Nick Saban Praises Cowboys Coach Garrett

If you ever wondered how the Dallas Cowboys ended up with Jason Garrett, two words: Nick Saban.

Garrett was on Saban’s staff in Miami as the quarterback’s coach, but at first Saban didn’t seem too excited about having him there.

“Scott Linehan and all the other offensive coaches who had coached in the league … they all knew Jason, and they said, ‘You’ve got to interview Jason Garrett,”Saban said to AL.com. 

“I said, the guy’s never even coached. How can you recommend him for a coaching job?

Saban later admits he was wrong about the former Princeton grad. 

“And I interviewed him, and he was by far the best candidate. And I said that even after a year — after his first year of being a coach — I really considered him to promote him to [offensive] coordinator and call the plays because he was that good a coach that quickly because he’s a very bright guy and really could relate well with the players.”

“If I made one mistake as a pro coach, it was after one year, he should have been made the offensive coordinator,” 

 “He was that good, that smart, the players responded to him that well.”

Garrett of course would go on to be hired as the Dallas Cowboys head coach years later. Saban wasn’t the only coach to recognize Garrett’s potential as a head coach.

Even before he was hired in Dallas, he was one of the hottest coaching prospects in the NFL and he has Nick Saban to thank for giving him a chance of a lifetime.

Saban is also the reason that former Alabama linebacker Rolando McClain ended up in Dallas.

Garrett said this about Saban in 2012 interview:

“The best coaches I’ve been around as a player and as a coach, you could wake me up 30 years from now in the middle of the night and say, ‘What does this guy believe in?’ And I can say, ‘Bang. Bang. Bang.’ Whether it’s a progression from a quarterback coach or a mantra that a head coach is preaching.”

 “I can tell you what Nick Saban believes in from my head to my toe, and I can tell you that because he kept hammering it and hammering it, and you tell it a lot of different ways, and eventually it sinks in.”

Apparently, Saban’s “process” not only works for players, but for up and coming coaches too.