Its a beautiful Friday in mid-September, and Dick Crum is spending some time on the barrier islands off the coast of North Carolina.A former college ftball coach, Crum, 82, is retired now and lives in Perry, Ohio. He travels and enjoys a second home in Canada. He lost his wife a few years back and visits his children whenever he can.Crum says he still watches ftball on Saturdays. He makes note of the proliferation of spread offenses. But the game is cyclical, and it will come back around; he knows that.But its what Crum doesnt know, its the circle he cant see, that will cause him to chuckle and ponder one of the lesser-known what-if stories in college ftball history. Believe it or not, Crum once kept Nick Saban from his first head-coaching opportunity.Thats the first time Ive heard that, Crum said. Actually, I didnt really know who was involved in that thing.It was late in 1987, and Crum had just been forced to resign at North Carolina after 10 seasons as head coach. The Kent State job had opened, and the athletic director and administration liked Crums experience. In the fertile recruiting ground of Ohio, Crum thought of it as a sleeping giant. The two agreed on a deal a couple of months later, and on Jan. 20, 1988, Crum was announced as the Golden Flashes new head coach.The runner-up: a 36-year-old Saban, fresh off a Rose Bowl win as defensive crdinator at Michigan State.It was the first time I was ever excited about thinking that I would have the chance to be a head coach someday, Saban said.?Not only did he fail to get the job, it was his alma mater that passed him over. The gut check made him rethink coaching college completely.I thought it would never happen, he said.Asked whether he felt even a little guilty over the pain he caused, Crum laughed.Well, no, not really, he said.And why should he? In 1990, Saban got his first crack at running a program, at Toledo. He went 9-2, won the MAC and beat Crum and Kent State by two touchdowns in late October. Crum finished seventh in the conference, was fired and never coached again.?????Paul Amodio would like a do-over.The former Kent State athletic director, Amodio, 86, still lives in Kent, Ohio, where he grew up. He still goes to Kent State ftball games. And he still regrets the decision he made nearly 30 years ago, passing on the man who would become the greatest college coach of his generation.When reached by telephone earlier this month, the first words out of Amodios mouth were: Nick Saban was quite a person.What do you want me to remember? he asked.Amodio started, as one would, at the interview stage. It was then that he was blown away by Saban. He found him intelligent, thoughtful, personable.I wanted to hire him, Amodio said.But he had his reservations.For one, Saban was so young. And hed never been a head coach. And Amodio wondered how long hed stick around.Amodio already had a sense of the coaching nomad that Saban would become. Before Alabama, hed never stayed anywhere more than a handful of years. Before hed turned 40, Saban had already been an assistant at Kent State, Syracuse, West Virginia, Ohio State, Navy and Michigan State.Amodio recalled how Saban lasted five seasons at LSU before bolting for the NFL.He was lking for big things, Amodio said. I found out that he was probably not going to stay any place very long.Amodio wanted stability after the previous coach, Glen Mason, had gone 7-4 and was hired away by Kansas.Mason wanted Saban to get the job. He knew Saban well from their time together as assistants at Ohio State. He said he recommended Saban and another former Kent State grad, Gary Pinkel, as candidates to replace him.If Kent State liked where the program was going, Mason reasoned, then why not stick with what he called the same blueprint? Which was a young head coach with a background in Ohio who was known for his skills as a recruiter.He was even a Kent State alum, Mason said of Saban. It just made total sense to me that they would hire Nick.Of course, they didnt. The explanation Mason said he received from those in the administration (not Amodio) was that they were lking for a more seasoned coach to take over a team that still had a number of gd players coming back.Later during their careers, Mason and Saban would stumble onto the subject of Kent State from time to time.Mason said Saban didnt say much about it, but when Saban went 9-2 at Toledo in 1990, Mason said he told him, The boys at Kent State are crying in their beer.Said Amodio: He was a great coach. I made a mistake not hiring him.?????Eight years after Saban was fired for the first and only time of his career, at Ohio State in 1981, he was finally ready to become a head coach.Former colleagues describe the younger Saban as a methodical networker. While working under Earle Bruce in Columbus, fellow defensive assistants Steve Szabo and Bob Tucker remember Saban constantly working the phones, calling coaches in college and the NFL to talk shop.Nick had a relationship with Bill Belichick and someone with the Eagles, Szabo recalled.It was the relationship with Belichick that helped Saban land on his feet at Navy after being fired by Bruce. A year later, George Perles, whom Saban knew from his time visiting with the Pittsburgh Steelers offices in the 1970s, hired him as defensive crdinator at Michigan State.Perles said he could tell that Saban was lking to move up following the 1989 Rose Bowl.I knew he wanted to be a head coach, he said.Saban kept Perles in the lp the entire time. Perles thought Saban would get the Kent State job but saw him turn the page immediately when he didnt. Perles didnt sense any disappointment, he said. Later, Saban informed Perles that he was resigning to try his hand in the NFL with the