Nick Saban is one of the all-time greats in the collegiate coaching ranks, but that success didn’t translate to much of anything during his time with the Miami Dolphins. The team went 15-17 in his two seasons with the franchise before Saban resigned from his position to take over as head coach of the Alabama Crimson Tide.
Nearly two decades later, Saban says that his time with the Dolphins was a “no-win situation” and he never should’ve taken the job in the first place.
“We were $17 million over the cap, which was a lot back in those days, this is 20 years ago. We had the oldest team in the league, they’re 4-12, they got no quarterback, and I’m thinking ‘I’m gonna make it right,'” Saban said on The Pat McAfee Show on Friday. “We had a winning season the first year, but we couldn’t get it turned around.
“There were so many obstacles. And no draft picks because they gave them all away for Ricky Williams. … I knew it [going in], I just had a bad case of the dumbass, that’s all. Wayne Huizenga was a great owner and I thought this was a great organization and I thought we could get it fixed. We got it moving in the right direction, but not being able to overcome the quarterback thing was the issue.”
Saban, 73, is right that there were plenty of obstacles in his path to rebuilding the Dolphins. But it’s a revisionist history to say his hands were tied. For one, all the picks involved in the Williams deal were in the 2002 and 2003 NFL drafts, two years before Saban arrived in 2005.
Miami had its opportunities to set its path in the right direction, Saban and co. just made the wrong decisions.
The coach could’ve done himself a huge favor by taking Aaron Rodgers in the 2005 NFL draft. But he was reportedly smitten with Alex Smith instead and opted to take running back Ronnie Brown when the San Francisco 49ers nabbed his top choice at No. 1 overall.
A year later, Miami traded second- and fifth-round picks to acquire veteran quarterbacks Daunte Culpepper and Joey Harrington, respectively. Neither managed to throw more touchdowns than interceptions with the Dolphins.
Saban may have had “a bad case of the dumbass” to think he’d have all the answers to the Dolphins’ issues. But it’s not all the franchise’s fault either.
