What if Alabama Crimson Tide Head Coach Nick Saban Never Left the LSU Tigers?

Oct 18, 2014; Louisville, KY, USA; The Louisville Cardinals head coach Bobby Petrino waves to fans during the Card March before facing the North Carolina State Wolfpack at Papa John

Bobby Petrino would still be at Louisville after being hired…and fired…from Alabama

After Rich Rodriguez had turned down Alabama, Mal Moore took another chance at Nick Saban and succeeded. But had he failed, the next in line would have been Bobby Petrino, according to reports and Nick Saban’s agent Jimmy Sexton quoted in AL.com. That means Petrino would have been at Alabama in 2007 and never left for the NFL.

What would have happened?

Well, he would have brought in Top 15 classes to play like Top Five teams. The Tide under Petrino would have had slightly more success than Arkansas but not the same amount of success they have had under Saban. We are thinking consistently Top 10 seasons, perhaps a conference title, and maybe, just maybe, a national title, but not likely.

And then, just like at Arkansas, Petrino would have been fired. You think he could have pulled that off at Alabama any more than he pulled it off at Arkansas? Of course not.

We will say he would have been caught in some other unforgivable scandal that Alabama could not look away from, and he would have been fired immediately because of it. We will even go as far to say it would have happened a year before it happened at Arkansas, since he would have been at Alabama a year before he went to Arkansas.

That means Petrino’s career at Alabama would have gone from 2007 to 2010, and he would have been fired in April of 2011, leaving Alabama in trouble for that Fall.

We’ll get to what would have happened to the Tide after that later. There are a few more events due to Saban staying at LSU that would actually affect who the Tide would hire after Petrino.

But right now, because Petrino would have gone to Alabama as a result of Saban being at LSU, let’s see who would have gone to Arkansas.

Next: Will Muschamp Would Have Gone to Arkansas