Eye of the tigers: Nick Saban has LSU roaring again.

What was your childhood like in Fairmount, WV?

SABAN: I spent most of my time in the coal-mining town of Carolina, where my grandmother lived. We lived on Helen's Run, a crossroads where my dad had a service station. Our house was behind the station. I worked for him, played Little League baseball for Carolina, and Pop Warner football for my dad, who was the coach of the Idamay Black Diamonds, another coal mining town. It was a simple life.

COACH: Where did you attend high school and what sports did you play?

SABAN: I went to Mononagh High, where I played football, basketball, and baseball.

COACH: You were a talented defensive back at Kent State, playing in the 1972 Tangerine Bowl. You also lettered twice as a shortstop on the baseball team. Do you believe that your background as an athlete has played a major role in the coach-player relationship?

SABAN: I was a three-year starter on a championship football team and also had the opportunity to play some college baseball. I think the players look up to people who played pro ball and with whom they can identify with. From the coaching standpoint, the experience of having been a player, a college coach, and a pro coach is a big help in dealing with players and having a good relationship with them--handling them as individuals and not treating everyone the same. Making everybody be as good as they can be is probably the most important thing.

COACH: When did you discover that you wanted to make coaching a career? Were you influenced by anyone in particular?

SABAN: Don James, my college coach, asked me to be a graduate assistant. I never really had considered being a coach before. I had married my high school sweetheart when I was a junior in college. She had been a year behind me in school and I needed to stick around Kent State for another year. So I became a GA. I really liked it and was fortunate enough to eventually get a full-time coaching job. That probably had about as much to do with my becoming a coach as anything.

COACH: You remained an assistant at Kent State until 1976, and then started making the rounds--Syracuse (1977), West Virginia (1978-79), Ohio State (1980-81), and the U.S. Naval Academy (1982). The big jump was to Michigan State as the secondary coach and defensive coordinator from 1983-87. When did you believe you were ready for a head-coaching job?

SABAN: Everywhere I coached, I had some great mentors and saw great examples of how to do things. And in some cases, examples of how not to do things. Don James was the first head coach I worked under. He was very systematic in his approach and had lots of success with it at Kent State and the University of Washington. The experiences I had at each of those places with great mentors helped me start thinking about how I would do things as a head coach.

Probably my experience at Michigan State with George Perles, my first coordinator position, put me in a position of responsibility. I did a lot of things in East Lansing--helping with the off-season program and the academic support program.

A lot of the allied things that help you be successful as a coach may not have anything directly to do with football players, but will have a lot to do with them as students and people--the development of an attitude that will help them be successful in every area.

That was perhaps the most significant aspect in helping me become a head coach.

COACH: Obviously your big break came in 1990 when you were named the head coach at the U. of Toledo, where you guided the Rockets to a 9-2 record and a share of the Mid-America Conference title. Your team also ranked among the NCAA leaders in total defense and scoring defense. What did you learn about yourself as a leader that season?

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

SABAN: It was a unique situation. The U. of Toledo is a special place and offered a great opportunity for me at the time. I had a lot of respect for the MAC and gained a lot of confidence in my ability as a head coach. You always wonder how you would handle things, develop the kind of team chemistry you want, the kind of character and work ethic your team will need to attain their full potential.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

I felt confident that I could accomplish all of that after my year at Toledo. It was probably the greatest experience I have had as a coach.

COACH: After a four-year stint with the Cleveland Browns of the NFL, you spent five years as the head man at Michigan State. Tell us about the rigors and pressures of coaching at a Big 10 institution? How did that experience help make you the coach you are today?

SABAN: You learn and develop as an assistant coach, as a position coach, or in any endeavor that you try to master. But I'm not sure that being an assistant coach will actually prepare you for all of the things you will have to do as a head coach.

There's no question about the public relations aspect of head coaching--dealing with the media and how it can affect the attitude you are trying to develop. Those are all things in which I got a lot better.

The whole competitive disposition of a team is another thing in which I've gotten better due to experience and learning from mistakes. Losing some games and figuring out, "Hey, that's not the way to do it. There's a better way to do it."

And I still have some great mentors and friends who help me tremendously in continuing to develop in those areas.

COACH: Your ability to turn a bad situation into a positive one is well documented, highlighted by the job you did at Michigan State, where you rebuilt a program that was riddled with scholarship limitations and forged a perennial top 10 program. What advice can you offer coaches who may find themselves in a similar situation?

SABAN: First of all, you have to believe what you believe in. You can't lose sight of that. You then have to focus on what it takes to see that belief come to fruition. Not get sidetracked by all the things that come with the job or the pressures of coaching in a big conference situation.

Some people around you may want you to do things differently from what you believe in. You must see the system through. I think a lot of people make a lot of mistakes and create a lot of fear and anxiety when they worry too much about the results.

But there's a certain amount of security that you can develop by believing in the process and knowing that doing it the right way will certainly have an effect on your success.

That's what I've always been able to do, even when things go bad. Which is why I think we've been able to fix things when they go bad.

COACH: Until you arrived in 1999, LSU football had been considered a sleeping giant since the days of Paul Dietzel and Charley McClendon. What intrigued you about the program? Did you ever doubt you could turn things around?

