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O’Gara: Nick Saban’s phenomenal NFL Draft coverage showed why he’ll thrive on College GameDay
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There were a ton of takeaways from the 2024 NFL Draft.
One was that getting a quarterback earlier than ever is the move with 6 signal-callers coming off the board in the first 12 picks. Another was that there was a lack of top-end defensive selections, which gave us a historic run of offensive players to start the NFL Draft. And of course, a takeaway was that you should never sign up to take part in a Netflix show when you’re in high school because NFL teams can and will use it against you, regardless of the player that you become in your college career.
But there was another important takeaway from the weekend in Detroit — that Nick Saban guy? Oh, he’s going to be just fine on the desk this fall.
Saban wasn’t necessarily new to the on-air role having provided college football insights on ABC/ESPN during Alabama’s non-Playoff years. But he was new to the role of providing hours-long analysis — he was on air for 6-plus hours on Thursday night alone — as his main job. It certainly didn’t look like he was learning the ropes.
That bodes well for his presence on College GameDay this fall.
That’s not to say Saban batted 1.000. Knowing him, he’ll watch the film and realize he doesn’t need to say “this guy” quite so often (our Adam Spencer pointed that out) and there were a couple of situations in which he probably went 5-10 seconds too long with analysis of a specific Draft pick because he didn’t quite know a clean way to end a thought. Reps will take care of that, though.
As for the other stuff — being personable, giving first-hand knowledge of scouting/game-planning for specific players, etc. — he’s already got that covered. There was no world in which Saban would approach this job with the same monotone, squeezing-water-out-of-a-rock dialect he carried into a post-practice presser in October. You can’t. That doesn’t fit the College GameDay vibe.
In a strange way, the man more synonymous with the GameDay vibe than anybody on the planet, Lee Corso, is the reason why Saban’s presence couldn’t come at a better time. Corso will be 89 years old in the 2024 season. He’s an icon who commands the respect of the desk and the listening audience as a whole, but viewers have watched his football acumen slide over the years.
For fans of the show who want entertaining football analysis and perspective, Kirk Herbstreit is currently the only one providing that on a consistent basis. Pat McAfee can provide that in doses, but he’s there to bring the party. The same could be said for Desmond Howard, who has been a staple on the show, but loses credibility every time he does something like start an awkward “BIG PEE-NIX ENERGY” chant.
Bobby asked Michael Penix Jr. about Desmond Howard’s “big Penix energy” pic.twitter.com/geazfplxXR
— Talkin’ Giants (@TalkinGiants) January 30, 2024
Cringe.
Saban can bring credibility back to the show, especially as “Big Noon Kickoff” and FOX continue their effort to upend GameDay as the top college football pregame show. For now, the ratings suggest that the title is safe with GameDay. A Saban who’s removed from coaching and can speak about the game somewhat unapologetically will make for captivating television, even more than Urban Meyer, who is better on TV than some might realize but can come off a bit stiff.
There’ll inevitably be moments on GameDay in which Saban’s perceived stiffness is tested. He doesn’t need to join in with Howard for nonsensical chants, nor does he need to follow McAfee with a backflip into the Tennessee River. But telling funny anecdotes that get a laugh will go a long way in him becoming a true member of the crew, and not just this untouchable figure who feels like a father-in-law that nobody wants to upset.
Expect give and take with that. During the NFL Draft, the ABC crew made a clear effort — subconscious or not — to defer to Saban. Any time he made the slightest attempt to make a light-hearted comment, it was met with belly laughs (at one point he mentioned something about golfing in Florida that drew quite a chuckle from the whole crew). To compare it to basketball, they’ll have to learn how to play off of Saban and not just let him go iso-ball. That takes reps, too.
I look forward to the first time that Saban’s opinion creates some discourse on GameDay, and it isn’t necessarily taken as gospel. It doesn’t need to become “First Take,” but the typical viewer would love to see Saban and Herbstreit have a healthy discussion about someone’s 12-team Playoff résumé or whether a coach’s job is on the line.
You don’t need to force that. You do, however, need to cultivate an atmosphere that allows for that to happen instead of just allowing Saban to have the final say in everything.
Saban’s analysis will provide something that neither FOX nor any current college football pregame show can. Having a coach who competed at a high level during the NIL/transfer portal/year-round recruiting calendar era is important. Instead of a stuffy, undeveloped take on pressing college football issues from someone who only watched it from the outside, there’s first-hand experience coming whenever Saban opens his mouth.
The irony, of course, is that those things admittedly played a part in why Saban will have a GameDay seat this fall. We already know how he feels on those issues because he spoke about them both as an active coach and more recently as a concerned citizen on Capitol Hill. Without a team to coach or players to recruit, Saban has a platform to be more outspoken than ever. It’ll be fascinating to see how much he takes advantage of that.
The NFL Draft provided a teaser of sorts to the Saban experience we’re in for on a fall Saturday. Whether you spent a day in your life rooting for his success, you should’ve had a clear takeaway.
This guy will thrive on GameDay.
Connor O'Gara is the senior national columnist for Saturday Down South. He's a member of the Football Writers Association of America. After spending his entire life living in B1G country, he moved to the South in 2015.
