It’s a standard greeting at alumni functions for first-year LSU head football coach Nick Saban. Upon arriving at the Ramada Hilltop Monday for the Miss-Lou Alumni Chapter banquet, optimistic Tiger fans offer a little urging with their pleasantries.

&uot;There’s the coach who’s going to lead us to an 11-0 season&uot; says one hearty fan.

&uot;You’re our new coach. We’re going to win this year,&uot; proclaims another Tiger fan obviously anxious for the first tailgate party.

&uot;This must be the man who is going to get us back to winning,&uot; says another.

&uot;So this is the guy who’s going to get us an SEC championship,&uot; chimes still another.

&uot;Everywhere I sit down they have 11-0 sittting at your plate, but you have to have a good program,&uot; Saban said. &uot;You have to have the players’ best interests in mind as people. They need to have a chance to be successful as people for having been in the program and that probably starts with making sure they get a quality education, and doing the best you can do to make sure you’re giving them the kind of academic support they need to have a chance to succeed. Those things start to carry over on the field because you have more continuity, less attrition and you can attract more character quality people so you have better students over the long haul. I think that’s what make the difference. There’s not a big difference between winning six games rather than three. There’s not a big difference between winning nine games rather than six. Losing four or five players a year over a time is the difference. I think we’re all committed to getting quality people.&uot;

Saban said he has enjoyed traveling and speaking to Tiger fans.

&uot;The people have been very receptive and supportive,&uot; he said. &uot;I’ve tried to be open and honest about what I think we have to do to have a successful program built the right way with the right kind of foundation and something that would give us the long term consistency we all think we should have.&uot;

Saban replaces Gerry DiNardo, who was fired after LSU’s second consecutive losing season.

Saban guided No. 10 Michigan State to a 9-2 record last season, a second-place finish in the Big Ten and the bowl berth, the Spartans’ first Jan. 1 game since appearing in the Gator Bowl in 1989. Including a year at Toledo, Saban has a 43-26-1 record as a college coach and a 34-24-1 record at Michigan State.

He was defensive coordinator for Cleveland for four seasons and secondary coach for the Houston Oilers for two seasons.

Saban said overall he was pleased with his first spring practice at LSU.

&uot;In your first spring you never get quite as much stuff as you would like to get accomplished, but we were pleased with what we were able to get done,&uot; he said. &uot;I’m disappointed, maybe, in the quality of the big people that we have in the program. But I think the overall quality of what we have is probably a little bit better than what we inherited when we went to Michigan State.&160;I was thinking it would be very similar to that. I’ve been pleased with the way the players have responded to what we are trying to accomplish.&uot;

Saban said sophomore linebacker Jeremy Lawrence of Ferriday, La., had a good spring.

&uot;He’s kind of at a new position,&uot; Saban said of Lawrence. &uot;We’re trying to make him a standup outside linebacker and then be a designated pass rusher on third down playing nickel as an end,&uot; Saban said. &uot;That’s the way we used Julian Peterson, who was a first-round pick this past year. He was the same kind of player, he never stood up and played before. That experience as a linebacker has been a little different for Jeremy, but he really made good progress in the spring and hopefully he’ll be able to make the same kind of progress in fall camp.&uot;

Saban inherits a quarterback controversy that saw Craig Nall, Josh Booty and Davey Rohan starting at different times last year. Rohan missed spring drills because of a knee injury suffered in a pick-up basketball game.

&uot;He was there and did some of the learning things,&uot; Sabay said. &uot;Physically he wasn’t able to make the same kind of progress the other quarterbacks made and I was pleased with their improvement they were able to make over the spring, I think he’ll be able to catch up. He’ll just start from a little farther behind. I think the true cream will rise to the top eventually regardless of that situation. I just hope he continues making the progress he’s been able to make thus far.&uot;

Saban was excited about the play of running backs Dominick Davis and Leonard Toefield during the spring.

&uot;We don’t have a lot of depth at running back,&uot; he said. &uot;But there are certainly some good young players at that position.&uot;

Saban said he wasn’t surprised close friend Tommy Izzo turned down an offer fromthe Altanta Hawks last week to stay at Michigan State, where he won a national championship last year.

&uot;Tommy’s from Michigan and his wife is from the Lansing area,&uot; Saban said. &uot;He’s been at Michigan State for 17 years and you develop a lot of ties. It was difficult for us to leave and we’re not from there and we’d only been there 10 years, five years two different times. I told him to make sure that he would be personally happy if he made a move relative to pro ball. But also leaving his roots. It didn’t surprise me he didnt do it. It was a tremendous offer and well deserved for him.&uot;

While some college coaches despise recruiting, Saban said he enjoys it.

&uot;When you are a coach that knows he can’t coach bad players to play well you figure that recruiting is your lifeline,&uot; he said. &uot;You better go recruit good ones or you won’t have a job.&uot;