Saban's first staff diverse

Alabama head football coach Nick Saban is not taking any chances.
He is taking his time, though.
Saban gets just one chance to put together his first UA coaching staff. To do so properly, Saban said he's channeling the advice of mentor George Perles, the former Michigan State coach.
"George's thing was, `I want everybody that's different,'" Saban said in a news conference Thursday, his first since he was introduced as Alabama's coach on Jan. 4.
"I used to look for people that had the same characteristics, the same qualities that drove me. Now, I want everybody to have a different strength.
"The combination of those strengths is what's going to make our staff the best."
A week into his job and Saban has officially named only four members of his nine-person on-field staff. He doesn't care.
Alabama has a big recruiting weekend beginning today, and Saban isn't rushing for that. He doesn't yet have an offensive coordinator, but there will be no hurrying that one, either.
"In an ideal circumstance, there would be a lot of advantages to getting a staff in place," Saban said. "But (I'd rather get) the right people and not compromise the principles of what we're trying to accomplish rather than do something quickly, thinking it was necessarily for recruiting or whatever."
Saban did say that he believes he will have at least six assistants (plus himself) to give UA the maximum seven coaches that can go on the road to recruit Monday.
As reported By: The Birmingham News
IAN R. RAPOPORT News staff writer