The speech that launched the Alabama dynasty
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TUSCALOOSA, Ala. -- Nick Saban knows what he wants to say. For a week and a half, he has thought about this. And today, inside Bryant-Denny Stadium, he has a plan: Start out slow, pat everyone on the back like he's supposed to and then pivot. It won't be a smooth transition, but it will be one everyone remembers.
It's January 16, 2010. It's below freezing. There's a constant drizzle, but it doesn't dampen the spirit of the parade and the celebration that follows. Not after the near-two-decade national championship drought that came before, the void since Gene Stallings and Derrick Lassic dominated Miami in the 1993 Sugar Bowl. Some 38,000 people have shown up to revel in lucky No. 13, filling the half of the stadium in view of the podium. It's way more people than senior offensive lineman Mike Johnson and his teammates anticipated. A couple dozen fans gather behind the stage for a chance to listen, for a shot at winding up inside the wide-angle lens of history.
Saban is flanked by trophies as he leans into the microphone at midfield. To his left: the SEC Championship, the Heisman, the Butkus. To his right: that old crystal football the BCS used to hand out. His team is behind him. Athletic director Mal Moore and chancellor Robert Witt are on stage, too. They listen intently to the man they spent so long chasing, believing he could resurrect Alabama. After Moore made his final pitch to lure Saban from Miami in 2006, Witt asked him how he felt about their chances. "If I don't get Coach Saban on this plane," Moore told him, "I'm not coming back to Tuscaloosa, I'm going to Cuba."
Three years later, and here they were, Saban making it a point to thank both Moore and Witt as he addresses the crowd. Then comes the turn, the moment he was waiting for.
"But I want everyone here to know," Saban says, holding his hand out to stop the applause. For this, he needs their undivided attention. His voice grows louder.
"This is not the end. This is the beginning."
Those two sentences, that sentiment, would come to mean many things to many people. For Witt, it brought a sigh of relief. For those players coming back next season, a loud wake-up call. For fans, it was everything.
