DALLAS – No matter the site hosting the SEC Football preseason Media Days for the last 17 years, Wednesday was always reserved for Nickfest.
From 2007 through last season when none of us in the media suspected it would be Nick Saban’s last year as Alabama’s head coach, every SEC Media Day Wednesday was like a Mardi Gras parade when Saban and three Crimson Tide players arrived.
The crush of Tide fans wanting a glimpse of the Sabanator or an autograph caused the league to put up velvet ropes to hold back the worshiping mob.
Even the guy who showed up dressed as Bear Bryant from head to toe whenever media days were held in the Birmingham suburb of Hoover.
The Nicktator always concluded his 30-minute appearance in the main media room full of print and internet journalism by thanking us for what we did to create interest in college football.
The statement was usually met with wry smiles and smirks from a room full of cynics, knowing it wouldn’t be long before he was railing about the “rat poison” spread by us who usually considered his team the favorite in 99.9 percent of the games they played.
Since retiring in January – Saban finally decided winning seven national championships was enough and didn’t care to annually re-negotiate with returning starters seeking more NIL cash – his transformation to life after the greatest coaching career in college football history has been a revelation.
First, the 72-year-old Saban is learning the basics of doing things himself and does not have an army of support personnel at his beck and call.
“He has started responding to texts,” said pleasantly surprised Georgia head coach Kirby Smart, who served 11 seasons on Saban’s Alabama, LSU and Miami Dolphins staffs. “I told people the other day, that’s the first time ever. Either somebody has his phone, or he learned how to text. That makes all of us in his circle of friends proud because we get to reach out to him.”
Even Saban showing up at this week’s 39th annual preseason media days here in the Omni Hotel in his new job as an ESPN football analyst was eye-opening.
When he was coaching, Saban and his players would fly or drive (when media days were in Hoover just 53 miles from Tuscaloosa) on the day Alabama was required to appear.
He would have his usual bodyguards flank him as he whizzed past the security checking credentials to enter the interview areas. He’d do his day’s work and immediately return home.
On Monday morning, Saban checked into the Omni at 7:30 about 90 minutes before the SEC Network’s wall-to-wall coverage started. His room key didn’t work.
He discovered his room was already occupied by longtime Arkansas Democrat-Gazette columnist Wally Hall who checked in Sunday night. Hall cracked open the door just enough to see a confused and perturbed Saban.
“They told me this was my room,” Saban told Hall, who listened to Saban read the room number on his key.
“That’s what they told me when I checked in yesterday,” Hall said.
“I think this is supposed to be my room,” Saban said. “They told me this was my room number.”
“I think there’s some confusion here,” Hall said. “You are Nick Saban and I’m Wally Hall, and I don’t see us sharing a room.”
Saban eventually gave up but was flustered enough to leave his media credential in his reassigned hotel room. Without it, he was denied access by a security guard to the media interview where the SEC Network set was located.
After Saban’s rookie mistake, he retrieved his credential, and it was smooth sailing the rest of the week.
Saban has been nothing short of brilliant in his new gig, which is no surprise. He’s taking his coaching strengths – unequaled preparation and concise communication – and applying them to the airwaves.
For instance, he said he prepared 200 hours for his three-round appearance on ESPN’s NFL draft coverage.
The job was right up his alley, which is player assessment. Saban didn’t win those seven nattys and 11 SEC titles with blind luck.
This week, Saban quickly addressed new SEC member Texas and its history in the Big 12 and Southwest Conference of bullying the league’s other members and being placed on a financial pedestal above them.
“What kind of tickles me is all these people asking questions about how Texas always ran the conference they were in,” Saban said. “They’re not gonna run the SEC.”
Which infuriated Texas fans.
Then, he predicted Georgia and Texas would play in December’s SEC championship game.
Which ignited Alabama’s fan base.
“Nobody has told me I have to be critical,” Saban said. “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.”
ESPN has made numerous dumb personnel moves in the last several years, but it would be wise to make Saban the centerpiece of its live College GameDay show and send tank-top-wearin’ jackleg goofball Pat McAfee back to anonymity.
No one in college football, on and off the field, has more street cred than Saban.
Contact Ron at ronhigginsmedia@gmail.com