Someone at the other end of the virtual SEC Championship game news conference Thursday asked Nick Saban if he was reinvigorated after his recent brush with COVID-19. To this questioner, Saban sure sounded reinvigorated since missing the Iron Bowl victory over Auburn with the virus.
Alabama’s coach was amused, at least as much as he is capable. Word play ensued.
“Well, I didn’t know that I was not ‘vigorated,’” he said. “I guess you have to not be ‘vigorated’ to get reinvigorated. I was disappointed (missing the game), then I was happy to be back. I don’t know what the speculation there really is about. I hope I’ve been ‘vigorated’ all year. I owe that to the players. That’s my job.”
Actually, early in the week, during another press session, Saban didn’t sound all that full of sass and vinegar. His answers were punctuated by a stubborn cough. His voice sounded a bit thin. But speaking just two days before another big kickoff, Saban was dominating that podium again.
There must be some sort of Dorian Gray twist going on here. Does the Saban statue outside Bryant-Denny Stadium get older and stooped by the wear of fulfilling monstrous expectation year upon year? While the man himself remains unchanged as he just keeps coming back to Atlanta unleashing hell on the conference championship?
The earth will have to tumble off its axis – well, it is 2020, so any calamity is possible –for Saban and Alabama not to win another conference title Saturday night vs. Florida. His unbeaten Crimson Tide are 17.5-point favorites over the Gators, although it feels as if it should be more.
Should another title come to pass, that will be Saban’s seventh in 12 years, including six of the past nine. Save for two thrillers over Georgia, all his conference title wins have been of the double-digit kind (margin of victory for those four: 25 points).
Programs tend to show large and then diminish, like phases of the moon – Florida was the last team to beat Bama in the SEC Championship game, back in 2008, and that was four head coaches and a couple of interims ago for the Gators. Meanwhile, Saban just keeps pounding the biggest drum in the band.
His grip on this conference – and by extension all of college football not coached by someone named Dabo – has been sustained and merciless. Good grief, he even made Tim Tebow cry when dispatching Florida in 2009, surely a crime worthy of trial at The Hague.
And this year – playing a conference-only schedule because of the virus – has been one of his most remorseless. The average margin of victory has been 32.7 points, the highest of Saban’s rule.
When will it end, this tyranny? Aren’t there some chores to do around the lake house that could keep Saban occupied for an autumn or two? Doesn’t he have a handicap to lower? Doesn’t he have a grandbaby to spoil? Although a grandson born in April came into the world at nine pounds, 12 ounces, so no doubt Saban has begun recruiting him for the 2038 signing class.
He’s 69, coincidentally the same age at which Bear Bryant retired. The Bear died shortly thereafter. Saban’s career lifeline apparently runs all the way to his elbow, and for that, those who appreciate the classics rejoice. As for all the other coaches in the SEC, they’ll just have to patiently await some far-off retirement announcement.
If a year of pandemic, one in which he was personally involved, didn’t throw Saban off his feed, then it is difficult to imagine any event to which he could not adapt. He’ll open up an offense to keep up with a new century if he has to. He’ll keep up with his team from quarantine if he must. Whatever it takes to keep possession of the penthouse.
As always, Saban was prepared for 2020. “I told our players early on – told all our coaches, everyone – that there were going to be a lot of disruptions this season. Things were not going to be normal. The team that could handle those disruptions the best would have the be chance to be successful long term.
“We’ve had a lot of those things happen, and it hasn’t affected us.”
All things Alabama are but two degrees from Bear Bryant. So, as Saban turned the same age as Bear when time finally caught up with him, a retirement question was in order. Saban gets asked about when he’s going to hang up the whistle all the time. He’d just as soon get involved in an in-depth conversation on how Amber is getting along on “The Bachelor.” I just assume there is an Amber on “The Bachelor.”
So, this was the variation of the standard answer he employed this week: “Well, I’m excited about the opportunity that we have in front of us. Obviously, I love doing what I do, and I want to continue to do it for as long as I feel like I can contribute in a positive way to the program. That’s about the only plan I have for the future.
“If I thought my presence here was not something that was a positive for the University of Alabama or with the program and with the players than I’d say it would be time not to do it anymore.”
If there is anything in those words to hint at a man who has had enough of winning, I don’t see it.
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