses discipline in his book when he offers an example on what to do with a player who skipped practice;

"At first, it seems clear that the right thing to do is the bench the player for a game, at least. No-brainer, right? But then you think about how important he is to the team. How the other players count on him for so much, as do you. You picture the sure lopsided loss next week against the hated rivals. No one would know, you tell yourself. By doing the right thing, you will suffer, as will the rest of you players. What constitutes the right thing to do comes down to the goals you have established in your organization. Are you striving to build character and responsibility in young people or to win the game at all costs?"

Based on what Saban did during the Louisiana Monroe game, we can safely assume he would rather win at all costs – even if he isn't always successful at the winning part.

In his chapter titled “Do the right thing” and under “Lesson 5. Honesty is the best policy” he says

“A few years back at LSU, some rival school coaches reported to the NCAA that we were violating NCAA rules in recruiting. Nothing major like payments to players or forged transcripts. These were minor infractions that almost every staff incurs on the recruiting trail. When the investigation began, I was as honest and open as I could be and expected the same of my staff. When we were found to have committed three secondary violations, I stood up and took responsibility and told the truth about the matter. That doesn't make me less culpable or responsible, but it does make me honest.”

He says this stuff in a very “I told the truth because I'm a great person” tone and not because “If I lied, the NCAA would nail me to the wall instead of giving me a slap on the wrist.”

He summarizes the topic of honesty with this;

“Especially in our profession, where lying is intertwined with recruiting, staying true to yourself and to others is difficult... Lying will get me nowhere. I am not perfect and I am sure I have fibbed in the past or pushed the rules to the boundaries, but stepping over the line is something I try to avoid.”

Truly inspiring.

Obviously, I didn't read this book with the best intentions in mind, but I'd be lying if I told you the book didn't have some good advice in it. There's a section on describing the difference between “tunnel vision” and “focus” which I found to be insightful. There is also plenty of good, if cliché, advice on “investing time” rather than “spending time” - things we've heard before but is always good to hear again.

However, it's hard to take much of it seriously because he writes his lessons based on what sounds good rather than actual advice;

“Every so often, you come to the realization that what is best for an individual person is not necessarily what is best for the team. Sometimes an assistant coach who is a major contributor to your staff leaves to take a head coaching job or a coordinator's position with another organization. It's a loss for your program but its a gain for him. When we have a sure first-round draft pick at LSU, we do what many coaches do not-we support his decision to leave. Yes, we want him to complete his degree, and, yes, we know that losing him early to the NFL will negatively impact our team. But in reality, if one of our men has the talent to be a first-round pick, he must take advantage of the economic rewards to provide for his future. That's putting his interest ahead of the team's and sometimes that's okay.”

This passage really confuses me. He makes it seem like he “allows” people leave his team out due to his benevolent heart – much like he tells the truth for the betterment of civilization rather than to prevent NCAA punishment. He makes it seem like if he did NOT act this way, the team would be better off – but he does act this way because he's a kind man. If he really were to vocally protest a 1st round pick's decision to leave team or if he “demanded” one of his assistant coaches to stay with him, it would hurt the team because it would make potential recruits or potential assistants realize that the head coach is an egotistical jerk who does not care about the best interest of those under him. It would drive other talented people away, and THAT would be bad for the team.

According the book, it seems Saban believes only talented players should be allowed to place themselves before the team. I'm sure he makes this point clear during recruiting trips to five star athletes. The truth is, people join teams out of their own self interest, the NR players and the five stars, and that's a good thing. This forces leaders (coaches in this case) to structure their teams so that when players work for the team's goals, they're also accomplishing their own.

An example is Quentin Groves' sack record pursuit from earlier this season – he said he tried too hard to break the sack record, and in doing so he hurt the team during the Mississippi State game. Not only did this hurt the team, but it hurt his individual performance. When Carnell Williams and Ronnie Brown came back for their senior seasons, they didn't do it because they loved Auburn – they did it because they wanted to help themselves, and they did, along with the entire team and fanbase.

Nick Saban must know this even though he says otherwise in his book. I'm left to conclude that he's either a liar or a Marxist. Based on the fact that he has been a successful football coach in the past, I think he's just a liar.

Nick Saban did not first compare a football team to 9-11 this past year. He did it in this book, page 131. Here, he compares 9/11 to LSU's 2001 season in which they started the season with a 4-3 record. Just like in the La-Monroe press conference, he wasn't literally saying 9/11 was like a football game. He was just using it to illustrate the way people respond to bad things happening. I bring this up mostly because I'm surprised I haven't heard about this being in the book before. It makes me wonder how many people have actually read this book. Heck, I'm pretty sure that at least 60% of LSU fans are literate, and that Alabama's media must be at least a little higher than that – why haven't we heard this before?

Once again, of all of the slimy things Saban has done, he probably caught more flack than he deserved for the 9/11 comments. He notes on the next page, “Sometimes I feel misrepresented by the media.”

I think he likes the 'tough guy' label he gets form the media.

When comparing Tommy Tuberville to Nick Saban, here are a few things that they seem to differ the most on;

Management Style: Tommy Tuberville is a CEO type coach while Nick Saban is a micromanager. According to the book, he regularly works 100 hour weeks. Here is a sample work schedule Saban includes in the book;

“Sunday 11:00 A.M.-10:00 P.M.
Monday 6:30 A.M.-10:00 P.M.
Tuesday 7:30 A.M.-10:00 P.M.
Wednesday 7:30 A.M.-7:00 P.M. (recruiting calls at night)
Thursday 7:30 A.M.-7:00 P.M.”

“It may vary a bit from week to week, and some coaches, including myself, may come in earlier or stay later. But on average, we put in about seventy hours of preparation a week between Sunday and Thursday. We spend an additional twenty to thirty hours over the course of Friday and Saturday watching film with players, watching film with staff, meeting with our position players, and so on. All told, we probably devote a hundred hours a week to preparing for a Saturday game.”

Team Assistance: When with LSU, Nick Saban hired NASA psychologists and professors from LSU's Communications Department to meet with team members to help them better deal with problems in their personal lives. Tommy Tuberville uses a team chaplain to perform a similar job.

The Media: Nick Saban wants to always know who interviews his assistants and players. At Alabama, he has been known to forbid assistants from talking to any media sources. While at LSU, before giving an interview, Saban had a personal assistant anticipate potential questions certain reporters were likely to ask and would prepare for each question beforehand. I seriously doubt Tommy Tuberville does this, and we know for certain that he doesn't restrict assistant coaches from talking to the media or even engineers with a blog.

In conclusion, Tommy Tuberville probably has a much lower blood pressure than Nick Saban.

And he's a better coach.

Some random fun quotes from the book;

On how awesome he is;
“I have traveled the nation and the world; I played golf with Tiger Woods and spent time at the White House with the president; I have interacted with Louisiana fishermen and CEOs of Fortune 500 companies. I have listened to some of the great motivational speakers in the world and read the words of the courageous.”

On his dreams:
“When I was finishing up school at Kent State, I had a dream... My dream was to own and operate a car dealership. Okay, I can hear the jokes right now about me and the sales skills I employ in recruiting, but that's what I wanted to do.”

What follows after this quote is more on how he became a grad assistant after college... not a defense explaining how his sales skills used in recruiting are not like the ones used by car dealerships. So, I'm taking this as an admission that he tries to sell recruits on schools they don't need. Tuberville seriously needs to take this book with him on recruiting trips.

*Why do football fans believe 'players vomiting at practice' equates to good coaching?