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There are plenty of hot seat coaches across the country, and we’re already beginning to see some college programs sweeping out the old, and preparing for the new.  Yesterday, it was announced that Kansas State’s Ron Prince will not return for the 2009 season, after a 3 year tenure.  This follows up firings/forced resignations in Clemson, Tennessee, and Washington.  By the end of December, house cleaning should be complete.  Greg Robinson losing his job at Syracuse is inevitable.  We’ll find out if Mike Stoops has done enough in Arizona to secure his job, after prospering early on a sweet schedule and a weakened Pac 10 conference. And there’s still speculation about the job security of Auburn’s Tommy Tuberville.  But there is one coach out there, and one program, that ends all speculation, and rolls across the country as the coaching reaper.  That would be Nick Saban and his top ranked Crimson Tide of Alabama.

The Tyrone Willingham and Ron Prince resignations may not be a direct result of Nick Saban, but the same can’t be said for Tommy Bowden and Philip Fulmer.  Two high profile coaches for a couple of high profile programs, and what they had in common were scheduled dates with Alabama.  Bowden opened the season by hosting Saban’s tide. His Clemson Tigers had a top 10 ranking and were a BCS favorite.  The Tide rolled in, rolled over the home team, and rolled out.  The Tigers managed to recover and bounce back for three weeks, but that opening loss and coaching criticism lingered.  As Clemson then began their slide, the university acted on preconceived notions that dated back to the second half of a football game played August 30, which saw Clemson trailing Alabama 31-10.

By the 8^th game of the schedule, the Tide rolled upon another troubled program with a hot seat coach. They grabbed a 29-9 road victory over the Tennessee Volunteers, recording the first back-to-back victories in the series since ’91-’92. One week later, following a loss to South Carolina, Phillip Fulmer and his coaching record of 151 wins to only 51 losses, steps down. Some would call it coincidence, with athletic departments making their decisions based on the performance of the programs and not according to the coach on the opposing sideline. But Nick Saban is symbolic of change. In just two years, he’s taken an underachieving Alabama program to the top of the college football world. Without hesitation, the Tide made a coaching change, and immediately went from failure to success. It’s not “you’re fired, because of what Bama just did to us”. It’s “You’re fired, because of what Saban did to Bama”. If your days are numbered, and the program is already contemplating a different direction, Nick Saban, and his success stories, will act as the instrument for termination.