He decided to go to the pros because that’s supposedly a higher level of coaching. I’m not sure that’s true. The level of play may be higher, but coaching is coaching no matter where you do it. The real difference is that in the pros, the job never ends and a coach’s hands are tied by the draft and the salary cap, while in college, there’s plenty of time for golf outings and vacations and the family.

The guys who should stay in the pros are those who don’t like schmoozing the alumni and boosters, and have no stomach for recruiting. Can you picture Bill Belichick making nice to the parents of a hotshot quarterback prospect? Sucking up to the president and athletic director? I can’t, either.

But guys like Saban who are outgoing and personable and people-oriented are made for college. When they succeed in the pros, they’re heroes and can even become legends. When they succeed in college, they’re gods.

That’s why I’ve never understood why any great college coach in either football or basketball would want to go to a pro league, especially the NFL. Assemble a great team in the NFL and within a couple of years big and important pieces of it go floating off into free-agency, and there’s nothing you can do to stop it. If the personnel guys draft a quarterback who doesn’t work out, you can’t run out and recruit another one; you’re stuck with the bum and whatever retread you can pick off another team’s scrap heap.

In college, if one guy doesn’t work, you go out and recruit another. Sure, there’s constant turnover, with players staying four years and moving on, but the kids coming in are as good as your salesmanship skills. Get a good program going, and it becomes self-sustaining.

That’s what can happen in Alabama under Saban. It would be great for the school, great for college football, which needs its historically great programs to thrive, and great for him.

As for Miami, given the offensive deficiencies, I’m sure the Dolphins can find somebody else who can finish third in the AFC East just as well as Saban can.

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