Marc Guillon Redux?

by Todd on Jun 14, 2007 9:23 AM CDT in Football

After the sour grapes e-mails of Marc Guillon, news of former QB Jimmy Barnes's father claiming it was Saban's treatment of his son that caused him to leave will probably fall on deaf ears.

"To be honest with you, it's the way (Alabama head coach Nick Saban) is treating kids," said John Barnes, a longtime head football coach at Los Alamitos High in Southern California. "What Jim told Saban was he was not going to give up his dignity and be treated like that."

While it's certainly possible that Barnes, who was recruited by Mike Shula, decided to leave the team because he couldn't handle Saban's far more agressive coaching style, there are just too many discrepancies for me to take Mr. Barnes seriously.

When informed by Barnes that he was leaving the team, Saban was told he wanted to transfer to a D-1AA school, not that he was upset with Saban.
Both sides agree that Saban told Barnes he wanted him to stay (despite the fact he would probably never fit the new offense and this team needs scholarships).
The other players don't seem to have a problem with the Saban treatment:

Defensive end Wallace Gilberry said Barnes "is a great guy and comes from a great family." But Gilberry said he doesn't agree with John Barnes.

"One thing he (Saban) is really big about is treating people with respect," Gilberry said. Quarterback John Parker Wilson added that "respect is a big issue around here."

Seems to me that this is either the defensive posturing of a highly touted recruit's father who didn't like that his son is having to transfer to a D-1AA school to play, or Barnes was too embarassed to tell his parents "I'll never start here" and played up the "I don't like the coaches" excuse as the reason he wanted to transfer.

While this is probably going to elicit no more than a shrug from most Bama fans, who else thinks this is going to get some big play in the press?

Tweet Comment 2 comments | 0 recs |

Do you like this story?

Comments

Not to make comparisons...

I genuinely think Shula attracted a talented but lazy, coddled group of athletes. I don't want to make Bryant comparisons, because we do that with every new coach, but it seems Coach Saban is running off the quitters.

Anyone who's ever started a management job at a new company knows you fight the hangers on from the old culture until they convert or quit. Saban is getting buy in from those willing to do what it takes, and getting rid of those who won't.

That said, I wish Jimmy Barnes well.

by AlabamaGameday on Jun 14, 2007 9:51 AM CDT reply actions

I would imagine that...

...the Shula to Saban transition might be especially difficult for a supposed "Golden Boy" recruit whose limited performance last year was less-than-stellar. I don't doubt for a second that Saban's coaching style will ruffle the feathers of a few. And I can easily see that a more sensitive player might take it very personally.

The thing about football, though, is that it's a team sport. And what's best for the team ain't gonna always sit well with the individual.

I think AlabamaGameday's corporate analogy above is likely right on the mark. The regime change in Tuscaloosa will likely result in a handful of casualties, and some will be noisier than others.

As for whether or not this gets any play in the press: There will almost certainly be a four-part investigative series in the Miami Herald, comparing the Alabama training camp to Soviet-era forced-labor Siberian prisons, with the godless Premier Nicholas Stalin Saban heartlessly looking on. Don Shula will be quoted ad infinitum, railing against the apparent human rights abuses and decrying the Crimson Tide football program as "un-American". Several Dolphin players will give tearful, anonymous accounts of their time in GITMO.

Outside of South Florida, though - no one will pay any mind.

by turnover on Jun 14, 2007 12:40 PM CDT reply actions