Looking back on it now, it all seems so predetermined.
Of course Michigan State was going to hire Nick Saban. He was a future College Football Hall of Famer and the greatest coach of his time. Surely the Spartans' brass would have seen that at the time, right?
In late November 1994, Saban was but one name in a hat full of them looking to replace George Perles as Michigan State's head coach. Saban, Perles's defensive coordinator in East Lansing from 1983-87 and at the time working in the same position under Bill Belichick with the Cleveland Browns, interviewed for the job alongside Penn State offensive coordinator Fran Gatner, Bowling Green head coach Gary Blackney, Kansas City Chiefs running backs coach Jimmy Raye and Green Bay Packers offensive coordinator Sherman Lewis.
As the calendar flipped to December, Saban told the Detroit Free Press he didn't think he was getting the job (via AL.com):
"I'm not anticipating any additional contact from the administration at Michigan State. It appears that they have made their decision, and I respect that. I thought Michigan State would be a very special situation for me and my family, and I thought my record would speak for itself. But I won't permit myself to get frustrated because I'm confident I'll get my opportunity to become a head coach either at the college or professional level."
Displaying the same penchant for misdirection that would one day get him into trouble, Saban provided that quote on the same day Michigan State chose him as its next head coach.
We know now Michigan State president Peter McPherson made the right hire, and the past two decades have proven how exceedingly right he was: as the other four names faded to history, Saban went about making it.
Not only were those five seasons as personal springboard for Saban to ultimately claim one national championship at LSU and four more (and counting) at Alabama, his hiring ultimately proved to be the supernova that much of today's college football universe rotates around.
Consider the following:
- If Saban never lands the Michigan State job, Mark Dantonio never lands the Michigan State job a decade later. Then a defensive backs coach at Kansas, the chance to join Saban's staff in East Lansing provided the link he would ultimately use to return to Michigan State and lead the Spartans to five seasons of 11-plus wins, four top-10 finishes, three major bowl appearances, two Big Ten titles and a College Football Playoff berth. "Had I never had that opportunity to go to Michigan State, I wouldn't be sitting here right now," Dantonio said in December.
- If Saban doesn't take the Michigan State job, he most likely ultimately never takes the LSU job before the 2000 season. And if Saban doesn't take the LSU job, the Tigers obviously don't win the 2003 national championship but they also don't win the 2007 national crown. How do you think the folks in Louisiana would handle going on 50 years without a national championship?
- Saban is correct that he ultimately would have been a head coach somewhere if the Spartans had gone elsewhere in 1994. But what if he had stayed in the NFL, where the workaholic, turbo-driven Saban has professed his appreciation for the all-football focused nature of professional football. Who is the head coach today at Alabama? At Michigan State? At LSU? At Florida? At Florida State? At Georgia? At South Carolina?
We don't know the answers to those questions, but we do know now a 5-6 team's decision to hire an unproven NFL assistant was the dime on which college football history ultimately turned.