Processing Loss: Alabama Loses Nick Saban

Let me just say this. My next stop, you know where Lake Burton is, in north Georgia, right on the North Carolina border, Rabun County, it’s a lake, where they made Deliverance, if you ever saw the movie. That’s where I go in the summertime. That’s where I like it. That’s my next stop.
– Coach Nick Saban, Introductory Press Conference at The University of Alabama, January 4, 2007

Collette Connell went national when on January 3, 2007, she kissed newly-announced Alabama head coach Nick Saban on his arrival at the Tuscaloosa airport. She went for the mouth, but he made his name as a defensive coach and he was quick. She only got cheek. Unfortunately for Collette, the cops were quick too. They got her for a DUI later that day. Her smiling mugshot went national as well.

Before getting pulled over, she hopped around in front of a Fox 6 camera. “We ballin’! We ballin’!” she hollered. Ineloquent – sloppy really – but she spoke for a lot of people.

I think you have to live here for a while to understand how Alabamians feel about college football. Before he went national, Paul Finebaum was a local reporter and later radio personality in Birmingham. I remember listening to his show years ago during March Madness. It was down to a few teams, maybe the Elite Eight, and Paul had taken a few calls about Duke or whoever was expected to win it all. The next caller up started full of vinegar with, “I thought this was supposed to be a sports show, Paul! All this basketball and tournament nonsense and you ain’t said nothing about football. Spring practice started today!” He wasn’t being sarcastic. He meant it. I was nodding along as I drove, but I’ve had early summer arguments about who should be the backup free safety so what he said made sense to me.

We’d been in a slump before Saban. The Mikes – the string of previous coaches, Mike Dubose, Mike Price, and Mike Shula – put us through the wringer. When Shula was let go, fans became a combination of detective, gossip, and fortune teller. I had a favorite flight tracker website. I heard stories about Rich Rodriguez’s wife’s hair and wondered if Mickey Andrews needed free shoes to be successful. It was going to be Spurrier. I was sure of that. People dusted off Mike Riley again. No chance it was going to be Spurrier. I was sure of that.

Saban’s introductory press conference was impressive. Finebaum said, “Wow.” He laid out all the steps necessary towards realization of what we came to know lovingly as Saban’s Joyless Murderball. He said he had a process. In his fantastic book, Saban: The Making of a Coach, Monte Burke would later write about the origins of the process and “the Wizard Dude,” Lonny Rosen, who got together with Saban to form an unlikely pair at Michigan State. Said Saban at the conference, “What I would like for every football team to do that we play is to sit there and say, ‘I hate playing against these guys. I hate playing them.’” Music.

His sudden departure has fans back in a familiar place, scanning message boards, scattering tea leaves, and checking in on that friend of a brother-in-law whose wife plays bridge with the athletic department HR assistant director. Saban looked set to continue on at Alabama. I read he worked hard to set up and was looking forward to a home and away with his native West Virginia in 2026-27. The morning of his retirement he was reportedly interviewing a replacement wide receivers coach.

There are reliably good rumor people and reliably bad rumor people. Unfortunately, both are saying that he left for specific medical reasons. I hope the mill is wrong, but it’s not my business either way. In quaint every-town-is-a-small-town manner, everybody I’ve spoken to this morning has heard but cautions keeping it mum out of respect. It’s quirky; all these folks speculating on someone’s private matters with the attached admonition not to tell anyone, but it comes from honest concern. The Sabans are adored by an awful lot of people for their charity work and efforts on behalf of the victims and city of Tuscaloosa after the 2011 tornado among other reasons.

What happens going forward? There were hints that Dan Lanning was going to be the guy, but the rumors got too specific, putting him at the Amerite Hotel in Tuscaloosa. The story was that Saban considered Lanning, a former assistant, one that got away. That’s the story anyway. As of this writing, Lanning has said publicly that he’s staying at Oregon. His agent either works fast or is apoplectic at the lost leverage opportunity.

The best rumor people are hidden. We’re an egalitarian, enlightened society but it’s still Upstairs, Downstairs. Reporters eat and Tuscaloosa waiters hear all sorts of things. Word is that Lane Kiffin is in town. There’s a lot of talk about Steve Sarkesian, but that has to be a pipe dream. If (If!) the university could pull Sark, I’d be over the moon. What better way to welcome Texas into the SEC fold than by stealing the coach that pulled them out of limbo and into contention.

Say what you will about Gen Z, they understand football. A group of students gathered around the Saban statue by Bryant-Denny Stadium to chant “Anyone but Dabo!” for news crews. From their lips to AD Greg Byrne’s ears. Kalen DeBoer would be a tough get coming off a National Championship Game appearance, but we’re Alabama. We get to be arrogant and think we can get guys no matter what the circumstance. I’ve heard Mike Norvell’s name mentioned, but besides my Mike aversion, his team quit on him as he fanned the flames.

Word out of the athletic department is that a new coach will be announced within seventy-two hours. That was off the bat, so they’ve probably got fifty-some hours left as I write this. I understand the need to calm player anxiety now with no-fault transfers available, but I hate the time limit. I can hear my Auburn and LSU fan friends shaking out their crimson and white, “No, I don’t want to coach your storied football program,” t-shirts that were popular among other SEC fanbases in the lead up to the Saban hire when it looked like our search was flailing and our brand may not have been (Impossible!) as attractive as we imagined.

If I were a bettor, I’d say Kiffin gets announced tomorrow. I’d love that. He’d get pilloried by fans the first time he tries to explain that he went for 4^th and 7 on our own 30 because the math was on his side, but it’d be nice to see the jet sweep again.

No one is talking about Pete Carroll, but he got fired yesterday. At seventy-two, I doubt he’s looking to build a new team, but he didn’t step down. He intended to coach another year. Maybe offer him a short-term contract as a stop gap while we consider a long-term replacement. “Here’s a fully armed and operational turn-key Death Star to play with until you retire in a few years.” Under a short-term coach recruiting would suffer but there’s free agency now. Never happen, but fun to consider.

People misunderstand what is meant by “SEC Speed.” There are no doubt guys in other conferences that can compete with or outrun our conference’s fastest wideouts and corners. That’s not it. SEC Speed is across the board. Our big guys, brutal defensive ends weighing two seventy-five, run at linebacker speed. The linebackers are safety quick. It’s across the board.

I think people misunderstand the SEC slogan too. “It just means more,” shouldn’t be taken to say that we’re necessarily more rabid fans, though we’d make a good showing in that contest. I’m sure there’s a guy in Akron named Woody who could dominate any sports trivia quiz. I’m writing in a restaurant right now. There are three ladies, late sixties to early seventies, well dressed, proper diction, etc. sitting at the table behind me. They say Vegas is high on Sark but Kiffin would make the fans happiest. They ask to turn up the TV when Dan Lanning comes on ESPN. They’re not the only table talking about Bama. It’s across the board.

In 17 years at Alabama: 201-29, 9 SEC Championships, 4 Heisman winners, 47 consensus All-Americans, 123 players drafted (I have 44 in the first round though Pat McAfee just said 49 on ESPN), and 6 National Championships. He and Miss Terry brought a lot of joy to Alabama. I hope they enjoy Lake Burton and retirement.

Collette passed away in 2013, so there won’t be before and after mugshots to bookend the Saban era or usher in whoever’s next. Maybe one of the three ladies will step up.

Late Night Update: Rumor mill tells me that Washington’s Kalen DeBoer was on campus as of 7:30. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