miles-saban-2013.jpg

LSU coach Les Miles has Alabama coach Nick Saban in stitches before the Crimson Tide beat the Tigers on Nov. 9, 2013, in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. (Vasha Hunt/vhunt@al.com)

Gerry DiNardo recruited some of the players who played on LSU’s 2001 football team. Who gets credit for LSU’s 2001 SEC title?

Nick Saban. As he should.

Mike Shula recruited some of the players who played on Alabama’s 2009 football team. Who gets credit for Alabama’s 2009 BCS title?

Nick Saban. And rightly so.

Les Miles recruited most of the players and coached all of them who’ve won 95 games, two SEC titles and one BCS title for LSU since 2005. Who gets credit for LSU’s sustained success for the last nine years?

Nick Saban.

Say what? Says who? Says Greg McElroy, one of Saban’s starting quarterbacks at Alabama, who was recruited and signed by … wait for it … Mike Shula.

In his new role as an SEC Network analyst, in an Arkansas radio interview, McElroy invented a new way to play the Six Degrees of Nick Saban game. It's pretty simple actually. All you have to do is give him credit in perpetuity.

McElroy did it by throwing roses at Saban’s feet for what LSU has accomplished as the SEC’s most consistent program for the last decade. Never mind that Saban coached his last game for the Tigers on Jan. 1, 2005 and won his last game with them on Nov. 26, 2004.

"They've had sustained success since Saban left because he established that mindset," McElroy said. “Les Miles obviously did take over that program and has done a terrific job in his own right, but once you establish that mindset and have the leadership that's holding young players accountable, that success shouldn't soon dwindle.”

Using that logic, Alabama should’ve kept rolling after Bear Bryant passed away. After all, Bryant spent 25 years as the boss at Alabama. If any college football coach ever established a mindset at a program, it was Bryant.

How did Alabama sustain Bryant’s unrivaled success? It didn’t.

In the nine years after Bryant’s final season, Alabama went 4-5 against Auburn, shared one SEC title with Auburn and Tennessee in 1989 and didn’t win a single national championship.

That tells you how much the man in charge matters.

It was nice of McElroy to acknowledge Miles, who’s done more in his nine years at LSU and gotten less credit for it than just about any coach in SEC history. Saban does deserve credit for waking up a sleeping tiger in Baton Rouge and making great improvements to the program’s infrastructure. He doesn’t deserve continued credit for the things he didn’t do.

Who navigated Hurricane Katrina? Who won at least 10 games seven times in the last nine years? Who won 11 or more games five times in the last nine years? Who’s won 80 percent of his games, two conference titles and one national title during the greatest championship period in SEC history? With Saban in the same division?

Miles did that. Well, him, his assistant coaches and his players. We should probably give those guys some credit, too.

McElroy carried his faulty theory to its logical conclusion when he appeared to speculate that Alabama will continue to win big after Saban leaves because of the foundation he’s built.

“I think Alabama’s going to be a perennial power for years to come,” McElroy said.

That’ll be the expectation for Kirby Smart, Dabo Swinney or a successor to be named later. But no one’s demonstrated better than Alabama after Bryant that past success is no guarantee of future results.