Nick Saban is ‘turning into a mentor’ for one major college football coach

When Nick Saban walked away from the Alabama sidelines with his seven career national championship trophies, he didn't stop coaching for good. According to a couple of local radio guys, the college football legend is still helping mentor coaches across the sport now. One of those being the head coach of the No. 1 team in the country...

As Ohio State prepares to march through a second College Football Playoff national championship run in as many seasons, the Buckeyes and head coach Ryan Day have first-world problems to deal with their offensive coordinator, Brian Hartline, accepting a head coaching job at South Florida. Thus, OSU must find a new OC amid their postseason sprint, with Hartline now marking the third coordinator to leave Ohio State in the last two seasons.

That's the price of a well-oiled championship program: Your coordinators are going to become head coaches elsewhere. Nobody knows that better than Nick Saban, who's coaching tree has only grown like bamboo since he departed the sport. So, as Ryan Day and his Ohio State program enter those treacherous waters of success which Alabama once dealt with, he's apparently leaning on Saban for him guidance.

"Nick Saban is a guy that Ryan Day has gotten to know and become pretty familiar with in the last couple of years," Jeremy Birmingham shared on The Beat with Austin & Birm. "He’s turning into a mentor for Ryan."

Nick Saban and Ryan Day walk the 14th fairway at Muirfield Village Golf Club | Adam Cairns/Columbus Dispatch / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Speaking on their show for local WBNS 10TV, Austin Ward and Jeremy Birmingham explained that Day is following a Saban-like approach of not forcing square pegs into a round hole with the offensive side of the ball. After all, that is Ryan Day's specialty.

"This is a situation where the Buckeyes know their worth," Birmingham added. "They know their value, and especially for an offensive coordinator, because it’s Ryan Day’s offense. You don’t have to come in and make wholesale changes. You don’t have to come in and light the place on fire because Ryan Day’s offense is what’s there. Your job is to come in and tweak it and manage it and to add to it and to enhance it."

Now, though, Ohio State is entering that Saban-era Alabama territory where they have luxurious options on their buffet line in terms of coordinators. They've have high-profile NFL names like Matt Patricia and Chip Kelly and could go down that path again, per Birm, with this new offensive coordinator hire.

"As we saw with the initial hire of Bill O’Brien and then the hire of Matt Patricia, the hire of Chip Kelly, the name that Ryan Day settles on is likely not going to be one that people are talking about," Birmimgham points out.

Expect an unexpected name to head up the Ohio State offense in 2026.

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