ESPN sportscaster and former football coach Nick Saban speaks during the Southeastern Conference NCAA college football media days Monday, July 15, 2024, in Dallas. (AP Photo/Jeffrey McWhorter)
DALLAS (AP) — Nick Saban is at SEC Media Days again, six months after retiring as Alabama coach.
This time he’s asking the questions as part of ESPN’s SEC Network coverage of the four-day event.
“I’m still a coach at heart. So I want to ask the coaches questions so that they can actually talk about things that they want to talk about, and maybe things that they want to be able to get out there,” Saban said Wednesday, a short time before his successor, Kalen DeBoer, made his SEC Media days debut as Tide coach.
“So I’m not trying to put anybody on the defensive,” Saban added. “I’m trying to help them express what they’d like to express about their team, or about a particular player, or about a position on their team.”
Saban, 72, retired in January after 17 seasons with Alabama and three decades as a head coach. The seven-time national champion will work for ESPN this season on its “College GameDay” Saturday pregame show.
He said he doesn’t plan to be critical as a broadcaster. He told DeBoer just that when the new Alabama joined the SEC Network set for an interview.
“I want to be objective. But I don’t want to be controversial,” Saban told reporters. “You could take any decision in any situation that anybody makes and make it controversial. Like, if we go for it on fourth-and-3, we would have 100,000 people in Alabama say, ‘I’m glad he’s going for it.’ And we would have 100,000 people say, ‘He’s a dumbass for going for it.’”
Saban has already made a headline, picking Georgia and Texas, not the Crimson Tide, to play for the SEC championship.
His former players noticed.
“He always said don’t let some guy who lives in his mom’s basement determine how you feel. I’m not going to let a guy who plays golf all day determine how I feel,” offensive tackle Tyler Booker said with a smile.
Saban said he has poured himself into the new job much as if he was still a coach. He prepared “a couple hundred hours” for his role on ESPN’s NFL draft coverage. For SEC Media Days, he said he watched every team’s spring game and called every coach in the conference.
“The biggest thing I miss is the relationships with the people, the players, the coaches, the staff and all the people that you work with, being a part of a team,” Saban said. “That I miss. But, I also got to the point where it was difficult for me to sustain things the way I needed to sustain them, to be satisfied with myself that I was doing a good job. So the last year was hard. So, I said, maybe it’s time for somebody else. I don’t regret that.”
It has been an eventful week for Saban in Dallas. First off, he was sent to the wrong hotel room — an occupied room — upon checking in Sunday. The next day, he was initially denied entry to the area where media days were being held at the Omni Hotel on Monday because he forgot his credential. On Tuesday, he went to the Major League Baseball All-Star Game at Globe Life Field in Arlington.
When he is not working, he’s playing a lot of golf.
Saban was asked if major college football could ever install a commissioner, would be he interested in the job. He said that’s a question for his wife, Terry.
“I try to go play golf at 7:30 in the morning. So I get home at 11:30,” he said. “I can’t get to the ninth hole without getting a text of ‘This is what I want you to do when you come home.’
“At least let me finish my round. It’s not going to get done any faster.”
The most famous backup QB in college football
Arch Manning is a famous five-star recruit with quite a quarterback pedigree, and yet is preparing for a second season in a backup role at Texas.
Quinn Ewers also was a five-star, and is going into his third season with the Longhorns after bypassing early entry into the NFL draft.
“We’ve been fortunate to have some really good quarterback rooms, and I think the Manning family is pretty well aware of that,” Texas coach Steve Sarkisian said Wednesday. “I think they trained Arch to try to put himself in the best position to try to play in the best conference in America and then ultimately put himself in the best position to further his career playing in the National Football League.”
The Longhorns are now in the SEC, the league where his QB-playing uncles stood out — Peyton at Tennessee and Eli at Mississippi — before both went on to win two Super Bowl titles.
Ewers said Wednesday that he and Manning, also the grandson of Archie, are buddies who love being around each other.
“We compete at a high level,” Ewers said. “He’s really fun to have in the room.”
Texas junior left tackle Kelvin Banks Jr. has started all 27 games in his two seasons, and was a top recruit like the quarterbacks. He believes Manning would be a starter for any other FBS team.
“He could start for 133 other teams. He’s definitely a type of guy who’s like a sponge. He likes to soak in knowledge and understand, because every time I see Quinn on the field, I see Arch,” Banks said. “I feel like Arch has earned it, but obviously you know the situation.”
It’s in the game
Shemar James really likes that No. 6 on defense for the Florida Gators in the much-anticipated return of EA Sports College Football game.
“Yeah, he’s pretty good,” James said of playing himself in the game that the linebacker and other college players had access to before its worldwide release Friday. “I had like four picks, like 20 tackles.”
James started to laugh when admitting that was playing against his own Gators and quarterback Graham Mertz.
Florida running back Montrell Johnson said people have told him that his player in the game is too good. He thinks EA Sports got everything right after he carried about 20 times for around 350 yards and four touchdowns.
“The thing I enjoy the most is playing as me … seeing myself in the game,” Johnson said.
James described the graphics as amazing and the realism as good, but that can go only so far. He can’t wait to be on the field for real Aug. 31 after missing the final four games injured last season
“Not the same,” he said.
Mississippi State linebacker John Lewis said he was a little disappointed with his rating in the game.
“I was a 78. I could have been like an 80 at least. They got my speed right so I won’t get mad at it. It’s cool,” Lewis said.
Sticking it out
Jeff Lebby is Mississippi State’s third coach in the past three seasons after the sudden death of coach Mike Leach in December 2022.
Defensive coordinator Zac Arnett was promoted to replace Leach and lasted just one season before Lebby was hired away from Oklahoma, where he had been offensive coordinator.
The coaching changes have led to a lot of roster turnover and some challenging times for the Bulldogs.
John Lewis, a Canton, Mississippi, native, is among those who decided to stay put.
“I mean, it’s been rough, but at the end of the day, you know, it’s life,” Lewis said. “My grandmother always told me if it’s hard just think of something and get through it because at the end of the day, it’s going to get better in the long run.”
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AP Sports Writer Stephen Hawkins contributed.
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Follow Ralph D. Russo at https://twitter.com/ralphDrussoAP
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AP college football: https://apnews.com/hub/college-football
By RALPH D. RUSSO
AP College Football Writer
