There’s no doubt about it. Nick Saban will go down as one of the greatest college coaches of all time if not the very best.

Let’s pick an SEC team that has ups and downs but is not considered a national championship contender.

Let’s say that Saban was not lured from the NFL to Alabama. Let’s say Ole Miss came calling and he said yes. Could Saban have the same run there as he did at Alabama? Well, that may be unlikely, but could he have managed at least one championship?

Well, lets examine that a little more in depth and draw some conclusions.

In 2008, Ole Miss went with Houston Nutt and he went 9-4 in his first two years including two Cotton Bowl wins. So there was talent there as he finished 2nd in the SEC West in 2008 and 3rd in the 2009.

Nutt’s first 2008 campaign topped Saban’s first year at Bama in 2007, so it isn’t hard to believe that at least similar talent was on both teams if not a slight edge to Ole Miss. Given that presumption, it’s not hard to believe Saban could have done more with it than Nutt and not too big a stretch to say that with his recruiting acumen, that he could have stocked the shelves much better than Nutt did and use that good building base for the same launch he gave Alabama.

It’s not impossible nor improbable that Saban might have reached the playoffs in the same time frame that he did at Alabama.

Then in 2014 and 2015, Hugh Freeze and the Rebels beat Saban and Alabama in back to back seasons. Again, while many think Ole Miss will never attract the talent to win a national championship, they beat a national champion in 2015 head to head when they defeated Alabama.

Is it really too hard a stretch to say that Saban could have done better in that 10-3 2015 season and given Ole Miss a rare championship?

After a lot of thought and comparisons, I’d give Saban the nod that he could have won a championship at even Ole Miss. Again, I think his run at Alabama could not have been matched at any other SEC school. Alabama itself with its history and panache, its donors willing to make investments in facilities and salaries and more certainly gave Saban an edge he just wouldn’t have at other SEC schools. Yet it would be interesting to see how much of an edge it would have made had Ole Miss got Saban and Alabama got someone else.

For Alabama fans though, that scenario would not be interesting, but would be a nightmare. To paraphrase fictional character Forrest Gump, Alabama and Saban just go together like peas and carrots.

Larry Burton is the senior writer at Touchdown Alabama Magazine and has been published in almost every media outlet for college sports. He was Bleacher Report’s #1 college football writer in reads and comments and now has slowed down his writing from that hectic pace. Follow Larry on Twitter for inside thoughts and game time comments at LBSPORTSWRITER on Twitter.