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Anonymous coaches rank Nick Saban among counterparts they’d ‘most like to grab a beer and chill with’
By Jake Rill
Published:
During the season, college football coaches are enemies. They are leading different teams that are going for the same goal — winning a national championship.
But that’s not the case when the year is over and the coaches get some downtime (although recruiting certainly prevents that from being a long period of time).
So, which coaches would want to hang out with certain counterparts when there are no games going on and the competition momentarily subsides? CBS Sports interviewed one-fifth of the 129 active coaches in FBS, asking them which opposing coach they would “most like to grab a beer and chill with.”
Alabama coach Nick Saban received 12 percent of the vote, coming in second behind Washington State’s Mike Leach (29 percent). Ohio State coach Urban Meyer came in third at 8 percent.
While some likely chose a coach based on who would be the most fun or tell the best stories, one anonymous coach had a different reason for picking Saban.
“I met [Nick Saban] years ago when we played them and he was at Michigan State,” an anonymous coach told CBS. “I don’t care where you are. To stay at the top for that long is really hard to do. There’s really no give to it. No matter how much success they have, they never waiver.”
It certainly seems like that coach would want to pick Saban’s brain to see how he has led Alabama to continued dominance. Perhaps that was also the reason why other coaches picked Saban as well.
Several coaches voted for coaches who are no longer active, including former Arkansas coach Bret Bielema and former Florida and South Carolina coach Steve Spurrier.
Jake Rill contributes to news coverage for Saturday Down South. He has covered the SEC since 2016.
