DALLAS (AP) — Nick Saban is at SEC Media Days again, six months after retiring as Alabama coach.
This time he’s asking the questions as part of ESPN’s SEC Network coverage of the four-day event.
“I’m still a coach at heart. So I want to ask the coaches questions so that they can actually talk about things that they want to talk about, and maybe things that they want to be able to get out there,” Saban said Wednesday, a short time before his successor, Kalen DeBoer, made his SEC Media days debut as Tide coach.
“So I’m not trying to put anybody on the defensive,” Saban added. “I’m trying to help them express what they’d like to express about their team, or about a particular player, or about a position on their team.”
Saban, 72, retired in January after 17 seasons with Alabama and three decades as a head coach. The seven-time national champion will work for ESPN this season on its “College GameDay” Saturday pregame show.
He said he doesn’t plan to be critical as a broadcaster.
“I want to be objective. But I don’t want to be controversial,” Saban said. “You could take any decision in any situation that anybody makes and make it controversial. Like, if we go for it on fourth-and-3, we would have 100,000 people in Alabama say, ‘I’m glad he’s going for it.’ And we would have 100,000 people say, ‘He’s a dumbass for going for it.’”
Saban has already made a headline, picking Georgia and Texas, not the Crimson Tide, to play for the SEC championship.
His former players noticed.
“He always said don’t let some guy who lives in his mom’s basement determine how you feel. I’m not going to let a guy who plays golf all day determine how I feel,” offensive tackle Tyler Booker said with a smile.
Saban said he has poured himself into the new job much as if he was still a coach. He prepared “a couple hundred hours” for his role on ESPN’s NFL draft coverage. For SEC Media Days, he said he watched every team’s spring game and called every coach in the conference.
“The biggest thing I miss is the relationships with the people, the players, the coaches, the staff and all the people that you work with, being a part of a team,” Saban said. “That I miss. But, I also got to the point where it was difficult for me to sustain things the way I needed to sustain them, to be satisfied with myself that I was doing a good job. So the last year was hard. So, I said, maybe it’s time for somebody else. I don’t regret that.”
Saban was asked if major college football could ever install a commissioner, would be he interested in the job. He said that’s a question for his wife, Terry.
“I try to go play golf at 7:30 in the morning. So I get home at 11:30,” he said. “I can’t get to the ninth hole without getting a text of ‘This is what I want you to do when you come home.’
“At least let me finish my round. It’s not going to get done any faster.”
Follow Ralph D. Russo at https://twitter.com/ralphDrussoAP