Nick Saban isn’t coaching ever again, a’ight
By David Wasson
Published:
I get it, y’all. I really do.
You want Nick Saban back. You need Nick Saban back. Even if you can’t stand the thought of Nick Saban being back on a college football sideline, you strangely and subconsciously feel the pull of the sport’s greatest winner.
I get it, y’all. I really do.
Unfortunately, I am here to tell you it will not happen. The odds of Nick Saban coaching college football anywhere are about as high as Saban himself breaking off an email in response to this telling me how correct I am.
Nick Saban isn’t ever coaching college football again. I’m sorry.
The once-upon-a-time champion of the preseason mediapalooza that is the SEC Kickoff, the ever-modest Steve Spurrier, used to call this time of year Talking Season. And if there was ever a Talking Season kind of story, it is “Nick Saban might return to college football.”
This all started when the first of several Crimson Tide quarterbacks that Saban helped will to a national championship – Greg McElroy – dropped the following opinion on Lap 1 of this week’s heavy breathing and unlimited Dr Peppers in Atlanta…
“A very much in-the-know person that I have a lot of respect for and have spent a lot of time around and just really, really admire, they seem to think Nick Saban’s not done coaching,” said McElroy on Monday during his radio show, McElroy and Cubelic in the Morning. “He’s pretty adamant that he thinks Nick Saban will be coaching again. … Look, if it wasn’t someone notable, I’d never say a word.”
Gentlemen, start your typewriters.
The problem with this hyperbole, of course, is that it doesn’t seem to be particularly tethered to any sort of reality. Let’s start with the obvious: Saban shockingly departed Alabama after 17 seasons in no small part because college football was becoming increasingly transactional. Perhaps Saban’s primary talent wasn’t in-game X-ing and O-ing but was when he was in the living room of high school 5-stars convincing them that their NFL futures were best served with an extended pit stop in Tuscaloosa.
Name, Image and Likeness and the transfer portal seemingly obliterated that advantage – making every Johnny Fivestar think that if they didn’t play at Alabama as a true freshman, they were getting lapped by Tommy Cantmiss across the state. And instead of biding one’s time as a reserve in the Alabama Machine, Johnny Fivestar now could simply be lured by a big check to enter the portal and resurface somewhere else.
Saban colored within the lines with NIL and the portal for as long as he possibly could, but his other primary talent – player development – was irreparably dinged by the twin evils to the point that programs like Ohio State were shrewdly buying College Football Playoff-level rosters simply with their checkbooks.
Even if Saban could square away his granite-chiseled sensibilities as far as NIL and the transfer portal go, there is also the matter of where he would actually go. A colleague at SDS opined on this earlier Tuesday in a tongue-in-cheek manner, but c’mon… is Saban really going to consider a place like Miami? Or USC? Or (gasp!) Auburn? West Virginia would be mildly tempting, given that Saban is a favorite son of the region. And Ohio State would be entertaining simply in the context of the Buckeyes having to dump a national title-winning coach in Ryan Day for a 73-year-old Saban.
Saban going back to Alabama? Nope, sorry, that ship has sailed. Legacy is legacy, and Saban himself is keenly aware that he can only tarnish his with a return to the Crimson Tide. Spurrier also knew this after his disastrous stint with Washington in the NFL that he couldn’t go back to Florida… which is why he decided his next project would be making South Carolina football relevant in the SEC.
The NFL? Pfft. Saban washed out after less than 2 seasons with the Miami Dolphins because he quickly realized he couldn’t boss around players worth more than him and who were already fully formed pieces of pottery rather than the highly rated lumps of clay he pulled on the annum in Baton Rouge and later in Tuscaloosa. There ain’t much player development going on in the NFL, which is why Saban eventually pulled the ripcord and got on the plane with Mal Moore back in 2006.
C’mon, people, use your brains for more than fillers for your favorite Crimson Tide headgear. Nick Saban returning to a football sideline near you is pure Talking Season folly. Saban earned over $150 million at Alabama alone, so he certainly doesn’t need the money – not to mention ESPN is surely renumerating Saban handsomely for College GameDay.
Sorry, Greg McElroy. Sorry LSU coach Brian Kelly. Sorry Ole Miss coach/provocateur Lane Kiffin. Sorry Alabama Nation. The only headset Saban will be wearing from here on out is one applied to him while touching up his foundation and rouge before the TV lights shine bright.
An APSE national award-winning writer and editor, David Wasson has almost four decades of experience in the print journalism business in Florida and Alabama. His work has also appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times and several national magazines and websites. He also hosts Gulfshore Sports with David Wasson, weekdays from 3-5 pm across Southwest Florida and on FoxSportsFM.com. His Twitter handle: @JustDWasson.
