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ESPN's McElroy and Finebaum disagree on likelihood of Saban coaching return

ESPN's McElroy and Finebaum disagree on likelihood of Saban coaching return

USA Today14-07-2025
According to CBS Sports, Oklahoma football coach Brent Venables is on the second hottest seat in the country.
And according to Greg McElroy, Nick Saban may want to coach college football again.
Do with those statements what you will.
McElroy, who works as a college football analyst for ESPN, said Monday on his radio show "McElroy and Cubelic in the Morning" that he spoke with someone "notable" who was "adamant" Saban wants to return to coaching. McElroy played for Saban at Alabama from 2007-2011.
'They seem to think Nick Saban's not done coaching," McElroy said of the person he heard from. "I had a similar reaction. He's pretty adamant that he thinks Nick Saban will be coaching again. … Look, if it wasn't someone notable, I'd never say a word.'
Paul Finebaum, who also works as an analyst for ESPN, said he disagreed. He couldn't see Saban returning to coaching as the former Toledo, Michigan State, LSU and Alabama coach was enjoying retirement too much.
"I'm much closer to Nick Saban's age than you are and I can assure you," Finebaum told McElroy, "when you have everything you want and you start playing golf at the best golf clubs in America and you start making friends who belong to even better golf clubs and you make a lot of money for doing very little work on TV, the interest in doing what he walked away from is not very high."
Saban retired after the 2023 season with seven national championships on his resume.
Venables, entering his fourth year at Oklahoma, has two losing seasons with the Sooners, including last year when OU finished just 2-6 in its first go-around in the SEC.
Contact/Follow us @SoonersWire on X, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Oklahoma news, notes, and opinions.
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