Biloxi, Miss. ? Nick Saban needs another day to make up his mind.

Imagine that.

Saban, forever a coach on the make, isn’t sure whether he wants to guide the NFL’s Miami Dolphins to another 6-10 season or go back to being a legend in the college game. He’ll decide by 10 a.m. today.

All signs point to Saban leaving for the Alabama job, which has now been vacant for a full month and change. But the same held true for West Virginia’s Rich Rodriguez a few weeks ago, and given a chance to sleep on it, Rodriguez decided he couldn’t leave the Mountaineers after all.

Saban prolonged the hiring procedure three years ago, when he left LSU for the Dolphins. Now he’s stringing Alabama along, as if he isn’t sure the reported $40 million they’re planning to throw his way is actually enough.

Now he’s leaving everyone guessing, in Tuscaloosa and South Florida, after retreating to a bunker of his choosing to engage in some deep thought: “Maybe I should have signed Drew Brees … Wonder how Bryant-Denny-Saban Stadium would sound over the P.A. …How much farther does $40 million go in T-Town, as opposed to South Beach? …”

Saban always seems to have an eye on his next job, whether he’s in East Lansing or Baton Rouge or Miami. He’s a diligent, dedicated football coach, with negligible people skills. He held his Dolphins-Year-in-Review news conference Monday, but only after telling the assorted scribblers on hand that he wouldn’t be talking about matters unrelated to his present employer.

One astute Miami journalist asked Saban directly if he planned to be the Dolphins coach in 2007. (Hey, that question had nothing to do with Alabama.) “I’m not talking about any of that stuff,” Saban said.

Oh, but everyone else is talking about it, which seems to be just fine with Saban.

Saban has the ego to handle the shadow of Bear Bryant in Tuscaloosa. He has a proven track record in the SEC, and with Mayflower, too. He would bring instant credibility to Alabama recruiting, although Tommy Tuberville could just as easily point out that Saban has had three jobs in the last 24 months. If, in fact, he takes the bait.

Saban won a BCS national championship at LSU with a suffocating defense and Matt Mauck at quarterback. He’ll be expected to win national championships at Alabama, but first things first. He’ll be expected to beat Tuberville’s Auburn squad. Immediately if not sooner.

Alabama athletic director Mal Moore is left to sweat this one out, knowing the Tide has already been spurned by Rodriguez, among others, and that Saban’s original time frame for making his decision has come and gone. Anyone who saw interim Alabama coach Joe Kines’ breathless halftime interview with ESPN at the Independence Bowl understands the Crimson Tide needs to make its move. Pronto.

The Miami Dolphins will always be Don Shula, Dan Marino and a bunch of spoilsports who annually break out the bubbly to celebrate their unbeaten 1972 season.

Alabama’s identity, at least these days, is a little more fuzzy.

So we wait on Nick Saban. Never the other way around.