Happy Halloween Birthday, Nick Saban! Are You Going To Make A Curse And Blow Out LSU's Candles Again?

BATON ROUGE, La. - Ever notice that the University of Alabama's colors are red like the devil?

And if you replace the "b" with a "t" in its football coach's name, St. Nick becomes Nick Satan.

And you know, Christians believe that the Devil was once a wonderful angel named Lucifer, who fell from grace from God and started his own Fallen Angel team. They play in Hell.

Oh, and Nick Saban has won 6 national championships at Alabama. And you know Christians believe that 666 is a symbol of evil.

Further, Saban never coached anywhere for more than five seasons until he got to evil Alabama in 2007 and has remained through 16 full seasons. Three times he approached a sixth season elsewhere, but suddenly left. He was an assistant at Michigan State from 1983-87, only to depart for the Houston Oilers and coach under Jerry Glanville of all people. Then it was to Toledo. Now, those are escapes.

Before we get too carried, Happy Halloween.

Nick Saban celebrates his fifth of six national championships at Alabama on Jan. 8, 2018, over Georgia, 26-23, in Atlanta. (Photo By Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)

And happy 72nd birthday to Nick Saban, who is a God-fearing Catholic and never has really liked the Satan nickname, for obvious reasons. And perhaps because it sort of fits.

That's Alabama Coach Nick Saban, Not Nick Satan ... Or Is It?

For the 16th time out the last 17 years, Saban's first game after his birthday will be against his old school - LSU. The No. 8 Crimson Tide (7-1, 5-0 SEC) hosts No. 13 LSU (6-2, 4-1) at 7:45 p.m. Saturday on CBS with the West on the line as is often the case.

Saban was Satan on arrival at LSU in 2000. The nickname followed him from Michigan State, but no one else did. None of his full-time assistants followed him to Baton Rouge. And that is rare in coaching, period. So, he was the opposite of Jesus at the time. He had no disciples at his first or last supper at LSU.

The name got popular before his first season at LSU as the hiring was questioned in many circles. He was only 25-22-1 at Michigan State with 7-5 his best campaign before his 9-2 breakthrough season in 1999.

And here's the evil 6 again. Three times he won only six games at Michigan State, and twice he went 6-6, including in 1996. What other evil clues do you want? Where's the Ouija Board?

Finally, my editor at the Baton Rouge Advocate had to order me to stop writing Satan. Apparently, some religious groups were growing upset.

Alabama Synonymous With Scary Post Halloweens For LSU

But wait, there is more 6 stuff. Saban never coached anywhere for more than five seasons until he reached red devil Alabama in 2007 after a hellish two-year stay in the NFL as Miami's coach. And he has remained through 16 full seasons. Was he avoiding 6?

Three times he approached a sixth season elsewhere, but suddenly left. He was an assistant at Michigan State for five seasons 1983-87, only to depart for the Houston Oilers and coach under Jerry Glanville, of all people. And Glanville wore black.

He had to become Toledo's head coach to get away from H-Town that after two seasons. Then he worked for a devil of a coach with the Cleveland Browns - Bill Belichick - for four seasons. Michigan State hired him as head coach before the 1995 season. He stayed five seasons again. LSU hired him before the 2000 season. And he stayed five seasons.

Coincidence? Maybe.

Crimson Tide Has Dominated Tigers Under Saban

LSU fans clearly believe Nick Saban is the devil bane of their football existence. Much like Lucifer, he left a heavenly existence in Baton Rouge. This is where he won first national championship in the 2003 season and could have won as many as he has at Alabama or more had he stayed. Saban himself said LSU is a better job than Alabama - based on proximity of talent. There are more elite players in Louisiana than Alabama, period. Not to mention the I-10 corridor through Houston to the west and the Florida panhandle to the east.

"You had a better recruiting base at LSU, especially in the state," Saban told me in May of 2019 at the SEC Spring Meetings. "And you only had one school."

There is nothing close to an Auburn - when its at its best - in Louisiana.

"I know a lot of LSU fans think I left for whatever reasons," Saban said in 2019. "But I left because I wanted to be a pro coach. We loved LSU. We worked hard to build the program. If there was one thing professionally that I would do over again, it would've been to not leave LSU."

This is what many post-Bama LSU tailgates have resembled since Nick Saban left LSU after the 2004 season and soon became Alabama's coach before 2007 season. (Photo By OutKick's Glenn Guilbeau).

