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Latest comment: 17 years ago1 comment1 person in discussion
Lou Saban's page makes reference to Joe Collier and the subsequent coach for the Buffalo Bills. That name is incorrect. Correct name is Joel Collier. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.20.209.107 (talk) 19:57, 3 November 2007 (UTC)Reply
Thanks and apologies it's taken me so long to get to this -- I've had some real-life stuff come up. Anyhow, these look like great suggestions as usual, and I'll work through them now. --Batard0 (talk) 15:22, 3 November 2012 (UTC)Reply
Lead
I get the general vibe that this comes from a bio on a team website in the first paragraph.
Agreed. It needs some adjustments for encyclopedic tone. I tried to make some tweaks here and there in an attempt to make it less glib and more neutral, but let me know if it still sounds off and I'll try to make some other adjustments.
Playing career
I'm not a huge fan of the first sentence in the high school section. Perhaps you could rephrase that a bit.
This may be solely because I don't live in Illinois, but I'm not familiar with what a high school conference is, perhaps you could subtly explain that.
I changed it to "the athletic conference in which his high school played" in hopes that that clarifies it a bit. I could perhaps make it even clearer by saying "his high school's athletic conference, a grouping of schools from the area", but that would require some other changes to make it flow into the following material...I can do this, though, if you think it'd be a good idea. --Batard0 (talk) 15:22, 3 November 2012 (UTC)Reply
Did he walk on at Indiana, or was he on scholarship?
This isn't clear from the sources, so I'm not sure. One says he was a sophomore in 1941, so must have been a freshman in 1940. The other obit says after high school he starred at Indiana, without saying whether he was on a scholarship. I'm having some trouble finding any sources that answer the question, so I've left it for now. --Batard0 (talk) 15:40, 3 November 2012 (UTC)Reply
I've changed this slightly, because the source doesn't say "blocking quarterback" in any event. It just says he was used as a quarterback. This may have been in there before I started looking at it, though I'm not sure -- I could have added it. --Batard0 (talk) 15:40, 3 November 2012 (UTC)Reply
"Good players" seems a bit peacocky, not sure what to change it to, but I'd look to make that more quantitative if possible.
I changed it to "talent including O.J. Simpson" and then said how many yards and touchdowns he had that year to make it more quantitative. --Batard0 (talk) 15:40, 3 November 2012 (UTC)Reply
Was money his sole motivation when he went to Miami?
That's not clear from any of the sources I have, but I added "reportedly" to the salary figure, because that was what was reported, but it wasn't confirmed by the university. I could get rid of it if you think it's a distraction. --Batard0 (talk) 15:59, 3 November 2012 (UTC)Reply
Any quotes from colleagues on his reputation for switching from school to school?
Hmm...I find a bunch of writers calling him an itinerant coach and also Saban responding to it, i.e. lines in an article like "People joke about it," said Saban of his itinerant career. "They laugh about how many jobs I've had." (from Seattle Times) or Saban saying "I have been known as a peripatetic coach" (from AP). There are some quotes from George Steinbrenner here, but it's mostly just fluff saying how great he was, etc. It seems that there ought to be some quotes from colleagues about his itinerant career, but I'm not finding them (at least not yet) in a web, books and news search. --Batard0 (talk) 15:59, 3 November 2012 (UTC)Reply
Thanks again -- I'm still looking for a quote re: him changing jobs a lot, but weirdly enough I'm still not turning anything up aside from him talking about himself. It would be nice to have, I agree. I did find this video of Bill Veeck talking in part about Saban and him breaking contracts, but I'm a little bit uncomfortable quoting directly from it, since it feels sort of like a primary source. He says: "Probably the greatest exponent of the peripatetic coach is a fellow by the name of Lou Saban, who has ended up in just exactly the right place. He's now president of the New York Yankees. He and George Steinbrenner deserve each other. Both illegitimate. But let me go back to Saban. I knew Saban first when he was playing for the St. Louis Browns [mistake, should be Cleveland Browns], and I had the Indians, and then all of the sudden he shows up as coach, first at Carroll [mistake], then at Northwestern and then he really got into action. He signed five contracts that he broke owing about four years on each." I can easily add this if you think it's valid. --Batard0 (talk) 10:45, 5 November 2012 (UTC)Reply
I don't know how to edit the table properly, but Jim Caldwell ought to be included in the Tony Dungy branch, off the late Marty Schottenheimer's segment of Saban's coaching tree. Something like this is the relevant info: JC=Jim Caldwell Colts, 2009–11 Lions, 2014-2017