Nick Saban continues to grab headlines during SEC Media Days on Monday, more than a year after he retired as the Alabama head coach.
Lane Kiffin can see the now-ESPN and “College GameDay” analyst coaching again one day.
“I have thought that,” the Ole Miss coach told “SEC Now” on the SEC Network. “I have thought that it would be one year in the media, then back. And I kind of thought it might be the NFL just because he’s so sharp still. … He has the process so nailed as how to do it that I do see it as a waste that he’s not doing it.
During his radio show on WJOX in Birmingham on Monday, former Crimson Tide quarterback Greg McElroy said he had heard Saban could return to the game.
“I did read that he said that earlier today,” Kiffin said. “They asked me a question and yeah, I was like he’s going to coach again. I don’t know if it’s college or NFL, but he’s going to coach again. So, he put that in my head, and I repeated it.”
Kiffin called coaching an addiction for guys like Saban. And as the panel discussed the topic, it was made clear there is a difference between coaching football and talking about it as an analyst.
“That’s why I never thought it would last,” Kiffin said of Saban’s retirement. “It’s been two years, and I still don’t think it will last because of that addiction to it.
“He has the highest level of addiction to it because he’s the same guy that goes to a little kids camp and he is coaching it the same way because he is so into it. He’s screaming at them. He’s yelling at them. They got the helmets on like at Alabama. Half the kids don’t come back the second day.”
Saban, now 73-years-old, won an Emmy for his work on ESPN’s College Gameday this past season.
Would Kiffin offer Saban a job on his staff if his former mentor was looking for a position?
“He’s not going to need me to hire him,” Kiffin told reporters Monday. “I don’t think he’s done. I think he’ll be back. Whether that’s college or NFL I think he’ll be back.”
McElroy cited a person “very much in the know” who he respects believes Saban isn’t done coaching.
