One of the most interesting nuggets to come from Ohio State’s epic Friday news dump of over 2,000 Urban Meyer texts/emails related to the Zach Smith investigation was that Smith had supposedly been offered a job on Nick Saban’s Alabama staff. Text messages between Meyer and Smith implied that the long-time Meyer assistant, dating back to Meyer’s Florida tenure, turned down a chance to be Alabama’s passing game coordinator and wide receivers coach. At Saban’s Saturday press conference, the Alabama coach offered a version of events different than what is recounted in the text message conversations.

Saban confirmed that he did interview Smith. He added that Smith did well in his interview. Saban, however, says that Alabama did not offer Smith the job after the school did a background check.

“I really never did ever offer this guy a job,” Saban said. “We did interview him. … When we did a background check we decided it was better to hire someone else.”

Saban mentioned that it is common for coaches to use a job interview as leverage for a raise, something many speculated was the situation with Smith. Knowing what we know about Smith, Alabama fans are probably glad that the interview did not result in Smith joining the Crimson Tide staff.