Paul Finebaum names the one college football program Nick Saban would talk to

There's one college football program that could potentially make Nick Saban to reconsider his retirement.

Paul Finebaum thinks one coach would at least listen to what LSU has to say, even if he doesn't ultimately take the job. | Maria Lysaker-Imagn Images

The race is on to replace Brian Kelly at LSU and to get it right this time, and predictably a flurry of high-profile names have already been connected to what is considered college football’s most prestigious coaching vacancy.

Including on occasion, the name of names: Nick Saban.

And while Paul Finebaum doesn’t think the sport’s most accomplished coach would actually take the job, he wondered aloud if the NCAA-record seven-time national champion head coach would listen to them.

“I don’t think Nick Saban would take it. Nick Saban wouldn’t talk to Penn State. He wouldn’t talk to Florida. But I think he would talk to LSU,” Finebaum said on The Rich Eisen Show.

“At least to see what they have to offer, and by the way sometimes you can come back and make an offer that even a man who will be 74 years old on Friday night, on Halloween, might consider. I think it’s worth thinking about.”

Saban is no stranger to LSU, where he coached from 2000 to 2004 and won the school’s first national championship in the 21st century.

From there, he led the Miami Dolphins organization for two seasons, compiling a 15-17 overall record before landing at Alabama and changed college football forever.

Saban went 201-29 over 17 seasons and won six national titles, a run of dominance that the sport had never seen before, and may never see again.

“I’m already hearing on our show, down here in the South, Alabama fans saying, ‘Please tell me it’s not true. Don’t tell me that Nick Saban is going to LSU,’” Finebaum joked.

Judging by the coach’s own comments, it doesn’t sound like he’s interested.

“I wanna stay retired, and I do not want [agent Jimmy Sexton] anywhere near Miss Terry, because when she hears some of these numbers, she gets interested, and I ain’t interested,” Saban told Pat McAfee.

As to who Saban himself thinks LSU will consider? One name immediately springs to mind.

“Lane is the first name up for Florida and the first name up for LSU,” he said of Kiffin.

“But I think you can have a long debate on whether either one of those jobs is actually better than the job he has now because he has some guys over there at Ole Miss that give him pretty much whatever he wants from a roster standpoint.”