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New LSU Head Coach Nick Saban
10/31/99
http://www.lsusports.net/ViewArticle.dbml?
&DB_OEM_ID=5200&ATCLID=158628&SPID=2164&SPSID=27815
Thank you very much. The first thing I’d like to say to Tiger fans everywhere, to the players who have
made the tradition of Tiger football what it is today, whether you played for Charley Mac, Jerry Stovall,
Paul Dietzel, Bill Arnsparger or any other coach who they played for, this is your team, this is your
program, and I’m very happy to be your coach. I think we need to pull all those things together that
LSU has to offer in terms of support and tradition so that we have the best chance to be successful
because I think that togetherness, especially with the high school level of talent and play, that you
really have a chance to be successful, and that’s what intrigued me about this job. The hardest thing I’
ve ever had to do was get in front of my team at Michigan State this morning and tell them that I was
no longer be their coach, and that I was going to take and opportunity to be the coach at LSU. There’s
a tremendous commitment on that team, and an endless competitive spirit, and I had a tremendous
amount of respect for the men responsible for that. I also want to thank my staff at Michigan State that
helped make that happen. That was a very difficult thing for them to take, and I hope they have the
utmost success winning the Citrus Bowl this year. Our mission statement has always been that we
want our players to be successful and people first, secondly as students, to get a good education and
graduate school, and third we would like every player to develop to their full potential and play for a
championship, and last to pull together all the resources that LSU has to offer and help every player
after he leaves here to launch his career.
To do that, I think you must have a great support mechanism, and it certainly starts at the top, and I
was certainly impressed by our chancellor, Mark Emmert, who I think will provide the leadership and
create the atmosphere to help us be successful in building a program. Joe Dean, who has an
outstanding reputation as an athletic director certainly represented nothing but class in the entire
way this process was presented to me, and I’m sure the entire athletic department will be very
supportive of our efforts to build this program. I’m sure the university community is very willing to do
anything and everything to make this success possible. When I think of LSU football, I still think of
Chinese bandits, I still think of playing hard and relentless competitors, and great defense. I can
promise you our goal objective is to have that kind of team. I think that we should always be in the top
25, and I certainly think that we want to win our conference, and play in the championship game there,
and if you do that, you’re very close to being one of the top teams in the country. Those are the goals
and objectives that we’re going to have here, and I think we’re going to have a great product. You
have to know what your competition is and you have to eliminate derision from within, and I think that
is the biggest cancers to a program. Everybody has to have a common goal, and everybody has to pull
together to reach that goal. That’s the way I’ve been able to be successful in other endeavors, and
certainly I would hope that we can provide the kind of leadership that will enable us to be successful
here because of our ability to work together as a team.
10/31/99
http://www.lsusports.net/ViewArticle.dbml?
&DB_OEM_ID=5200&ATCLID=158628&SPID=2164&SPSID=27815
Thank you very much. The first thing I’d like to say to Tiger fans everywhere, to the players who have
made the tradition of Tiger football what it is today, whether you played for Charley Mac, Jerry Stovall,
Paul Dietzel, Bill Arnsparger or any other coach who they played for, this is your team, this is your
program, and I’m very happy to be your coach. I think we need to pull all those things together that
LSU has to offer in terms of support and tradition so that we have the best chance to be successful
because I think that togetherness, especially with the high school level of talent and play, that you
really have a chance to be successful, and that’s what intrigued me about this job. The hardest thing I’
ve ever had to do was get in front of my team at Michigan State this morning and tell them that I was
no longer be their coach, and that I was going to take and opportunity to be the coach at LSU. There’s
a tremendous commitment on that team, and an endless competitive spirit, and I had a tremendous
amount of respect for the men responsible for that. I also want to thank my staff at Michigan State that
helped make that happen. That was a very difficult thing for them to take, and I hope they have the
utmost success winning the Citrus Bowl this year. Our mission statement has always been that we
want our players to be successful and people first, secondly as students, to get a good education and
graduate school, and third we would like every player to develop to their full potential and play for a
championship, and last to pull together all the resources that LSU has to offer and help every player
after he leaves here to launch his career.
To do that, I think you must have a great support mechanism, and it certainly starts at the top, and I
was certainly impressed by our chancellor, Mark Emmert, who I think will provide the leadership and
create the atmosphere to help us be successful in building a program. Joe Dean, who has an
outstanding reputation as an athletic director certainly represented nothing but class in the entire
way this process was presented to me, and I’m sure the entire athletic department will be very
supportive of our efforts to build this program. I’m sure the university community is very willing to do
anything and everything to make this success possible. When I think of LSU football, I still think of
Chinese bandits, I still think of playing hard and relentless competitors, and great defense. I can
promise you our goal objective is to have that kind of team. I think that we should always be in the top
25, and I certainly think that we want to win our conference, and play in the championship game there,
and if you do that, you’re very close to being one of the top teams in the country. Those are the goals
and objectives that we’re going to have here, and I think we’re going to have a great product. You
have to know what your competition is and you have to eliminate derision from within, and I think that
is the biggest cancers to a program. Everybody has to have a common goal, and everybody has to pull
together to reach that goal. That’s the way I’ve been able to be successful in other endeavors, and
certainly I would hope that we can provide the kind of leadership that will enable us to be successful
here because of our ability to work together as a team.