Nick Saban makes final decision on returning to college football

College football's most-accomplished national champion has made his final decision on whether he wants to return to the sideline.

Nick Saban makes it official on his return to college football. | Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

The fact that Nick Saban has been retired for two years hasn’t stopped the rumor mill from trying to connect his name to every college football head coaching position that comes open, especially in a hiring cycle as active as this one.

But the NCAA record-holder seven-time national champion was blunt and to the point when approached again with the idea of making a comeback.

“No way,” Saban said on The Pat McAfee Show.

Saban was appearing alongside McAfee, who pointed out that Jimmy Sexton was lingering around the set, but the coach quipped that he didn’t want the super-agent to get close to Miss Terry and give her any ideas.

“I wanna stay retired, and I do not want him anywhere near Miss Terry, because when she hears some of these numbers, she gets interested, and I ain’t interested,” Saban said.

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 this offseason.

Former Alabama quarterback Greg McElroy got some attention back in 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.

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.

Since then, he spent some time working as an advisor for the Crimson Tide football team, and most publicly working as an analyst on ESPN’s College GameDay program.

Addressing the rumors again during the show recently, Miss Terry shot down the question of her husband returning, even for as much as $50 million.

“I have no doubt, if Nick wanted to go back to coaching, he could win his eighth national championship, but we’re having too much fun, and we wouldn’t want to take that opportunity away from all of our baby coaches like Kirby and Lane,” she said.

Nick then chimed in, saying: “Mrs. Always Right has spoken.”

McAfee then brought up the Penn State vacancy and how many of that program’s fans were hoping that athletic director Pat Kraft would hand Saban a blank check.

“No way,” he said to McAfee. “I have so much fun working with you. Why would I go do that?”