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

Apr 18, 2015; Auburn, AL, USA; Auburn Tigers defensive coordinator Will Muschamp watches his squad during the A-Day game at Jordan-Hare Stadium. Mandatory Credit: John Reed-USA TODAY Sports

Arkansas would have hired Will Muschamp

Yep, Will Muschamp would be at Arkansas. You may remember that after Houston Nutt resigned from the school in 2007, lots of coaches turned down the chance to coach the Razorbacks. Muschamp, however, would not have been one of them.

And he appeared to be next on the list after Petrino during that time. So with Petrino going to Alabama because Saban was at LSU, Muschamp would have been Arkansas’s guy.

That brings up the million dollar question: how would Muschamp have fared at Arkansas? In truth, not so bad.

Remember, Muschamp does have great defenses, and he would have made sure the Hogs always had amazing defenses to play with. He also recruits well. His only problem was that he never even made an effort to recruit good offensive players.

But in 2008, he would have struck gold because Ryan Mallett would have transferred back to Arkansas no matter what happened, so a good quarterback would have fallen into his lap, and he probably would have hired a solid offensive coordinator to work with that quarterback. That means that after a terrible 2008 year, he would have been highly successful in 2009 and 2010 with dominant defenses and a solid quarterback to manage a competent offense, which he never had at Florida.

Mallett also would likely have not left for the NFL after 2010 because Petrino would not have been there to make his stats look so great, so he would have been at Arkansas in 2011 for another successful season.

That means the honeymoon under Muschamp would not be over until at least 2012, and he would have probably had one decent season among 2012, 2013, and 2014, and that would not be enough to get him fired given the early success that he had with the Razorbacks.

In short, Muschamp would still be the head coach of the Razorbacks. But who else in college football would have been affected by Saban staying at LSU?

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