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BB88's avatar

#1 UCLA can't afford Saban, #2 Saban retired due to the rigors of the job, do you really think those "rigors" go away with a dumpster fire football program like UCLA's? He'd have to put in double the effort just to climb the program out of the abyss its currently in. Not even worth the call, waste of time.

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Principal Terry's avatar

Saban retired because of NIL and the Transfer Portal. Didn’t want to deal with those two things.

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BB88's avatar

Perhaps, but when interviewed, that's not what he said. He said he was just getting too old and felt he couldn't perform at that high of a level any longer. Which made sense to me. In addition, NIL has been around now for a few years as has the transfer portal and Saban as well as Kirby Smart were still doing pretty good with both, so I'm not sure I would believe that the screwed-up nature of the current college football landscape caused Nick to hang it up.

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gbruin's avatar

I think you're both on it. Saban has nothing in the world to prove, and he has been doing this a long time. Coaching Bama must be an unbelievably consuming job, and he has a pretty cushy gig awaiting him. But Saban has also been vocal about the challenges and pitfalls of issues like the portal and NIL and realignment. I think it's understandable that he doesn't want to deal with everything the job requires anymore. And to think he'd want to dive in deep to all those dynamics in order to revive a charity case like U.C.L.A. is overly wishful thinking.

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BruinMom17's avatar

And Saban has a new gig on College Game Day.

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Hugo L. Ramirez Palma's avatar

Urban Meyer said the same thing when he left OSU and we saw him the following year with the Jags. I mean, it’s outlandish to think he could come to UCLA, but if you’re the AD, what do you have to lose by calling him, see what his availability (if any) is.

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Evan's avatar

Urban Meyer would command $10 million. This is why it's terrible that Kelly left. We cannot afford even $8 million per year, but in 9 months we could afford much more. Meyer would be on the table, but we are about to roll the dice on someone who, for better or worse, will be our coach for at least the next 4 years.

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gbruin's avatar

Even for the sake of discussion, I don't want to hear Meyer's name mentioned anywhere around U.C.L.A.

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Evan's avatar

retired because of NIL and all the adverse changes to the college game the last few years

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