SABAN: I couldn't do anything but ask questions about the lack of success. Nobody seemed to have the answer. When you look back at what Coach Dietzel and Coach Mac did all those years and then see how the program went into a 15-year slump, you have to wonder. I didn't have a handle on the causes. But I did feel that the administration was committed to an upturn.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Our athletic director and support staff were not really worrying about what had happened. They were focusing on what could be done to improve everything. Because of the total commitment by the institution and everyone involved, it all worked out.

COACH: What specifically have you done to change the perception of LSU football?

SABAN: To have our players represent themselves, their families, and the institution in a first-class way. To get them to compete in a way that people can gain respect for how they go about doing what they do, and knowing that winning and results would come from that process. As competitors, you don't focus on the scoreboard. You have to focus on the next play. Also, trying to get our fans to be supportive. All of that has created an atmosphere that has helped us attract some quality players. They've developed an attitude and the character to play with it that has helped us be successful.

COACH: Your success transcends the football field as evidenced by the graduation rate of your players. How much do you stress academics to your team?

SABAN: Our mission statement is we want to create an atmosphere and environment where our players have a chance to be successful, first of all, as people. Hopefully they'll be more successful in life because they've been involved in the program and made certain commitments while developing the kind of character and attitude to see those commitments through.

Second, we want every player to graduate. The way do that is by having a great academic support program, which is kind of threefold: you have to have a great facility, you have to have great people helping your players, and you have to have some support in the university community to get the information you need to be able to help your players.

Third, we want every player to reach his full potential on the field, and hopefully experience winning a championship. Then, we want to help them launch their career when they leave. So all of those things are equally important to me. That's the way we pay back the players for representing the institution and the program in a first-class way.

COACH: You have stressed that your players be model citizens, witnessed by many community service projects and goodwill visits to area hospitals and schools. Tell us the importance of having your players project a positive image?

SABAN: We all have a responsibility and an obligation to uphold the image of the program and the institution. A lot of people do a lot to support our program and I think it's the correct thing for our players and coaches to give back to the community.

COACH: Though Louisiana has long been a hotbed of blue chip players, many of them opted for schools in Florida, Texas, and California. How have you been able to convince the homegrown talent to stay home?

SABAN: By having a first-class program that offers the things that I have touched on. That is, being successful as a person, being successful as a student, and graduating from school. And having success as a football player. It's an opportunity for them to stay home at a place that is the same caliber and quality of where they can go if they wanted to leave home. They now have a choice.

COACH: What kind of player do you recruit at LSU?

SABAN: We want guys that have character, attitude, and intelligence. That's important to us. Because I think those ingredients are important in reaching your full potential in whatever it is you choose to do. We obviously want people that have athletic ability to succeed at their position at this level, and the size and speed to do it.

COACH: How would you describe your coaching methodology?

SABAN: We try to develop the kind of commitment, character, and individual responsibility that makes the players want to be as good as they can be. We try to provide the leadership for all of those areas. Sometimes there are players who can't achieve that. That's when I think we need to confront and demand a certain standard of excellence from those players who can't create it for themselves. Basically, we have a systematic approach and everybody knows that it's their individual responsibility to make sure they perform their role properly

COACH: What kind of offense and defense do you employ?

SABAN: Balance is essential on offense. You feature the players that you have and make sure your offensive system has enough flexibility to adapt to your go-to guys.

Defensively, I think you play a system because you have to have the answers and flexibility to be sound against everything. We believe in being aggressive on both sides of the ball in terms of how we attack and do things, so that our players can believe in what they're creating. The same applies to special teams.

COACH: You are highly touted for your defensive prowess. What influenced your preference? How influential has Bill Belichick been? You were his defensive coordinator with the Cleveland Browns in the early 90's.

SABAN: Bill is obviously one of the terrific mentors I've had the opportunity to work with. He's very organized in his approach. Defines exactly what he wants in almost every area of the organization. That's been very beneficial to me in terms of having a clear vision of what and how I want to do things by defining them for everyone else on my staff.

Bill Belichick is a great defensive coach. George Perles was a great defensive coach. Jerry Glanville was a good defensive coach. I didn't invent anything in this game. I've only had great people to teach me. And I've been able to implement a lot of their thoughts and ideas in what we do.

COACH: You have aptly been described as no-nonsense, a tireless worker, and a skilled communicator? To whom do you attribute those traits?

SABAN: It comes back to my family. My dad and mom were great parents who provided a great family situation. They had a high standard that they expected us to maintain, whether it was in school or the way we played or competed or the work that we did. My dad was kind of a perfectionist in a way. He was a "confront and demand" type of guy.

Those things have helped me tremendously in terms of my ability to work. But I'm not as "no-nonsense" as everybody thinks. (If they think that, I guess it's my fault.)

COACH: What are the biggest challenges facing college football coaches today?

SABAN: The biggest thing I see is the players. The challenge of getting young people today to be committed. To have the perseverance it takes to see things through. To overcome difficulties and adversity they get confronted with. Because I think that's something that was a little more natural for us when I grew up as a kid vs the way my kids are growing up. The consequences. Cause and effect. Not having a lot of choices made it a lot easier to be able to do the things that are the basic ingredients to being successful.

COACH: Last question. What one word describes LSU football?

SABAN: Please make it three: character, class, and competitive.

INTERVIEW BY KEVIN NEWELL

PHOTO BY GETTY IMAGES