BATON ROUGE — LSU head football coach Nick Saban announced Saturday night that he has agreed to become the head coach of the Miami Dolphins of the NFL.
Saban made the announcement at a press conference in Orlando, Fla., where the Tigers arrived Saturday to prepare for its Capital One Bowl appearance against Iowa on January 1.
Saban will be the coach of the Tigers for the bowl game.
Here are some of the comments from Coach Saban in his opening statement of the press conference:
“I feel very fortunate to have two very good to have two strongly positive choices about what our future can be as a family. Our time at LSU has probably been the most rewarding one that we have had professionally as a coach over the last 30-some years, the significance of what we have accomplished, how much it has been appreciated, how many people it has affected has certainly made this the most self-gratifying experience I have had as a coach. But I’ve always been driven by challenges. I don’t care whether it was little league baseball, the pony league to get to American Legion or whatever it was it was always the next challenge that makes driven people want to take advantage of the next opportunity, the next challenge.
“I think the Miami Dolphins is a great organization, with a great owner in Wayne Huizenga, who is committed to winning and I think it is a tremendous challenge for me and a great opportunity and a great choice for me and my family to have the opportunity to at least in principle to be the coach there and it is something we are very excited about. We look forward to it and I know there is a lot to be learned, a lot to be done and we have a lot of respect for the people who are there now on their team who are working and preparing for a game that they have to play. Coach Jim Bates is a personal friend of mine and I wish him the best in what he is trying to do with that team and he has done a fantastic job with that team.
“Our time here (Orlando)…a bowl game is a time to reward our team, LSU’s team and I don’t want that to be tarnished in anyway shape or form by what the coach is going through or the coaches are going through relative to their experience. So from this time forward, I want to devote my time and our attention to our team having success in this bowl game and supporting them and being devoted to them to help them be successful in what they are trying to do here in this game against Iowa. So, I have agreed to go to Miami Monday afternoon and will do that, but other than that, our time and attention is going to be totally devoted this week to our team at LSU, our fans and our supporters who have been so wonderful in helping this program to be successful. So many people have contributed to the success of LSU, our administration, our athletic director Skip Bertman; there are so many people that have contributed to this. And the players themselves contributed to this opportunity that we have and that’s appreciated. My loyalty to those players will never wane.”