In all of those cases you mentioned, the program was in a bit of a mess when that coach took over.

Saban came to Bama when they were in as bad a shape as a program as I can ever remember (and I remember Bama football going back to the 1960s). They had been through scandal after embarrassment with DuBose, Franchione, Shula and Price. They were coming off a losing season, and had 4 seasons with 7 or more losses in the previous 10 years. They had not had a top 20 recruiting class in about 5 or 6 years. Saban had a big rebuilding job.

With Chizik, Auburn was coming off a losing season under Tubberville. And all of his losses his first year were to SEC teams on the road, except Kentucky (who had a winning season) and Bama (who won the National Championship).

Urban was cleaning up the mess from Zook, and did win 9 games his 1st season with no home losses.

Richt came in after we had plateaued under Donnan and struggled under Goff. But of course, we had a boatload of talent when he got here.

Kirby didn't have anywhere near the rebuilding job that those guys did. We were coming off a 10-win season and had averaged 10 wins over the last 5 years. We've had recruiting classes in the top 10-12 every year as well. We hadn't won any championships, but we had a winning culture and a lot of talent. Kirby just made too many mistakes for me to believe he can correct everything and become an effective head coach while being under the microscope of such a big program. I hope I'm wrong, but I ain't gonna hold my breath.


Edited to add:
Also I forgot to mention that of the four guys you mentioned: Saban, Chizik, Meyer and Richt, Richt was the only one who did not win a National Championship, and he's also the only one who did not have prior head coaching experience. Coincidence?
[Post edited by RedDawg at 11/28/2016 10:45PM]