when texas won in 2005 with vince young, it was young who won those games. he was a big, mobile quarterback, like newton was at auburn. they didn't have a stellar defense that year. they allowed ~302 yards per game on defense in 2005. by comparison, they allowed ~250 in 2009. in 2005, young was their leading rusher with over 1000 yards for the season. the next leading rusher had almost 200 yards less. adding in that guy's receiving numbers (he wasn't the leading receiver), he still doesn't equal the total number of yards vs. young (1035 vs 1050). take away vince young and put in a pure-passer type and see what happens. maybe they still win it, maybe they don't. but i doubt they come away with the win vs. usc that year in the rose bowl. mack brown's lone national championship is like gene chizik's, in my opinion. a big, tough quarterback, a decent defense, and not much else. take away newton in 2010, and i don't think auburn gets by oregon. oh, and in both situations, texas in '05 and auburn in '10, it took a last-second play for each team to win. so again, take away their "unique" quarterbacks and i think the outcome for both games is decidedly different.
but....each coach can claim a national championship and each team can claim a national championship. they won it, they earned it (somewhat.....ahem...2010), they deserve their trophies. but don't tell me how good of a coach either of them is when they couldn't repeat their success.
mack brown record at texas; 16 years: 158-48 | 2 conference championships | 1 national championship
gene chizik record at auburn; 4 years: 33-19 | 1 conference championship | 1 national championship
Nick Saban record at Alabama; 11 years: 127-20 | 6 conference championships | 5 national championships
as well, Coach Saban won 2 conference titles and 1 national championship while at lsu. so he has duplicated his success at another school (even more-so).
in 11 years at Alabama, Coach Saban has only 1 more loss than chizik did in 4 years at auburn. he also has less than half as many losses that mack brown did in 16 years at texas. to match the number of losses brown had at texas, Coach Saban would have to lose an average of 5.6 games PER SEASON in the next 5 seasons while at Alabama. and i just don't see that happening. his worst record is 7-6 in very first year at 'Bama. since then, his next worst record is 10-3. also, Coach Saban already has more double-digit wins in fewer years (10 in 11) than brown did during his whole career at texas (9 in 16). chizik had a double-digit-win season just once...2010. and although he can claim that he won every single bowl game, while at auburn; when you get fired 2 years after winning the big one, you can't brag a whole lot about that stat.
