Damien Harris was at Top Golf on Jan. 10, 2024 when a friend of his asked when Harris thought
Nick Saban
would retire.
“When he physically cannot walk off the field,” Harris recalled telling his friend. “When somebody has to pick him up and carry him off the field, that might be when he retires.”
Then a few minutes later,
news broke of Saban retiring
. Every TV at Top Golf had it.
“I’m just like, this don’t feel right because he can still do it,” Harris told AL.com at SEC Media Days on Monday.
Since then, Saban has been out of coaching. He’s been an analyst for ESPN, among other things. But could he return to coaching ever?
“Given the proper opportunity, given the right circumstances, I think it would be a no brainer for him,” Harris said. ”Miss Terry on the other end, I don’t know if she would agree. I know Miss Terry. She loves having coach Saban at home. But again, if that’s what’s destined for Nick Saban, which it seems like it is, you can’t stop destiny.”
Another former Alabama player, Greg McElroy,
made headlines on the first day of SEC Media Days
when he brought up the possibility of the 73-year-old ESPN analyst getting back into coaching.
“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, they seem to think Nick Saban is not done coaching,” McElroy said on WJOX. “He’s pretty adamant that he thinks Nick Saban will be coaching again.”
Saban retired after the 2023 season, wrapping up about a half century of coaching. Over that time, Saban won seven national championships with six at Alabama and one at LSU.
“This is a guy who loves college football,” Harris said. “This is a guy who doesn’t just step away because he’s like, ‘ah you know what I served my time, I did what I was supposed to do. I just want to watch sunsets now.’ That’s not Nick Saban. He’s not built that way.”
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Nick Kelly is an Alabama beat writer for AL.com and the Alabama Media Group.
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