DALLAS — Nick Saban sat on what looked a lot like a throne: a high-backed, cushioned chair that doubled as a momentary resting spot for the man who is now ESPN’s most high-profile college football analyst.
You don’t have to be told the scene was fitting.
The king of college football is transitioning. You might have heard. The occasion for Wednesday’s appearance was a brief interview opportunity for a few reporters in something called the Event Coordination Room at the Omni Hotel during SEC Media Days.
“You guys have been killing me for all these years,” Saban joked. “You have the opportunity to do it again. So, [I’m a] glutton for punishment.”
With two new teams (Texas, Oklahoma) and Alabama’s new coach (Kalen DeBoer) yet to play a game, Saban just might still be the face of the SEC in coaching retirement. Georgia’s Kirby Smart all but confirmed that assertion earlier this week.
“I was nervous,” Smart said of an ESPN production call with coaches prior to media days. “For 15 minutes, I’m going to share with him about my team? I feel like I’m giving answers to Darth Vader or something.”
In one sense, Saban’s new gig is another example of a coach who can’t walk away. There’s certainly some of that.
“For this [media days] I talked to every coach, I watched everybody’s spring game,” Saban said. “I looked at some film to try to figure it out. I’m going to do the same thing in the fall when it comes to GameDay.”
In another sense, this isn’t the time-worn practice of a fired coach taking to TV to rehab their image and be visible for their next job. This is a retirement job that isn’t exactly a retirement. Saban said he worked 200 hours in preparation for analysis during April’s NFL Draft.
“I only had to do three rounds of it,” he reminded.
During the telecast, Saban famously said he and Alabama had targeted Toledo cornerback Quinyon Mitchell in the portal. One problem, Mitchell, who was drafted by the Eagles, never entered the portal.
“He was our No. 1 guy in the portal last year…,” Saban said during the broadcast, “and he would never get in the portal.”
Some would suggest that was tampering. Some would call it a colorful anecdote.
Does it really matter at this point?
“I don’t give people my opinion anymore, but I aggressively name-drop Nick Saban,” GameDay coordinating producer Matt Garrett said. “I don’t know but Nick thinks this team is going to be great.”
We are witnessing the G.O.A.T. in a parallel universe. Coach after coach here at the media days literally paid homage to Saban as he sat on the SEC Network set in the back of the room.
“You know you’ve impacted a lot of people who have been up on this stage,” Texas coach Steve Sarkisian said as Saban turned around in his seat to acknowledge his former offensive coordinator. “No one have you impacted more than me. I would not be standing here today without you.”
And you better believe it will be a thing where Saban is seated on the GameDay set. That position projects status. Last year it was Pat McAfee in the middle.
“I would say [Saban will be] somewhere near the middle,” Garrett said.
All this will take getting used to for both sides — him and us. Saban has had plenty of reps at this sort of thing going back to at least 2011 when he appeared on GameDay to stump for his team’s spot in the BCS National Championship Game.
It was obvious back then he knew that we knew what he was doing. By the way, it worked. Not only was Alabama the first team not to win its conference to play for a title in the BCS era, but the Tide also avenged a regular-season loss to LSU in a rematch.
The dude ain’t phoning it in. He works hard, does his homework, and actually has something to say.
“I still view this from a coach’s perspective,” Saban said. “I just happen to not have a team … I want to ask coaches questions so that they can actually talk about the things they want to talk about. I’m not trying to put anybody on the defensive. I’m trying to help them express what they’d like to express.”
The (former) coach was asked if he could be critical and objective of coaches and the sport itself.
“I haven’t been critical of anybody yet,” Saban said. “Nobody has told me I have to be critical. I don’t want to be critical. I want to be objective, but I don’t want to be controversial. You can take any decision … that anybody makes and make it controversial. Like, if we go for it on fourth-and-3 we’d have 100,000 people in Alabama say, ‘I’m glad he’s going for it.’ And we’d have 100,000 people say, ‘He’s a dumbass for going for it.'”
And, objectively, Alabama probably won’t finish in the top two of the SEC this season. Expect Georgia and Texas to occupy the top two spots when the preseason media poll is released Thursday. But when Saban left his old team out of the top two, well, that was a thing too.
“He always said, ‘Don’t let some guy who lives in his mom’s basement determine how you feel,'” Alabama guard Tyler Booker said of his old coach. “I’m not going to let a guy who plays golf all day determine how I feel.”
Booker was kidding regarding Saban, of course. But the chatty offensive lineman found himself dealing with a bit of backlash.
“Obviously what I said was in a joking manner. Some people have taken it out of context,” Booker told CBS Sports. “It’s great to see him having fun … It’s great to see him happy. He’s put so much into this program. He’s doing something for himself now.”
What Saban doesn’t want to do is make news for the wrong reasons. That can’t be avoided in his new job where an army of content creators are setting their alarms to Saban’s TV appearances, praying for the next juicy quote and the page views that may follow. For instance: When earlier week, Saban caused a stir talking about Texas.
“What kind of tickles me is all these people asking questions about how Texas always ran the conference they were in,” Saban said on the air. “They’re not gonna run the SEC.”
The story played well, so to speak, but most missed the nuance. Saban was referring to Texas running the Big 12 off the field, throwing its weight around at board meetings. That’s a salient point. In its 27 years in the Big 12, the Horns won exactly five Big 12 titles, none between 2010 and 2022.
The further odd, albeit cool, thing was watching Saban interview coaches he once dedicated his life to beat the pants off of.
“I hadn’t even thought about that,” DeBoer said. He comes from a different angle in this discussion, replacing the legend.
Part of the brilliance of the coach who gave us “The Process” and practically invented a new way to say the word “Progrum” is his flexibility. Saban once decried the health risks of playing football so fast in the spread offense. Remember, “Is this really what we want?”
Then he went out and hired out-of-work Lane Kiffin as his OC in 2014, installed the spread offense, and further dominated the game.
As a coach, he became the industry leader in hiring disgraced or fired coaches who rebuilt their careers at Alabama. Ask Kiffin, Sarkisian, or Maryland head coach Mike Locksley. Two of the three could be coaching College Football Playoff teams this fall.
“I’ve always sort of evaluated, ‘Ok, what are the issues?’ and talked to the guys about those issues before I hire them,” Saban said. “I make sure … they’re willing to do something to correct them. And then put them in a situation where you’re offering them the kind of help that they have the best chance to overcome any issues that they have. Then you get the best of them.
“Some people were never willing to take chances like that. But the risk reward for me was always great for those kind of guys.”
Saban went from being against the old BCS and a single championship game to a full supporter of an expanded playoff.
“As soon as we went to a four-team playoff ,bowls started to lose their significance,” he said. “As soon as that happened, I was in favor of a bigger playoff. If players only want to play in the playoff and people only want to see the playoffs, the playoff is better than the bowl game. That’s why I sort of changed through the years.”
Saban doesn’t miss the coaching grind. He said as much upon his retirement. It’s clear the growing specter of NIL and the transfer portal were factors. He misses the relationships and being part of a team. It was a grind of a different kind Wednesday as he was doing another ESPN hit at the end of what seemed like a 12-hour day.
The work ethic is clearly still there, just applied differently. As for that golf game, it is intact too. Saban and Miss Terry live a happy life in South Florida these days. The king of college football plays each day at 7:30 a.m. — when he can.
“I can’t get to the ninth hole without getting a text, ‘This is what I want you to do when you get home,'” Saban complained. “At least let me finish my round. It’s not like it’s going to get done any faster.”
Breaking news: Saban may be slowing down. Just a bit.
