Notes: Saban appreciates matchup

This is what Holtz told us when he visited last spring (BTW, he was wearing an Alabama jacket that they gave him because I think it was windy that day):

Count Lou Holtz as another former coach turned prominent broadcaster who was greatly impressed with the University of Alabama’s defense last season.

“Let me put it this way, in thirteen games last year they gave up nine touchdowns, against the best opponents in the country,” Holtz said before being Saturday night’s featured speaker at the Crimson Tide’s coaching clinic. “In one bowl game Clemson gave up ten touchdowns to West Virginia.

“It was unbelievable. I was at the national championship game and I felt that Alabama would win because I think teams are seven-for-seven in return games, the team that lost the opener, but in no way did I expect them to dominate the game the way they did defensively. It was a complete mismatch.”

Earlier this month fellow-ESPN analyst Lee Corso called the 2011 Crimson Tide defense the best in college football history.

“I’ve coached against Coach Saban. I have the utmost respect for him as a person, as a coach. I love being around him, but he’s a greedy sucker,” Holtz continued. “Some people get you first-and-ten, second-and-twelve, third-and-nine and they’re content at fourth-and-five.

“Not Nick. He wants it first-and-ten second-and-twelve, third-and fourteen, fourth-and-nineteen. He wants to move you back, he doesn’t want to give you a yard. You can see it the way they practice out there, they just don’t want you to make a yard. Some people don’t want you to make a first down, not Nick.”

Holtz, who is already in the College Football of Fame, went 249-132-7 as a head coach from 1969-2004. Best known for winning 100 games at Notre Dame and the 1988 national championship, he was also the head coach at William & Mary, North Carolina State, Arkansas, Minnesota and South Carolina.

He’s also written 10 books and is a motivational speaker. Holz said that some of the things he speech here would include were how to have a plan to win and 10 axioms to follow regarding play-calling, but his primary message would be that someone can give you the title of coach but that doesn’t automatically make you the leader.

“I don’t do those very often. I try to make a point to only speak at clinics where I’m invited,” he jokingly said. “Seriously, I used to get a lot of requests, but now I don’t because of my schedule (and) my wife is a cancer survivor, so I don’t do too many of them. When a guy like Nick Saban calls, and plus I got an opportunity to come up here and see them practice, etc., see how they do things, and I share them with my son, the differences I see here.

“I’m looking forward to it, I really am. I love talking to high school coaches in particular.”

My thoughts exactly

I think we're out there and not really disrespected, but I kind of agree with Holtz's comment (which I actually prefer for us):

From Holtz’s perspective the Crimson Tide is flying under the national radar. "If I was coaching Alabama, I would be a little bit upset. Here we are, defending national champs, we've won two of the last three national championships and you never hear about them. The only thing you hear about is Notre Dame, how there's only one team playing this game. I turn on TV and I see nothing but specials on Notre Dame. You never see anything about Alabama. I just think Alabama is going to sit there and they're going to say, 'We get no respect.'"

Yeah, take out the lisp & the spitting next thing you know he almost sounds intelligent.

I could be wrong, but I think the Lou Holtz on ESPN and the "real" Lou Holtz are two different people. He goes into character on ESPN, and it can get pretty ridiculous. But I think if you get him away from the cameras or the whole Dr. Lou persona, the guy has a ton of good insight. Just wish we could hear from the "real" Lou more often.

Exactly what I was thinking.