by ITK

I don’t know if Vegas lays odds on such things, but if so, and if you’re strapped for cash right now, bet everything you have on a bigger, juicier “Nick Saban is going to Texas” rumor to waft in the wind the week of Nov. 30’s tussle with Auburn.

Forget the 60 Minutes piece where the news journal’s Armen Keteyian followed Saban on and off for 6 months, coming away at the end of his work with the notion that Bama’s head coach is as happy and comfortable in Tuscaloosa as he can be.

Forget Saban’s own wife, Miss Terry, saying in the piece that the reigning king of college football “has mellowed a bit,” according to his assistants while in Tuscaloosa.

Forget Saban’s own words in the piece that, quote, “there isn’t anywhere better [than Alabama]…there isn’t a University of Mars.”

And forget Alabama head coach Nick Saban’s words earlier this year…hmmm, ironically another big game week [Texas A&M]…when he responded to rumors on his weekly call in show, saying “I’m too damn old to take on a new challenge.”

Nick Saban is going to Texas. How do we know this?

Because of a phone conversation (reportedly) between two Texas regents last January.

A new conversation, you ask, separate from the one we’ve heard about over, and over, and over?

Nope, same one.

But…BUT…now we have new information in our hands…Jimmy Sexton, Saban’s agent, told one of the two regents that Texas is the only place he’d consider leaving Alabama for (though I remember when the story went that “someplace” was Notre Dame…but, I digress…).

So we have Sexton quoted as saying this?

Nope. We have one of the regents, bent on this love affair starting between his beloved Longhorns and Nick Saban, saying that Jimmy Sexton said this.

Couple of things. Isn’t Sexton supposed to keep whatever doors are available to his clients open for them so that they have the most and best options available to them? So if Jimmy did say this, so be it.

But what we have today is the same, old, tired non-story surfacing the week before Bama’s biggest game of the season, again, and…like the others…just prior to Saban’s Wednesday night presser. At midnight, to be exact, so that it can fester all day long leading up to it.

I don’t know how to say this any more plainly. If Nick Saban chooses to leave Alabama, we have nothing but gratitude for the man who restored the dignity of college football’s grandest giant. And in true fairness, Saban has Alabama to thank for giving him the keys to the kingdom, enjoying the level of consistency and success he had enjoyed exactly nowhere prior to coming to Tuscaloosa.

However, to echo the throngs of people who know him well, Nick Saban is not leaving Alabama…not for Texas.

But, like a cheap chinese buffet pillaged by a busload of morbidly obese patrons, today’s story is yet another picked over non-story finding its origins in January, not November.

We’ll just have to wait for the next regurgitation the week of the Auburn game.


(Follow ITK on Twitter for Bama news, commentary and smack.)

6 thoughts on “Another big game week, another Saban to Texas Hail Mary”

  1. Aubies will just have to live with the fact that Saban is going to be around for a long time, and will beat them more often than not, for another 6-10 years if not more.

    Bear was 19-6 against The Barn. Six wins in a quarter century. Now… Alabama again has a coach capable of that kind of record.

    Shoot. Anytime we get a competent coach we break even. Perkins was 2-2 against All-Barn, Dubose beat them, Fran beat them. Only Shula and Curry got shut out.
    Stallings was 6-1. So when we get a really good coach…well.

    It must be sad to be an Auburn fan.

  2. “The University of Mars.”

    I loved when he said that. Saban apparently has a brilliant sense of humor most people don’t hear and some people don’t want to listen to.

    I want to acknowledge the footage in the 60 Minutes story where Saban admitted he shouldn’t have said he wasn’t leaving Miami for Tuscaloosa. Love him or hate him, Nick Saban deliberately doesn’t make the same mistake twice.

    Personally, I just don’t think I’d be that upset if Saban left for Texas. He’s done so much for the University of Alabama to put the program and the university on the best possible track without him (he can’t stay forever). I’d be excited to watch Texas change. I’d root for Saban to affect the culture and the competitiveness at Texas. I’d literally watch more Texas football if Nick Saban was their new coach, probably a lot more.

    But I still don’t think that’s happening. Nick Saban so perfectly fits the cultural idendity at Alabama that I don’t think he’d find a more perfect fit anywhere, including at Texas, although I do think that’s a pretty close cultural fit. Money is a non-issue for both schools (like it or not). Suggesting there’s nothing more for him to accomplish at Alabama is the part that bothers me. The fact that it’s still college football means inherent talent attrition. That means new players, and that means new challenges. Winning a BCS title is one thing, but winning a playoff title doesn’t seem less of a challenge or less interesting to a coach as motivated as Nick Saban.

    Besides, I don’t think they’d be able to get rid of Mack Brown yet anyway. Frankly, I don’t think they’d want to, at least not without a guarantee of the replacement coach being Nick Saban…and noone else. Otherwise, the University of Texas culture all of a sudden has an idendity crisis, one that doesn’t seem to fit with Saban regardless.

    Then again, everything I just said is all based off information from a story older than Alabama’s last national championship anyway. Roll Tide.

  3. Very well put, Saban going to texas is like going from the CEO of Heinz ketchup to the CEO of French’s mustard, both goldmine jobs. Technically it would be a lateral move, although Alabama is a better job right now by far. Saban like any great coach loves a challenge, but at this point I think he is a touch old and enjoys the challenge of maintaing what he has at Bama.

  4. If he loves a challenge he has already set one record (the only coach to win Natty’s at two different D1 schools). Tied one (three Natty’s in four years). Fixing to set two at the same time (a 3peat and four Natty’s in five years). And has one more that is the biggest of all, and before his retirement can only be accomplished at Alabama (most Natty’s at one school – 7, Bear had 6). After this one he will only need 2 to tie and 3 to break in his twilight years of coaching. Never in hell can he do it at a new school. Plus, whatever pressure he’s under, he brought it on himself with his Process. Speaking of pressure, maybe he should talk to Mack Brown. Texas is nothing but a pressure cooker full of overpaid pompous assholes who stay engaged in a back biting, power struggle. No way in hell Saban wants any part of that stupid crap. Nothing to see here. Go on about your business. RTR!

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