The greatest coach in college football history may be off to the greatest post-career in the history of the game.
Nick Saban … Hollywood actor. It could happen.
When he was LSU’s football coach from 2000-04, I compared Saban’s no-nonsense delivery to Clint Eastwood. Since he was a stricter disciplinarian at LSU than at Alabama, I could always see him telling a wayward player not to continue to mess up with the classic Eastwood warning from the “Sudden Impact” film – “Go ahead, make my day.”
After watching his hilarious new commercial that you will see a lot of this season, I can see him in a classic western as a sheriff. Or better yet, as a bad guy.
The commercial is for Vrbo, a vacation rental company, and casts Saban as a demanding, edgy, live-in host of a rental home.
“Is this what he’s doing now?,” a wife asks her husband as their family arrives to see Saban, who retired as Alabama’s coach following the 2023 season at age 72 with seven national championships – six at Alabama, one at LSU. Now, he’s the star of ESPN’s College GameDay, but he could leave that in his dust.
“Check in time is 3 p.m.,” he tells a couple and their kids as they arrive to his home from his rocking chair on the porch wearing his signature Alabama straw hat.
“It’s 2:55 p.m.,” the father says.
“I know,” Saban says in classic Clint form as he slurps his coffee. Saban further explains there will be “no games” and “no fun” for the kids.
“The kids aren’t even allowed in the house,” he says.
That is not as far from the truth as you may think. When Saban hosted media members at his home for a party following the LSU spring game in 2004, we were not allowed in his palatial mansion off Highland Road that makes Brian Kelly’s place on the LSU Lakes look like a fish camp.
Even his assistant coaches at the time – future head coaches Kirby Smart, Jimbo Fisher, Will Muschamp, Derek Dooley and then-assistant strength coach and present LSU defensive line coach Bo Davis – didn’t venture into the home. We all stayed out on a huge deck with a keg of beer and the family boxer dog, Lizzy. I could see Terry Saban in the house through the open kitchen back door, but that’s as close as I got to entering.
Saban says in the commercial that there’s a great barbecue pit outside, “But don’t touch that.”
There was a massive barbecue pit at Saban’s home off Highland, but no one touched it at the party. Food was catered.
In the commercial, Saban tells his shocked guests that there is a “two-flush maximum per bathroom visit.” At least they got a bathroom. At his party in 2004, we had to use Port-o-lets outside.
Saban is seen on a riding lawnmower in the commercial cutting his own grass. Also true. When I scheduled him to be on a radio show I had in New Orleans during the off-season in 2004, our producer called his home at the designated time.
His daughter Kristen answered the phone and said, “He’s out cutting the grass. I’ll go get him.”
Saban was making $2.3 million a year at the time, and still cutting his own grass.
“Hell, I used to do my own landscaping, too,” he said later.
Nick Saban, the next Everyman actor with an edge … coming to a theatre near you soon.
AROUND THE SEC
You are reading SEC Football This Week. I will be doing a little trip around the SEC each week during the season.
This weekend is the first of the new 16-team SEC with rookie members Texas and Oklahoma. It is the first season with newbies since Texas A&M and Missouri entered in the 2012 season. That followed Arkansas and South Carolina joining in 1992.
This Saturday will also mark the first time since 1995 that the SEC game of the week in the 2:30 p.m. central time slot will not be on CBS as the contract is now with ABC. A complete television listing of all games this weekend appears later in this piece as it will every Thursday.
“Incredibly excited, like everybody,” Oklahoma coach Brent Venables said Wednesday on the weekly SEC teleconference.
“It just felt like the right time to be joining the SEC a little bit with coach Saban kind of retiring and us coming into the league,” Texas coach Steve Sarkisian said, sounding a tad relieved and speaking for the entire league about not having to face Saban again.
“Game week feels good,” new Alabama coach Kalen DeBoer said.
Good luck coaching in Saban’s shadow. If DeBoer doesn’t catch him in a commercial or on ESPN, he may bump into him on campus. Saban has an office in Bryant-Denny Stadium as he remains under contract at Alabama as a consultant.
He’ll be watching.
SEC SCHEDULE
THURSDAY – Arkansas-Pine Bluff at Arkansas, 6:30 p.m., ESPNU; Murray State at Missouri, 7 p.m., SEC Network.
FRIDAY – Temple at No. 16 Oklahoma, 6 p.m., ESPN.
SATURDAY – No. 14 Clemson at No. 1 Georgia, 11 a.m., ABC; Virginia Tech at Vanderbilt, 11 a.m., ESPN; Chattanooga at No. 15 Tennessee, 11:45 a.m., SEC Network; Colorado State at No. 4 Texas, 2:30 p.m., ESPN; No. 19 Miami at Florida, 2:30 p.m., ABC; Old Dominion at South Carolina, 3:15 p.m., SEC Network; Eastern Kentucky at Mississippi State, 5 p.m., SEC Network+; Western Kentucky at No. 5 Alabama, 6 p.m., ESPN; Furman at No. 6 Ole Miss, 6 p.m., SEC Network+; Alabama A&M at Auburn, 6:30 p.m., SEC Network+; No. 7 Notre Dame at No. 20 Texas A&M, 6:30 p.m., ABC; Southern Mississippi at Kentucky, 6:45 p.m., SEC Network.
SUNDAY – No. 13 LSU vs. No. 23 USC in Las Vegas, 6:30 p.m., ABC.
THE GUILBEAU SEC POLL
1.Ole Miss. 2. Texas. 3. Georgia. 4. Alabama. 5. Tennessee. 6. LSU. 7. Missouri. 8. Oklahoma. 9. Texas A&M. 10. Florida. 11. Kentucky. 12. Auburn. 13. South Carolina. 14. Mississippi State. 15. Arkansas. 16. Vanderbilt.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
“Look, this isn’t that hard.”
-LSU coach Brian Kelly on trying to improve the Tigers’ defense, which was one of the worst in the nation last season.
BS QUOTE OF THE WEEK
“It’s brought an edge to our preparation. It’s made us better. We’re running to the challenge.”
-Florida coach Billy Napier on having clearly the most difficult schedule in the nation with eight opponents out of 12 ranked in the preseason Associated Press top 25 poll. There is No. 19 Miami Saturday at home, road trips to No. 15 Tennessee, No. 4 Texas, No. 10 Florida State and No. 1 Georgia (in Jacksonville) with other home games against No. 20 Texas A&M, No. 13 LSU and No. 6 Ole Miss.
If Napier wins seven games out of that schedule, he should be up for coach of the year. He may need to win six to keep his job.
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