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Updated: Jan. 1, 2007, 9:37 AM ET
Bama to make big offer to Saban later todayESPN.com news services
Will Alabama lure Nick Saban away from the Dolphins? The Crimson Tide will make their formal pitch later Monday, ESPN's Chris Mortensen is reporting.
Dolphins' owner Wayne Huizenga is trying to persuade Saban to ignore Alabama's overtures.
Saban has three years left on his Dolphins deal worth approximately $4.5 million a year. Huizenga may have to bump him up considerably to keep him because the financial security gap is expected to be significantly different between the Dolphins and the Crimson Tide.
Alabama has only floated numbers that will be in the $4 to $4.5 million range, but over an 8- to 10-year term.
There are 11 colleges coaches who make over $2 million a year. There are four coaches in the $3 million-plus range, if you count USC's Pete Carroll, who made $2.93 million this year and should be over $3 million next year. Notre Dame's Charlie Weis, Iowa's Kirk Ferentz and Oklahoma's Bob Stoops are over $3 million.
A current Alabama assistant told ESPN.com's Mark Schlabach on Sunday morning that former coach Mike Shula's staff expects Saban to be named the Crimson Tide's new coach sometime this week.
"He's going to clean house here, top to bottom," the coach said.
An Alabama official, speaking on the condition on anonymity, said earlier this week the Crimson Tide are interested in as many as five candidates to replace Shula, but Saban was clearly the top choice. The Alabama official said the school hoped to have Shula's replacement hired by Friday, which marks the beginning of an important recruiting weekend.
Reports linking Alabama and Saban began circulating soon after the Crimson Tide fired Shula as coach in late November. Saban has repeatedly denied interest in the job.
"I'm not going to be the Alabama coach," he said last week.
Saban said he wouldn't comment on the Alabama opening anymore.
"I'm just making a rule to never comment on something like that again because every time you comment on it, it just makes for another story," Saban said. "So I'm not going to comment on it five years from now, and I'm not going to comment on it next week."
He reminded reporters of his stance after Miami's season-ending 27-22 loss to the Colts on Sunday, adding the Dolphins job is the one "I'm committed to doing well."
Saban acknowledged this month that Alabama approached his agent about its coaching job, but he declined an invitation to talk to the Crimson Tide.
Saban agreed to a five-year contract worth at least $22.5 million with Miami on Christmas Day 2004.
Saban went 48-16 in five seasons at LSU, won the 2003 BCS national championship and went 92-42-1 as a college head coach. He turned down several overtures from the NFL before leaving Baton Rouge for Miami.
LSU offensive coordinator Jimbo Fisher, who worked for Saban when the Tigers won the 2003 BCS national championship, said he wasn't sure if Saban would return to college football.
"I don't know what Nick's going to do," Fisher said. "That deal over there, I don't know. I'm sitting on the edge of my seat like everyone else waiting to see what happens."
But Fisher did indirectly indicate that Saban is unhappy coaching in the NFL, where he has less control over personnel issues.
When speaking about his own job opportunities, Fisher said: "I don't want to take the wrong job and three or four years later, you're asking for the one you had." Fisher then smiled and said, "We all know that happens a lot."
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http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=2716394
