Scooter Hobbs column: Sorting though the Saban 'Bombshell'

American Press

16-07-2025

Maybe it wasn't modern journalism's finest hour, but a good Nick Saban rumor was just the jolt that Southeastern Conference Media Days needed.
Even in the Talking Season, you can only yack about how many teams should get automatic bids for an expanded College Football Playoff for so long.
The reports of Auburn coach Hugh Freeze's plummeting golf handicap — in June, no less, when War Eagle fans thought his time should be recruiting — did not really gain any traction.
So you needed something good and juicy to send shock waves throughout the Atlanta media gathering.
Never mind that there's a 99.9999 percent chance that it's not true and never will be.
Enter ESPN analyst Greg McElroy, whose media training consisted of playing quarterback for Saban at Alabama.
During an appearance on the SEC Network, McElroy repeated the bombshell that he'd first casually dropped Monday morning on his radio show.
Namely, that Nick Saban might be considering a return to coaching.
Source, please?
'A very much in the know person that I have a lot of respect for and have spent a lot of time around and just really, really admire,' McElroy explained. 'Seems to think Nick Saban is not done coaching. He's pretty adamant that he thinks Nick Saban will be coaching again.'
Who knows? Perhaps this source was 'deep' in a dark parking garage in Washington, D.C.
Anyway, further details were scant.
But, almost as shocking as the possibility of a Saban return, was that it seemed to shock McElroy that his 'news,' such that it was, caused such an immediate ruckus in media circles and beyond.
Later, appearing on ESPN, McElroy said, 'You want my personal opinion? I think he's done. I'd be shocked.'
Too late. In the old days, this might have been stop-the-presses news. Social media has no such hoops to jump through and quickly spread the unfounded rumors.
Never mind the disclaimers.
The story had legs and was running rampant — it was now a 'fact' that a vague somebody 'thought' a Saban return was at least a remote, miniscule 'possibility.' That was enough for the speculation to get picked up by such notable outlets as Sports Illustrated, Sporting News, even Fox News.
There must be fire behind that smoke. It was on TV, wasn't it? Better yet, it's on the Internet.
By Tuesday even Georgia coach Kirby Smart (a former Saban assistant) was asked to comment on the 'breaking news.'
'Yeah, I called and offered him (Will) Muschamp's job (as defensive coordinator), but he was overqualified,' Smart said. 'So he wasn't interested.'
Smart had the decorum to place tongue firmly in cheek for his opinion.
And, he added, 'I heard all the scuttlebutt and everything about it. I almost laughed.'
Maybe that's the prudent choice.
'It was like somebody needed something interesting to talk about yesterday,' Smart concluded. 'So they chose to go to Coach Saban to do it.'
But, whatever his personal opinion, McElroy didn't totally back off.
'There are people connected to the sports world that think he's not done,' he repeated on ESPN. 'Now interpret that however you will. People that would be somewhat knowledgeable about something like this, yes.'
For his part, Saban was absent and unavailable for comment — some would say noticeably absent, and — hmmmm — maybe that absence was part of the 'story?'
After all, Saban, too, works for ESPN now, perhaps the network's biggest star. He was at SEC Media Days a year ago as one of his first assignments.
Might he be laying low?
Not likely.
The rumor mill's next logical step would be reports of Miss Terry, the wife who runs the Saban show, to be spotted house-hunting in some college town.
'The boss at home is going to make that call,' Smart said. I don't think it's happening.'
Hasn't happened.
Unlike Freeze, Saban can play all the golf he pleases these days and, by all accounts that's what he's doing now.
Sorry, folks, move along. Nothing to see here.