Nick Saban is on the other side of the ball now, to put it mildly, but it was in his first year as head coach of the LSU Tigers that the team last finished out of the money in the preseason poll of coaches. Saban and his team proved that omission very wrong by going 8-4 in 2000, a huge turnaround from the year before.
Here we are again: a new head coach, a program that was 11-12 over the last two seasons.
Also again, LSU's out of the money in the USA Today sports AFCA football preseason coaches poll.
Nick Saban’s still in, though, as the panel of 65 head coaches put Alabama as the preseason No. 1.
We do not know as well as Coach Brian Kelly how to motivate young men. The world of football is probably significantly different from a couple of decades ago, even if some of the names — Saban! — are the same.
But if being dissed in the Top 25 preseason can spur Brian Kelly's team to show the gray heads wrong, we would love to see it happen this fall. And no time better than when the Tigers face old Nick across the football.