Houston Oilers.Maybe its because Saban went on to such success. Maybe its because it tk him only a couple of years to become a head coach at Toledo. But whatever the case, Perles and the rest of us never stopped to think about what Saban must have felt as a young coach who was turned down for the first head-coaching job he ever wanted.Then on a night last December as Alabama prepared to face Michigan State in the College Ftball Playoff, it came out. Saban was asked what his dream job was early in his career, and he went back to 1987 and Kent State.The job was open, and I applied for it, Saban said, and it was the first time I was ever excited about thinking that I would have the chance to be a head coach someday. I never got hired. So thats when I got a little frustrated and said, Wow. You did what you did [at Michigan State] this year, and they didnt hire you at your own schl. Youre probably never going to be a head coach. Thats exactly what I thought.And that had a lot to do with me going a few months later to the Houston Oilers and coached in the NFL for two years, because I thought I was never going to get to be a head coach in college.As it turns out, the NFL lifestyle never suited Saban. It was t much business, not enough relationships. Players came and went via free agency. Assistants didnt pop into the office throughout the day like he was used to. The college game all along was the right fit for him. But as a 36-year-old coach in search of the next opportunity, he didnt know it. He only knew that his alma mater had just rejected him.Sabans journey would twist and turn until it reached Tuscalsa. Now Alabama is home, and hes the head coach of the No. 1 team in the country as it prepares to welcome Kent State to town for a game Saturday afternn.As it turns out, if Saban had gotten the job more than 30 years ago, he would have coached a young defensive back from Columbus named Paul Haynes.Haynes, of course, is Kent States current head coach.Hows that for everything coming full circle? Cheap Shoes NZ From China . "I wrote 36 on my sheet at the beginning of the game," the Cincinnati coach said, referring the yard line the ball would need to be snapped from. Cheap Shoes NZ . PAUL, Minn. http://www.clearanceshoesnz.com/ . -- New England Revolution goalkeeper Matt Reis is retiring after a 16-year career to become the goalie coach for the Los Angeles Galaxy. Wholesale Nike Shoes NZ .com) - The red-hot Los Angeles Kings will try to extend their winning streak to a season-high seven games when they visit the Edmonton Oilers for Sundays clash at Rexall Place. Wholesale Nike Shoes NZ Outlet . -- Eastern Kentucky thrives off creating havoc for others. The BCCI secretary Ajay Shirke has requested the ECB to bear the expenses of its team during Englands upcoming tour of India. Shirke said the BCCI was unable to sign the MoU with the ECB at this time because the board could not enter into contracts without directions from the Lodha Committee.Dear Phil, I warmly welcome you for the upcoming cricket series. I am however at great pains to inform you that the BCCI is at present not in a position to execute the MoU between the Indian Cricket Board and the ECB, Shirke wrote to the England teams operations manager, Phil Neale, according to the Indian Express. This is due to restrictions on execution of contracts imposed on the BCCI by a Court order.Certain courtesies such as hotel, travel and various other arrangements have been extended to you on arrival of the team in India. However, till the MoU is executed, the BCCI is not in a position to commit to paying for the same. Please make arrangements to remit such payments. The BCCI will inform you as and when further instructions are received by the BCCI from the Lodha Committee. I apologise on behalf of the BCCI for inconvenience that is being caused.While the BCCI had contacted the Lodha Committee seeking approval for the MoU, the Lodha Committee in its response to the board said forming cricket policy was not part of its remit, but that directions regarding payments could only be given after the BCCI provided more information about the transactions involved.It is understd that Shirke then sent the committee the unsigned MoU via email late on November 3 evening, but despitee being asked for details the email did not contain what the Lodha Committee wanted.ddddddddddddHowever, there is a larger issue between the Lodha Committee and the BCCI. On October 21, the Supreme Court had directed the BCCI not to distribute funds to state associations until they agreed to comply with the Lodha Committees recommendations, which the court had approved in an order on July 18. The court also asked Shirke and Thakur to meet the Lodha Committee in two weeks time and placed several restrictions on the boards ability to enter into contracts, which forced the IPL broadcast and digital rights tender process to be put off indefinitely and prevented the BCCI from signing the MoU with the ECB.The Lodha Committee then asked the BCCI for an undertaking from Thakur that the board would implement the Supreme Court order of October 21, a step that would indicate that the BCCI was willing to implement the recommendations of the Lodha Committee. As of November 3, Thakur had not given such an undertaking and he and Shirke had not met the committee either.The Lodha Committee - comprising former Chief Justice of India RM Lodha and retired Supreme Court judges Ashok Bhan and R Raveendran - was formed in January 2015 to determine appropriate punishments for some of the officials involved in the 2013 IPL corruption scandal, and also to propose changes to streamline the BCCI, reform its functioning, prevent sporting fraud and conflict of interest. ' ' '