Nick Saban revealed an interesting detail about his coaching career at Alabama while serving as an analyst on College GameDay on Saturday.

When discussing the Boise State-Georgia Southern game, Saban said he tried multiple times to hire Dirk Koetter as his offensive coordinator. However, he wasn’t able to get the hire made. Koetter, now the Boise State offensive coordinator, was an OC or head coach at the NFL level from 2007-18 — which likely contributed to Saban’s inability to hire him.

Pat McAfee had a different take on why Koetter never made the jump to Tuscaloosa.

“That’s because you were spending all your money on your players, coach,” McAfee said with a smile.

Saban appeared to take the jab in good fun. Here’s video of the interaction:

It certainly would have been interesting to see Koetter call plays in Tuscaloosa, although Alabama routinely had great offensive coordinators during the Saban era. Alabama was often amongst the nation’s most efficient offenses, particularly late in Saban’s tenure as head coach.

Saban also took some time to praise new Alabama coach Kalen DeBoer and said he’s “really, really excited” to see what the next era looks like for the Crimson Tide.

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