Saban hypocritically shields his boy, Belichick
PHOTO: Nick Saban on ESPN’s Gameday set.
Buy me a coffee to support my research to tell untold college football integration untold stories.
Thomas Shanahan | @Thomas-Shanahan-23
Watch our trailer of a documentary in development that tells the story Duffy Daugherty leading college football integration: Game Changers
***
By TOM SHANAHAN
When is someone in the media calling out Nick Saban for shielding his boy, North Carolina coach Bill Belichick?
On ESPN’s Gameday prediction segment two Saturdays ago, Saban picked North Carolina to win on the road at Clemson. Not so fast, Nick. Clemson won, 28-20.
We know Saban is a champion of rehabilitating coaches, and, of course, we all make bad predictions. The issue with this one is the qualifier Saban offered. A retired millionaire coach shamelessly felt the need to shield a coach with a five-year, $50 million deal.
Saban said Belichick improved his team’s quarterback play from last season’s 4-8 record, meaning he brought in Billy Edwards Jr. to play for his fourth school in six years to replace Gio Lopez.
But Saban’s comment ignored Lopez’s performance a little more than 12 hours earlier on Friday night against Miami (then ranked No. 5, now No. 4). Despite Wake Forest falling, 33-20, Lopez gave the Hurricanes their first challenge of the year. He finished 29-of-46 passing for 312 yards and three touchdowns with one interception.
Miami’s other three wins were over Stanford by 39 points (45-6); Florida A&M, 70 points (77-7); and Central Michigan, 49 (52-3). Stanford’s QBs were 22-of-42, 214 yards, 0 TDs, 0 interceptions; Florida A&M, 11-of-26, 70 yards, 0 TDs, 0 interceptions; and CMU’s, 21-of-26, 137 yards, 0 TDs and one interception.
Read the remainder of my story on All-Sports Discussion:
Was Nick Saban protecting Bill Belichick? » All Sports Discussion
PHOTO: North Carolina coach Bill Belichick is 6-9 as the midway points of his second season approaches.
-30-
I invite you to follow me on Twitter @shanny4055
NOTE: All facts cited in this story were researched by me as part of writing “RAYE OF LIGHT, Jimmy Raye, Duffy Daugherty, the Integration of College Football and the 1965-66 Michigan State Spartans” and “The RIGHT THING TO DO, The True Pioneers of College Football Integration in the 1960s.”
I’ll put my facts on the true pioneers of college football integration versus Bear Bryant fairytales against anybody, anytime, anywhere. Watch here.
Click here for my first-place FWAA story on the 1962 Rose Bowl, Segregation and Alabama.
— Tom Shanahan is an award-winning sportswriter with two books on college football integration, “RAYE OF LIGHT, Jimmy Raye, Duffy Daugherty, the Integration of College Football and the 1965-66 Michigan State Spartans,” and “THE RIGHT THING TO DO, The True Pioneers of College Football Integration in the 1960s.” They are the most accurate accounts of college football integration in the 1950s and 1960s. They also debunk myths about the 1970 USC-Alabama game. The false narrative co-opted the stories of the true pioneers who stood up to Jim Crow and the KKK.
— Two children’s books also explain Michigan State College Football Hall of Fame coach Duffy Daugherty’s impact on integration through the Underground Railroad and the Hawaiian Pipeline: “DUFFY’S COLLEGE FOOTBALL UNDERGROUND RAILROAD” and “HOW DUFFY PUT HAWAII ON AMERICA’S FOOTBALL MAP.”
***
PURCHASE LINKS, non-fiction books
— RAYE OF LIGHT, August Publications or on Amazon.
— THE RIGHT THING TO DO, August Publications or on Amazon.
PURCHASE LINKS, children’s books
— DUFFY’S COLLEGE FOOTBALL UNDERGROUND RAILROAD, Order from Barnes and Noble here and Amazon here.
— HOW DUFFY PUT HAWAII ON AMERICA’S FOOTBALL MAP, coming soon on Barnes and Noble and Amazon.
