It’s kind of hard to imagine a college football Saturday without Nick Saban on the sideline. The longtime Alabama coach called it a career last week after 17 seasons at the school. He’s been involved as a coach or coordinator, in the college ranks and in the NFL since 1973. To say he’s made an impact on the game is a tremendous understatement. Saban retired having won 7 National Championships and numerous “Coach of the Year” awards. So, what is next for the man who wears a scowl better than most? He’ll likely end up where most former coaches do, on television.
In recent years, he’s become much more visible on football shows. Nick Saban has appeared on ESPN’s College GameDay, also on The Paul Finebaum Show and locally he’s been visible on shows on the Crimson Tide Sports Network. This fall he began making weekly paid appearances on the Pat McAfee Show which had moved to ESPN. To his credit Saban has tried to work his way into the media world, much more than he did in the past, perhaps to lay the groundwork for his next move.
Is he really contemplating a career move to the media world? Saban sat down with Rece Davis at ESPN, and Davis asked him about a second career, in television.
“I’m going to keep working. I don’t want to get up and watch Netflix. I know there’s some opportunities out there for me somewhere,” Saban told Davis.
“I can think of one, but, go ahead, sorry,” chuckled Davis, referring to GameDay.
“I probably would like to do that. But someone told me once you can’t start a broadcasting career when you’re 80,” Saban joked. Broadcasting on a limited basis, maybe once or twice a week could provide that challenge.
His timing couldn’t be better. ESPN is preparing to take over the full broadcast rights of SEC telecasts. It would be a big feather in the cap of ESPN/ABC to land probably the biggest SEC fish in the pond. He is the face of the SEC, even in retirement. Winding up on the set of GameDay at an SEC campus would bring out more fans to the site and on their televisions to hear what Saban has to say.
Obviously, at the time of posting this column there has been no deal reached, but there’s plenty of talk and smoke. And you know usually where there’s smoke indeed there is fire. Lee Corso has said he has no plans to retire, but the hiring of Saban could certainly cut into his role on the show. The NY Post’s Andrew Marchand noted in a newsletter that Saban ending up on GameDay is a “no-brainer.” He notes that is according to a source “with knowledge of ESPN’s thinking.” Marchand also noted that if Corso remains on the show, he may be reduced to just the prediction segment where he puts on the mascot head. If that’s the case, there is an immediate opening.
This isn’t the first time Saban has ‘flirted’ with ESPN. According to the book “The Leadership Secrets of Nick Saban,” by AL.com senior sports editor John Talty, Saban considered hanging it up in 2014 to join the Worldwide Leader. Coming off back-to-back titles, the Tide would win 11 straight games during the regular season, putting the plan on hold for the time being. Then Alabama lost in heartbreaking fashion in the “Iron Bowl” on the “Kick Six” play preventing a third straight title. Talks with ESPN accelerated, but ultimately Saban decided to stay at Alabama. A good choice at the time as he’d win three more National Championships.
I’m still skeptical. I don’t know Saban and have never met him, but he has a certain ‘persona’ attached to him. While coaching, Saban always came across as a grumpy guy, never happy, and never showing any personality. Cut from the Bill Belichick mold, there was a bit of an intimidation factor working for him. Saban had that “hard to approach” aura surrounding him, making the former Alabama coach come across as hard to interview. That should make him a fine candidate for a role on a telecast, right?
But there’s the other side to that coin, as my colleague Demetri Ravanos wrote in October:
“Nick Saban is a nerd. He cannot hide his excitement to teach the audience how this play works. He gives detail without getting boring. He has a great sense of humor about a drive that started on Ole Miss’s 1 yard line and ended with Alabama kicking a field goal from the 23.”
There is no doubt that Saban’s credentials are top notch. You don’t stick around and win as many games as he did over the years without a tremendous knowledge of the game. Not just the X’s and O’s but the rationale behind some moves and formations. This gives him a great chance to be a top-tier analyst in the broadcast booth or on the set of, say a pregame show? But there’s the issue of being “watchable.” We all know these days it’s more about the ‘name’ than it is about the ‘qualifications’ when it comes to working as an analyst on network television.
But here are a few questions. Will people tune in to see Coach Nick Saban with that no smile demeanor because of the valuable information they’ll get? Will the audience grow tired of the great information because of the way it’s going to be delivered?
To his credit, Nick Saban is working on finding the middle ground answers to those questions. Perhaps those recent media appearances were designed to let him get a feel for what the experience might be like as a full-time contributor? Now, he’s getting to see first-hand what it takes to entertain and inform an audience.
Just because you are a successful college or NFL coach, doesn’t automatically equate to being a top-of-the-line analyst. Be it a booth analyst or in the studio, there haven’t been too many success stories. Of course, John Madden may be the exception to the rule, but you could see the personality from the sidelines and knew it would serve him well in the booth. Jason Garrett to me is struggling to let his personality show. What he’s offering now is forced. He was more of a non-emotional coach on the sideline and it’s following him into the broadcasting world. Someone like Brian Billick, who had a steely, emotional sideline demeanor found a way to relate with an audience and turned into a pretty good analyst for FOX and the NFL Network. Saban is somewhere in between the two and it will be interesting to see what he lets out when given the chance to be on the air.
Working on PMS you can tell that Nick Saban is trying to bring out a little more personality. It can only be described as a ‘dry wit’ that’s a little ‘buttoned up’ because of his status as a big-time college coach. But now, Saban will actually get the chance to relax and not have to ‘live and breathe’ from the win or loss perspective. Most former players and coaches always proclaim that it’s so much easier to broadcast a game than play or coach it. There are very few former coaches that instantly had success on the set. Jimmy Johnson, Bill Cowher and Steve Mariucci come to mind immediately. Most had to work into what they became on air. Maybe the opportunity to just talk about football will let Saban break out of his shell a bit now that he’s no longer trying to recruit players or win games. We can only hope.
Andy Masur is a columnist for BSM and works for WGN Radio as an anchor and play-by-play announcer. He also teaches broadcasting at the Illinois Media School. During his career he has called games for the Chicago Cubs, San Diego Padres and Chicago White Sox. He can be found on Twitter @Andy_Masur1 or you can reach him by email at Andy@Andy-Masur.com.
