By DAVE DYE
FOX Sports Detroit
ORLANDO, Fla. -- Few jobs in college football are as demanding as working for Alabama coach Nick Saban. Especially when you're his defensive backs coach.
Saban came up coaching the secondary. He knows that anyone who coaches that position for him is going to face some serious demands, which is what Mark Dantonio faced in the late '90s as an assistant for Saban at Michigan State.
"He had to put up with me for five years 'cause whoever coaches the secondary on our team, I'm in the room 90 percent of the time," Saban said Friday during a news conference to preview Saturday's Capital One Bowl between Alabama and Michigan State. "He managed it better than anything. He had more maturity doing it than most. He did a fantastic job for us. Great person, great recruiter, did a really good job of coaching and developing players."
Dantonio, in his fourth season as the Spartans' head coach, will be taking on his former boss for the first time from the opposite sideline.
So just what was it like to be Saban's defensive backs coach?
"That was probably my biggest learning curve as a secondary coach," said Dantonio, who worked for Saban from 1995-99. "I don't want to disrespect anybody that I worked for in the past, but you found yourself doing things on a much higher plane, I guess, of learning, technique, etc. As a defensive back's coach, I think I grew greatly and as a coach in general.
"It's always difficult when the head coach's training and his background is in the position that you coach. I don't care where it is, whether it's quarterbacks, whatever it is. It's always a little bit difficult, but there's always a silver lining there as well. He knows what you're teaching, he knows what you're fundamentally teaching, he knows how you're teaching it. When things go wrong, there's a silver lining there because it's a part of him as well.
"It's a give-and-take there a little bit, but it certainly is very, very rewarding."
Since they haven't worked together for more than a decade, Dantonio said it really hasn't been that that much more emotional for him to prepare to take on Saban's team.
"It's a little bittersweet," Dantonio said. "We know so many people on the Alabama staff. It's not just Nick, it's Bobby Williams (former MSU head coach/assistant coach, now Alabama's tight ends and special teams coach), it's Mike Vollmar (former MSU director of football operations, now Alabama's associate athletic director/football), some of the other coaches as well. Little bittersweet in that respect."
Statement time for MSU
Dantonio, who is 0-3 in bowls as Michigan State's coach, is putting a little extra pressure on his team this time. He is making it clear he has expectations. Just getting here isn't enough.
Not anymore.
"We've been to bowl games," Dantonio said. "We've got to win one. We've got to win our last game. That should propel us into 2011.
"Regardless of what happens, you move forward, but when you win your bowl game, it has a lasting affect on you for the next six or seven months. It can carry you."
Facing a program like Alabama could make it that much more rewarding, too.
"It allows us the opportunity to see where we're at," Dantonio said. "I know we're a good football team, but we're a team that wasn't ranked in the top-25 (in the preseason). We make it on confidence, we've got an edge to us, we have a different hero every week.
"But are we one of the elite teams in the nation right now? We're going to find out because I do believe Alabama is. We have an opportunity to play the defending national champions, the defending Heisman Trophy winner (running back Mark Ingram). We have an opportunity to make a statement whether we are one of the elite teams in this country at this point in time or not."
Big Ten vs. SEC
Having coached in the Big Ten and SEC, Saban was asked to address the annual conference debate.
"If there's any difference at all, it's probably the passion of the fans," Saban said. "Not that the Big Ten fans don't have tremendous passion. They just have choices. They've had choices through the years.
"I think the biggest difference I see, from a guy who's been at both places, is for a long time there weren't any pro sports in the South so everybody sort of grew up identifying with their college team. I think some of that passion still sort of exists. It makes it a great league to coach in, a lot of fun.
"From a football standpoint, I don't think the quality of either league should be in question."
Barron out
Alabama will be without one of its top players, strong safety Mark Barron, who has a torn pectoral muscle. Barron is the quarterback of the defense.
His replacement, sophomore Will Lowery, likely won't be able to replace Barron's intangibles.
"He's taken a lot of burden on his shoulders with the young guys in the secondary, making checks, making calls," Alabama defensive coordinator Kirby Smart said of Barron, a 6-foot-2, 210-pound hard-hitting junior. "He makes people feel comfortable in the secondary and even the 'backers (linebackers) there. You know you can trust in Mark making those calls.
"The good thing is you couldn't have had more time (since the final regular-season game) to get ready for the situation of not having Mark. We've had a lot of time to prepare for that."
One-liners
Dantonio, getting a little dig in at the BCS when asked about the Big Ten-SEC comparisons: "In order to really look at conferences, you'd have to take an all-star team and play it against another conference, which might not be a bad idea. Generate more money for the BCS."
Saban, on a statue of his likeness being built at Alabama: "I really don't know when it's going to be done. It's taken a while, though. Didn't have a hell of a lot to work with, I guess."
Dec. 31, 2010
