By Matt Smith
SouthernPigskin.com

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If Drew Brees would have signed with the Dolphins after the 2005 season, would Nick Saban still be coaching in the NFL?

As college football enters one of its few slow times of the calendar, were going to briefly veer from the course of reality and take a look at how the sport would have changed had certain events from the past occurred in a different manner.

After looking at the potential fallout from Les Miles leaving for Michigan after the 2007 season, in this edition, we look back at an NFL decision whose repercussions in the college game were numerous.

After a successful 9-7 debut season in 2005, Nick Saban knew that his Miami Dolphins needed to upgrade at quarterback in order to contend for an AFC championship. The two best available options were Daunte Culpepper and Drew Brees, who had fallen out of favor in Minnesota and San Diego respectively.

Saban preferred Brees, but a serious rotator cuff injury made gaining medical clearance a difficult proposition. The Dolphins ultimately went with Culpepper, and regressed to 6-10 in 2006. Brees signed with New Orleans, and led the Saints to the NFC Championship Game.

Growing frustrated with the NFL way in life late in the 2006 season, Saban began planning his exit strategy. Despite repeated public denials, Saban accepted the head coaching position at Alabama just days after the NFL season concluded. The rest is history, as Alabama has won four national titles in nine seasons under Saban.

But what if it was Miami, and not New Orleans, that Brees led to great heights in 2006? Saban likely wouldnt have walked away from a good situation, leaving Alabama scrambling after also losing out on Rich Rodriguez, who backed out of a contract at the eleventh hour weeks prior to the Saban hire.

Crimson Tide athletic director Mal Moore wasnt going to settle with this all-important hire. He knew he needed a rock star to rejuvenate a fledgling program. The best coach on the market at that time was Greg Schiano, who had just led Rutgers to a 10-win season after the program had been the doormat of major college football for two decades. Schiano wasnt Saban, but he would have been perceived as a good, if not great, hire by the Alabama community.

Schiano would have inherited a capable roster, the core of which would lead the Tide to their 2009 national title under Saban. Also working in Schianos favor would have been the upcoming coaching transitions in the SEC West, as Arkansas, Auburn, Ole Miss and Mississippi State all had coaching changes within two years of Schianos theoretical arrival in Tuscaloosa.

The SEC West would still have been an Alabama-LSU duel for the next five or six years, outside of Cam Newton still doing his thing at Auburn in 2010. But what happens at Florida? Alabama may very well have gotten to the SEC Championship Game in 2009 against the defending national champions, but they wouldnt have been able to take down Tim Tebow and the Gators as they did under Saban.

Florida would have gone on to win its third national title in four years under Urban Meyer. Predicting Meyers health, had he not lost that memorable SEC Championship Game, isnt something we need to explore, but what can be debated is whether or not Floridas post-Tebow fall would have been so dramatic had it gone to win the national championship in 2009, whether Meyer remained in Gainesville beyond the 2010 season or not.
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Schiano might not have earned himself a statue at Alabama, but he would have brought the Crimson Tide back to the national radar with two SEC West titles before ultimately still leaving for the NFL in 2012. His exit would have been somewhat Dennis Frachionian in nature, but wouldnt have created the vitriol that Crimson Tide fans held for Franchione when he left for Texas A&M back in 2003. Schiano wanted an NFL shot, and he would have taken it.

As for Saban, this isnt an NFL story, but its safe to say that the New England Patriots dominance of the AFC East might not have been so easy had Brees signed with the Dolphins. Could Saban have become only the third coach (Jimmy Johnson, Barry Switzer) to win a college national title and a Super Bowl? (Pete Carroll has done it since). Its not crazy to think that he could have.

Who knows what the fallout would have actually been? As always, this is my story, and Im sticking to it.