Baskin's Blog: Fresh start for Browns coaching search

CLEVELAND - Browns fans may feel jilted, while some feel like the Browns have new life in the coaching search. No matter what, the Browns dodged a bullet by not hiring Chip Kelly this past week.

Despite reports that the deal was almost done on Friday night, Kelly will not make his first ever stop in Cleveland as a football coach.

Last time I checked, Kelly has never had a reason to be in Cleveland. Unless Cleveland State has football now, Oregon hasn't made the trip to northeast Ohio. Even New Hampshire didn't sniff Youngstown State in the old 1-AA when Chip Kelly was back with UNH.

Still even if he hasn't tasted a pierogi or knows where the Rock Hall is located, Chip Kelly was not the right answer for the Browns. 

A franchise looking to take the fast road to a long success chasing down an "innovator" would not have been the right path. It's a franchise just looking to get a playoff win for the first time in the rebirth in 1999.

I'm still trying to figure out how the Browns defense would have looked being on the field for three quarters under Kelly's system. Let alone contemplating bringing in yet another quarterback into the graveyard of signal callers.

So what is next? It is the big question heading into week number two of the Browns search. It's hard not to think about Alabama Head Coach Nick Saban changing his mind about one last run at the NFL.

After all, his career started as a player and a graduate assistant at Kent State. The last time he was at KSU the Flashes were in their last bowl game - until this season. Saban would be a home run for owner Jimmy Haslam. Nobody would put it past Saban to go back to the NFL, if Alabama beats Notre Dame. He changes his mind like nobody else in football history.

I have to believe Saban's name is running through Haslam's mind. If Saban, "the competitor," wants to prove his days in Miami were a bump in the road, then coming to Cleveland is the right move. Saban, "the champion" has to still have the fire to finish the job he and Bill Belichick started in 1991. Saban was the defensive coordinator for the Browns.

Saban knows Northeast Ohio. I'm sure he knows a good pierogi, the Rock Hall, and like any good Kent Stater, he knows "The Place is Ray's." He knows us.

But, if he wants to prove he is one of the greatest of all-time at any level then turning around Alabama and the Browns would put him in Canton next to Paul Brown.