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Nick Saban addresses the crowd Jan. 4, 2007, in the media room at what would become the Mal Moore Athletic Facility as Saban is introduced as the new Alabama head football coach. (Kent Gidley/UA photo)

Yes, it's really been 10 years. An actual decade has passed since Nick Saban walked into the Mal Moore Athletic Facility, two months before that building was given the perfect name, and took control of Alabama football.

The date was Jan. 4, 2007. It'll live in infamy at every other dot on the college football map.

Most everyone crowded into the media room that day expected big things ahead. Almost none of us expected the decade of dominance to come.

Saban said a lot of things that day and made a few promises. Some everyone remembers, like his brash lines about working to be a champion and dominate Auburn 365 days a year - both missions accomplished - and one in particular I'd forgotten.

He said it during his introductory press conference, and it must have resonated with me at the time. Here's the conclusion of a column I wrote from that historic day.

"Saban didn't always distinguish himself in getting here, but in the end, he made the right choice for his old employer, his new one and himself.

"He was more than a man in command Thursday. He was a man at peace. As much as a Type A personality can be in the SEC.



"He told personal stories. He ad-libbed a one-liner. He extended an olive branch toward LSU and then poked the Tigers with it, reminding everyone who recruited the bulk of the roster that domed Notre Dame in the Sugar Bowl.



"He even said Alabama will be his last coaching stop. Unlike all those denials, this sounded like it has a chance to be the truth."

Ten years later, he's still here, one month after his fifth SEC championship with the Crimson Tide, one week away from what would be his fifth national title in Tuscaloosa. It's hard to say which is more impressive, the enormity of Saban's accomplishments or the longevity that's kept him in one place at least twice as long as any of his previous stops.

We did get some clues early on that Alabama had been on his mind for years and not just because he'd coached against the Crimson Tide during his five seasons at LSU.

On Christmas Eve 2004, after Miami Dolphins owner Wayne Huizenga had showed up at his front door early that morning to personally sell him on leaving LSU for the NFL, Saban and his agent, Jimmy Sexton, met at the LSU football building to explore those two options.

During a long interview after Saban got to Alabama, Sexton told me a key exchange between him and Saban that day went this way.

''I said to Nick, 'Here's the best way I can ask you the question: When you're 80 years old, would you rather be remembered as Bear Bryant or Don Shula?' He did not hesitate. He did not even think. He looked at me and said, 'Bear Bryant.' ''

But the persuasive Huizenga wouldn't take no for an answer. Saban gave in to the frustration of following a BCS title at LSU and the lure of starting fresh in Miami.

''I gave him all the information and let him make the decision," Sexton said. "It was the worst mistake. I rue the day. I knew he was a college coach at heart.''

Two years later, Moore and Alabama took advantage of that information. As good as the relationship between Saban and Huizenga was, as much as Huizenga wanted him to stay in Miami, the owner couldn't come between Saban and college football again.

Ten years later, we're deep into a debate that seemed unfathomable at the time. We've been discussing for some time whether Saban has surpassed Bryant as the greatest coach in college football history.

Beat Clemson again, and Saban will match Bryant's record of six national championships, with one at LSU and five at Alabama. It took Bryant 19 years to gather his six big rings. Saban's 60 minutes away from matching Bryant in 14 years of real time but, thanks to the Miami detour, only 12 college seasons.

That's staggering.

None of us who were there in the Mal Moore Athletic Facility on Jan. 4, 2007 can say they saw all of this coming. A nice run, yes; championships, sure; but a decade of dominance? Saban didn't have much of a history of sticking around.

When he was introduced in Tuscaloosa, and for years afterward, so many of his critics focused on his infamous "lie" during the search that he wouldn't be the Alabama coach. They missed the most important thing he said the day he took command.

It was in response to a question about how long he might stay.

"Let me just say this," he said. "My next stop, you know where Lake Burton is? It's in north Georgia, right on the North Carolina border, Rabun County. It's a lake. It's where they made Deliverance. That's where I go in the summertime. That's where I like it, and that's my next stop.

"They don't have a football team there. They have a pontoon boat, though, a good one."

Everyone laughed, but a statue, a grandchild and 10 years later, it sure looks like he was telling the truth.