{"id":207537,"date":"2025-07-14T23:17:11","date_gmt":"2025-07-14T23:17:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/207537\/"},"modified":"2025-07-14T23:17:11","modified_gmt":"2025-07-14T23:17:11","slug":"nick-sabans-rumored-coaching-return-floated-by-ex-alabama-qb","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/207537\/","title":{"rendered":"Nick Saban&#8217;s rumored coaching return floated by ex-Alabama QB"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Nick Saban could be making a return to the gridiron.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s what the Alabama coaching legend\u2019s former quarterback and current ESPN commentator Greg McElroy floated Monday on his radio show, citing a \u201cnotable\u201d source.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is a little bit out of left field, but the question was asked of me \u2026 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,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/podcasts.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/7-14-25-mcelroy-cubelic-in-the-morning-hour-1-day-1\/id1575603573?i=1000717192134\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">McElroy said<\/a> Monday on \u201cMcElroy and Cubelic in the Morning,\u201d where he was joined by Paul Finebaum.<\/p>\n<p>Nick Saban coaching the Crimson Tide as his quarterback, Greg McElroy, walks the sideline in November 2009. Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>Former Alabama QB Greg McElroy. Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey seem to think Nick Saban\u2019s not done coaching. I had a similar reaction. He\u2019s pretty adamant that he thinks Nick Saban will be coaching again. \u2026 Look, if it wasn\u2019t someone notable, I\u2019d never say a word.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Saban, 73, <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2024\/01\/10\/sports\/alabama-coach-nick-saban-retiring-in-college-football-stunner\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">retired from college coaching<\/a> in January 2024 after 17 seasons at Alabama, where he won six national championships, and 28 years coaching college football.<\/p>\n<p>He then pivoted to sports media, joining ESPN\u2019s \u201cCollege GameDay\u201d a month later as an analyst.<\/p>\n<p>Nick Saban on College Gameday.  AP<\/p>\n<p>Former coach Nick Saban golfing.  Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>Former Washington coach Kalen DeBoer was named Saban\u2019s successor.<\/p>\n<p>Although the idea of a Saban return is buzzy, both McElroy and Finebaum expressed doubt about the chatter, given the former coach is \u201cliterally having the time of his life.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cGreg, you know Nick Saban better than I do, but I ran into somebody the other day who spends time with Saban in Florida \u2013 you can imagine where \u2013 and said that he is literally having the time of his life,\u201d Finebaum said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Nick Saban while coaching Alabama.  Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen you have everything you want and you start playing golf at the best golf clubs in America, and you start making friends who belong to even better golf clubs and you make a lot of money for doing very little work on TV, the interest in doing what he walked away from is not very high.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Regarded as one of the best coaches in college football history, Saban finished his career with a 292-71-1 record and 11 SEC titles.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>DeBoer recorded a 9-4 record overall in his first season at Alabama.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nick Saban could be making a return to the gridiron. That\u2019s what the Alabama coaching legend\u2019s former quarterback&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":207538,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2026],"tags":[930,331,7,8342,9,203],"class_list":{"0":"post-207537","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"tag-alabama-crimson-tide","9":"tag-college-football","10":"tag-football","11":"tag-nick-saban","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-sports-media"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114854143229989535","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207537","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=207537"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207537\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/207538"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=207537"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=207537"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=207537"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}