In no way, shape, or form did Saban inherit a better situation at Bama than Kirby did here. Dude, that’s almost comical.

When Saban was hired at Alabama, they were as dysfunctional as they’ve ever been in their history. Not only were they coming off a losing season, but more importantly they had four losing seasons in the previous 10 years, plus a 6-6 year, and two 7-5 seasons. They had won only 2 bowl games in the previous 10 years - by 3 points over Texas Tech and by 1 point over Iowa St. They’d had years of embarrassments and scandals with DuBose, Price, Francione and Shula. They were on NCAA probation (or maybe they had just come off it, I forget exactly), and the NCAA was sniffing around again. Not a single recruiting class in the previous 5 years was ranked in the top 10, and one (2004 - Saban’s Srs) wasn’t even in the top 50.

By contrast, Kirby inherited a team coming off a winning season, who had won 10 or more games in 4 of the last 5 years, and 6 of the last 10. We’ve been to 19 consecutive Bowls, winning 14 of them - many by blowout (we haven’t lost a bowl game by more than a touchdown in 40 years!) All of our last 5 recruiting classes have been ranked in the top 10-12, and there’s no hint of the NCAA looking into anything.

There's no comparison.