And that just kills LSU fans. Yes, LSU has won two national championships since Saban left in the 2007 and 2019 seasons and reached the national title game in the 2011 season. But a plague followed each. They soon seemed like deals with the devil. Approximately 30 of Saban's players still at LSU had finally exited after the '07 season. And coach Les Miles dropped to 8-5 and 3-5 in the SEC in 2008 - one of the worst follows to a national title in college football history.

Miles reversed the program with his own players with an 11-2 mark in 2010 and went 13-0 in 2011 to win the SEC and reach the national championship game. But LSU fans would have probably preferred not making that game, considering what happened. Nick Saban was in year five at Alabama and avenged a 9-6 overtime loss in the regular season to burn LSU, 21-0. The Tigers played like ghosts, and it wasn't even Halloween. Really.

Miles never really came back to life, never winning more than 10 games again or contending for a title. LSU won another national title in 2019 under Ed Orgeron, but his follow was even worse than Miles' in 2008. The Tigers fell to 5-5 in 2020 and 6-7 in 2021.

Saban, meanwhile, won his second national title in his fifth season in 2011. And he stayed at Alabama. LSU fans had prayed Saban would remain true to form when he left the Dolphins for Alabama and stay only about five years. Nope, their worst nightmares were realized. He stayed through the elusive sixth season in 2012 and won a third national title at Alabama. Three more followed in 2015, '17 and '20.

Along the way, Saban beat LSU eight straight times beginning with the 21-0 loss through 2018 with two more shutouts in 2016 and 2018. In that 8-0 run, Alabama won twice when LSU was undefeated and No. 1 or No. 2 in November, ruining the Tigers' season. Overall, Saban is 12-5 against LSU.

Bear Bryant was the only other Alabama coach to beat LSU so many straight times with 11 straight from 1971-81. Saban left LSU to become the Bear, LSU's greatest previous nemesis. It doesn't get any more devilish than that. Bryant also beat LSU twice when the Tigers were undefeated in November, ruining their season.

Nick Saban greets LSU coach Brian Kelly before their game last season in Tiger Stadium. LSU won, 32-31, in overtime. (Photo by Jonathan Bachman/Getty Images)

So, Saban's not going to be getting a lot of Halloween birthday wishes out of here tonight, unless they involve blood. He was hung in effigy before his first game back at LSU as Alabama's coach in 2008. And, yeah, he won, 27-21, in overtime.

"I hate that guy," one LSU friend told me after that game. Just five years earlier, he had had said, "I love that guy."

Much like the ghosts in "Poltergeist" playing harmlessly with little Carol Anne through the TV and with the chairs in the kitchen, Saban was nice at first to LSU. In fact, he beat Alabama four out of five times. No coach in LSU history has a better record against Alabama than 4-1.

Crimson Tide Struggled Vs. Saban's LSU Tigers

He also broke the curse of Alabama's mysterious, undefeated, 14-0-1 run at Tiger Stadium from 1971 through 1998. Over that span, LSU won at Alabama six times.

Finally, Saban's Tigers beat Alabama, 30-28, on Nov. 4, 2000 - their first win over the Tide in Tiger Stadium since a 20-15 win in 1969.

Then in 2003, he won LSU's first national championship since 1958. But he left, and LSU can't even really celebrate Halloween like it used to anymore because of Saban's birthday.

Yes, LSU used to own Halloween football. It was on the night of Oct. 31, 1959, that Billy Cannon returned a punt 89 yards for a touchdown in Tiger Stadium to give No. 1 LSU a 7-3 win over No. 3 Ole Miss in a Game of the Century.

Yeah, Saban took that away, too.

LSU has started to reverse the curse, though. The Tigers have beaten Saban in two of their last four meetings - 46-41 in 2019 in Tuscaloosa on the way to LSU's national title and 32-31 in overtime last year as the Tigers won the West.

Alabama And LSU Playing For SEC West

A win at Alabama Saturday would be LSU's first two-game winning streak in the series since 2010 and '11 - right before all the Hell started again.

As they play, "Sweet Home Alabama," just before kick-off in Bryant-Denny Stadium Saturday night, LSU should go ahead and do it.

Perform a public exorcism before 100,000 people.

Until then, Happy Halloween.

And Happy Birthday, Nick. You've worn "It" well.