Nick Saban jokes about coaching return: Miss Terry ‘wouldn’t let me do it, number one’
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Nick Saban was at it again on Friday on the eve of the first full college football Saturday of the 2025 season.
The SEC legend who seemingly retired in January 2024 after winning 6 national titles at Alabama and 1 at LSU was forced to answer the burning question that everyone wants to know now about Saban — will he pull a 180 and return to the sidelines?
For Nick Saban though, it’s never been a question, and he made that point again during an appearance on The Pat McAfee Show. But Saban didn’t just say it out loud himself that he was staying retired and not coming back to coaching — he pointed to his wife, the ever popular Miss Terry, and how when she wanted to know what was up about those rumors, Saban shot them down before she could ever get upset that they might just be true.
When Saban talked on the show about Miss Terry asking him why he never mentioned that there was a sliver of a chance he could return, Saban had the best response — because there was no sliver of a chance, and Saban was always going to stay put retired and safely on the ESPN broadcast team.
Saban claimed that the rumors that were ratcheted up by none other than his former Crimson Tide quarterback, current ESPN analyst Greg McElroy, were “out of nowhere.” Saban said he’s never once thought about a return to the sidelines.
Here is the full clip of Saban’s moment of truth on the show on Friday:
“She wouldn’t let me do it, number 1,” said Saban of his wife letting him coach again, which drew laughter on the set but was the truth.
A second straight college football season will begin in earnest on Saturday, with Saban not on those sidelines.
Cory Nightingale, a former sportswriter and sports editor at the Miami Herald and Palm Beach Post, is a South Florida-based freelance writer who covers Alabama for SaturdayDownSouth.com.
