He said he has gone through every book, podcast and article he can find on Saban, who has won five national titles at Alabama and one at LSU. I never worked for him, but he was great to me. “I had that much respect for what Tom Izzo did. “As much as they would let me be involved in, that’s how much I was involved at Michigan State,” Oats said. Plus, he attended game day shoot arounds and walk-throughs at hotels on the road. Oats said he attended “hundreds” of Michigan State practices as a small-college assistant in Wisconsin and a high school coach in suburban Detroit. “As soon as Nate Oats came up, he was like, ‘Hey, that guy’s a grinder,’ I think was his first words to me.” Byrne said he spoke with “several” candidates but Oats’ interview went on twice as long as any of the others.īyrne reached out to Michigan State Tom Izzo, a friend of Alabama football coach Nick Saban since their days as young Spartans coaches, to pick his brains about potential candidates. Oats said he “100 percent” has to recruit the current players.īyrne announced the hiring on Wednesday after spending five hours with Oats and his family in Buffalo. Guard Dazon Ingram has already announced plans to leave as a graduate transfer. “I’m going to do everything I can to make sure he’s playing in an Alabama uniform next year,” Oats said. ![]() He said Lewis stood out when he was watching Alabama film before interviewing for the job. Oats’ first recruiting visit was with freshman leading scorer Kira Lewis Jr., among the Tide players reportedly exploring a possible transfer. The Bulls are coming off a 32-4 season and back-to-back Mid-American Conference regular season and tournament championships. While Alabama has only been to the NCAA Tournament twice since 2006, Buffalo made the field three times in Oats’ four seasons since replacing Bobby Hurley as head coach. Oats is replacing Avery Johnson, who made one NCAA Tournament in four seasons. Oats agreed to a five-year deal, but Alabama athletic director Greg Byrne declined to release financial terms of the contra. There’s no reason we can’t get to that level.” You go through the list of sports that have won national championships here, they’ve got a bunch of them. I mean, they proved it in I don’t know how many other different sports. ![]() “Can you do that here? Yeah, I believe you can.
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