Adams: Laugh is on tough-guy Saban

DESTIN, Fla. - Alabama coach Nick Saban laughed in front of the media Tuesday afternoon.

Short of the SEC announcing that it will expand to 20 teams, I can't imagine any bigger news emanating from this week's spring meetings.

Saban has smiled before, even in the presence of the media. But this smile turned into laughter.

What's next for college football's toughest coach? A media sing-along?

I figured Saban still would be upset over the way the national championship game ended. It ended with a couple of Saban's Alabama players uncorking a Gatorade gusher on him while their teammates stood around in disbelief.

Don't bother asking. Of course, the two players had no eligibility left.

I now pause for reflection and doubt. Did Saban really laugh? Or did I imagine it (it is warm down here)?

I just checked the tape. Not only did he laugh, he actually made fun of his tough-guy image in relating the story of his arrival for the SEC meetings. His point: Tennessee's Derek Dooley "gets it" when it comes to being a head coach.

Saban was talking on the phone when Dooley greeted his former boss. Since Saban was preoccupied (imagine that), Dooley engaged Saban's wife in conversation.

The conversation, according to Nick, went like this:

Dooley: "He's getting on somebody on the phone, isn't he?"

Terry Saban: "Yeah, I think so."

Nick then interrupts the story with his own laughter.

Dooley: "I never could figure out why he did that when I was an assistant. But now, being a head coach, I know why he does it, because then they don't bring all that sort of mouse-manure stuff to you all the time, because they're afraid to."

Nick laughed again. So did the media.

Good times, huh?

Alabama fans think so. They're still beaming over the fact that Saban already has won them one national championship, come close to another one in his three years on the job, and still isn't angling for another job.

"I think it is always a difficult decision to go some place else," he said. "It's a decision I'm never going to make again. I am where I am.

"If they get a team at Lake Burton (Ga.), then I might go there. Other than that, I'm where I'm at."

Go ahead and laugh at the man who, as the Miami Dolphins coach, said he would never be the head coach at Alabama. But where else can he go and be assured of winning with the same dominance and consistency as he has at Alabama?

The defending national champions will return Heisman Trophy winner Mark Ingram, seven other offensive starters, and - in Ingram and Trent Richardson - a running back tandem that some NFL teams would envy. So what if it lost nine defensive starters. The first preseason football magazine on the newsstands has Alabama No. 1 again.

Hours after his last Tide team had finished No. 1, Saban sat in a room with two of his best friends, both from Louisiana, where he won a national title six years earlier at LSU.

"I said, 'With every accomplishment comes a new set of issues,' " Saban said.

"And both of them - very successful business guys - said, 'Maybe as we speak.' "

Saban can sound rather grim when he addresses the challenge of repeating as a national champion, but his tone changed with the next question: "Do you ever relax for a couple of days?"

The next thing you know, Saban was talking about how much he likes recruiting, football practice, going to the lake and playing golf.

"But I don't think I'm wired that I can sit around and do nothing, even at the lake," he said. "I have to get my Gator out - that little thing you drive and haul stuff in; trim trees; get the chainsaw out.

"I'm as happy as I can be."

He sounded convincing. But I checked the tape again just to be sure.

He was definitely laughing.

John Adams may be reached at 865-342-6284 or adamsj@knoxnews.com.