No devil horns showing on Nick Saban on Monday

By TROY JOHNSON - johnsont@ledger-enquirer.com --

I shook hands with Alabama football coach Nick Saban on Monday and am happy to report that his firm grip was not applied by a tentacle, a talon or a cloven hoof.

Yep, five fingers per hand. Just like the rest of us.

I looked him squarely in the eye when I spoke with him behind the 18th green at the Country Club of Columbus and came away relieved that he chose not to reduce me to a pile of cinder with the laser beams that reputedly shoot from his retinas every so often.

Where was Nick Satan, the supposedly fire-breathing, reporter-shredding, porcupine quill-sprouting terror? This couldn't have been THAT Nick Saban.

Nick Nice actually shook hands with Auburn fans during his round at the SEC Celebrity Golf Classic and -- get this -- cracked something resembling a smile when asked about his golf game.

"It depends on what your definition (of success) is," Saban said. "To me, if I hit it airborne, that's a good shot."

In his efforts to get Alabama's football program airborne again, he's acquired a reputation for being a walking incendiary device one broken play or one pointed press conference question away from going kaboom and dousing the villagers around him in a bath of hot lava. He's been characterized as inaccessible, the $4 million-per-year coach hidden behind the formidable castle walls. So to see him in Columbus on Monday, posing for photographs on a golf course, describing his putting stroke in self-deprecating fashion and chatting up Alabama, Auburn and Georgia fans went against everything we've been conditioned to expect.

The version of Nick Saban who showed up to help raise money for the charity foundations of former Alabama defensive back Jeremiah Castille, former Auburn running back Joe Cribbs and former Georgia defensive end David Pollack was fun and friendly, the sort of fellow you wouldn't mind seeing on the barstool next to you.

"The cause we're out here for today is much greater than the competition," Saban said. "Just because you compete doesn't mean you can't do the right things when it comes to supporting great causes."

In a couple months, the pleasantries will fade and Saban will devote himself to the cause of trying to beat the likes of LSU, Auburn, Georgia and Clemson, of trying to make Alabama relevant on the national stage again. When practice begins in August, Saint Nick may well be replaced by the gunnery sergeant from "Full Metal Jacket." The gloves will come off and the intensity will radiate to such a point that a mushroom cloud may form above his head.

"The two things we didn't do last year that we need to improve on -- we didn't play with enough consistency," said Saban, whose first Alabama team alternately teased with potential and tormented with schizophrenic play on the way to a 7-6 finish. "We got ahead in games and let people come back. We played up to the good teams and didn't play as well in some of the other games. We didn't finish. We didn't finish the season. We didn't finish certain games.

"Hopefully we'll show some improvement next year."

The reason why more than 175,000 Alabama fans took in the last two spring games is that Saban represents the hope that things will improve... or else. Alabama fans held out hope for Mike DuBose, Dennis Franchione and Mike Shula before, of course, but Saban brought instant credibility to campus for having captured a national championship while at LSU. And even though Alabama fans are inclined to embrace their saviors and openly express championship aspirations even when the available talent suggests 8-4 to be more practical, Saban set his own ground rules from the beginning.

"There's an arrogance about him, like it or not," said former Alabama center Roger Shultz, who played in Monday's charity event. "It's like, 'You know what? I know how to run a program. I don't need you to tell me how to run a program.'

"I think Alabama folks have kind of accepted it. Saban has run a program before, and he's real confident because he's won a national championship."

Maybe so, but he hasn't won a national championship at Alabama yet. If he does, he won't ever have to worry about the prospect of having to hitchhike his way back to Tuscaloosa from three hours away.

True story: The airplane that brought Saban to Columbus Monday morning couldn't wait around on the tarmac to take him home in the afternoon. Before an Alabama booster lent his own private jet to the cause of returning to Tuscaloosa, Saban faced the prospect of hitching a ride.

"I've got to call the office," Saban said as he finished his round. "If they don't have (a plane) for me, they probably won't answer the phone."

And then he grinned.

Nick Saban was feeling charitable on Monday.

Just don't expect him to carry that spirit into football season.

Contact Troy Johnson at 706-320-4432 or johnsont@ledger-enquirer.com