Do you know who Ray Perkins is? He's the coach who followed Bear Bryant at Alabama. The former Bryant player and Giants head coach had a four-year run that included a 10-win season, but also included the Tide's first losing season in 27 years and resulted in him soon returning to the NFL, with the lowly Buccaneers.

Replacing a legend is never easy. Look how long USC tried to re-capture the Pete Carroll magic before finally trying something slightly different (which worked).

Considering Nick Saban will turn 66 years old next Halloween and has accomplished everything a college coach could possibly accomplish (other than beating Clemson twice in a row in title games), Alabama must have some sort of plan ready for his eventual retirement or return to the Miami Dolphins. That was a small joke among friends.

One big part of that plan: hiring one of the country's best-regarded young athletic directors.

Greg Byrne could do for Alabama athletics what Saban's done for Alabama football. Respect its past but not be weighed down by it. Build on the excellent work done by Mal Moore and Bill Battle and lead it into the future. One difference: At 55 when he arrived in Tuscaloosa, Saban was an established star in his profession. At 45, Byrne is still considered a rising star, although he's already been the AD at two Power 5 schools, Mississippi State and Arizona. Alabama hasn't announced Byrne's expected hire, which was first reported by the Arizona Daily Star and confirmed by AL.com, but the school did confirm Sunday night that Battle is doing exactly what he said he would do when he took over in 2013. With his cancer thankfully "in full remission," according to a university statement, he's simply finishing his original four-year obligation to his alma mater and stepping away.

Byrne would have plenty of tasks until the time comes to replace Saban, and successes would be remembered well by Bama fans, but it'd all be dwarfed by that decision.

At Mississippi State, he hired Dan Mullen, one of the two or three most successful coaches in school history. At Arizona, he hired Rich Rodriguez; that hasn't quite gone as well as hoped, but seems to be slightly underappreciated. Rodriguez has landed a Pac-12 South title and Fiesta Bowl bid, plus four of Arizona's seven bowl bids since 1998.

He was popular at Arizona, and he's known for his creativity and ability to maneuver without media leaks, something that'd be put to its ultimate test if it came time to make the highest-profile coaching hire in decades.

Just in case you ever end up as an athletic director in the Power 5, Arizona A.D. Greg Byrne has some advice on how to manage such matters. "Constant contact. That's the most important thing," he said. "I'll ask coaches directly what's going on. It's important to have that kind of a relationship." Second: transparency. Control your message, internally and externally. "So much of what you read during that time is actually people trying to position themselves in all sorts of ways. Agents, coaches, schools. When I make a hire -- and I'm in the process of doing this right now for women's basketball -- every person I talk to, I say, ‘If I hear that according to sources, you've interviewed or according to sources, you're now the leading candidate, I assume you don't want the job. And if you want to try me, try me.'"

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Elsewhere!

RIP to Richard Nelson, Missouri State running back.

The AD who hired Willie Taggart and Charlie Strong at USF is reportedly an Arizona candidate.

The coach hires report card is up to 21 grades, and I think -- think -- we're done now.

Clemson's national title celebration took on the tone of a Saturday morning revival.

Two XFL starting QBs are now FBS head coaches, thanks to Purdue and Western Michigan.

Wisconsin now has to replace one of the country's best defensive coordinators.

Seems FSU won the recruiting weekend, with four new commits.

Definitely not winning the recruiting weekend: Cal, which has dropped three commits amid Sonny Dykes' firing.

As for Dykes, he's reportedly landing at TCU, finally back in Texas.

Yep, Bama's national championship gear is going to be given to people who need clothes.

A quick look at how Notre Dame's new offense works.

Bob Diaco is now the highest-paid assistant in Nebraska history and must begin work on the Nebraska-UCF rivalry.