Don Shula is comfortable again with the football franchise he put on the national map. It hasn't always been so in the 11 years -- can it really be that long? -- since he last coached the Dolphins. For too much of that time, Shula has felt estranged from the club or been disappointed to see it adrift.

Now an enthusiasm that had been missing from his voice comes across as he speaks of the 2006 team that opens training camp next week. Now the patriarch feels something about his club that he hasn't in a long time: excitement. A sense that the stagnation that followed his retirement is over.

''Nick Saban has got 'em headed in the right direction,'' Shula said Tuesday of Miami's second-year coach, ``after about nine years of not heading in the right direction.''