Nick Saban Delivers Honest Take on College Football Coaching Comeback

Is a comeback in the offing for college football's most accomplished head coach? Nick Saban weighs in on the question when speaking with Paul Finebaum.

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Nick Saban dominated college football more than any other single head coach during his career, and since his retirement the question of his possibly returning to the sideline has been raised before the man himself came out and shot down any such rumors.

Once again this week, the idea of a Saban comeback was brought up, and while the coach admitted he does miss the game, any serious prospect of his taking the helm at a program still sounds pretty unlikely.

Saban misses coaching, but...

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“I miss coaching a little bit. I miss the relationships with the players. I miss the competition. But it’s a trade off,” Saban said in comments to Paul Finebaum.

Any prospect of taking a job somewhere would likely have to involve Mrs. Saban coming along, but the former Alabama coach says that’s not happening.

“When people call, alls I can tell all the fans out there is Miss Terry says if you take a job, you’re commuting. She’s not moving. She’s not leaving the grandkids. She’s not leaving any of that,” Saban added.

So can we take that as a no on a Saban comeback? “No, that’s probably right.”

Not the first time a Saban comeback has been discussed

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Whatever the coach has said about his staying retired hasn’t stopped speculation that he could be lured out of retirement if the price was right.

That included a viral rumor shared by one of his former players last offseason.

Former Alabama quarterback Greg McElroy got some attention last July when he said that someone in the know was “adamant that he thinks Nick Saban will be coaching again.”

Saban himself addressed rumors around his coming back to college football shortly after the McElroy comments emerged, telling Fox News that he wasn’t aware of any situation that would entice him to return to coaching, and that he was enjoying spending time with his family instead.

The best to ever do it?

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Saban retired from Alabama boasting the single greatest run of achievements by any head coach in college football history, winning an NCAA-record seven national championships.

The now College Football Hall of Fame coach went 201-29 over 17 seasons and won six national titles at Alabama, a run of dominance that the sport had never seen before, and may never see again.

Since then, he spent some time working as an advisor for the Crimson Tide football team, being asked by President Trump to give advice on how to reform college athletics in the NIL era, and most publicly working as an analyst on ESPN’s College GameDay program.

That’s enough on Saban’s plate to prevent him from genuinely considering a comeback, as much as any college football program would give anything to have him.