In his rookie season, Nick Saban has safely circumvented the garbage pile of failed TV sports analysts once ticketed for stardom.
The former Alabama football coach, 73, more than met the expectations of college football zealots had for him before he joined the cast of ESPN’s often predictable Saturday morning “College GameDay.”
Saban and the ESPN crew will be under the brightest of spotlights in Atlanta Monday night for “GameDay” prior to the Notre Dame-Ohio State national championship tilt telecast.
With so much focus on Tom Brady entering Fox’s No. 1 NFL booth, Saban’s 2024 ESPN debut was almost an afterthought. The coach also entered “GameDay” with some highly publicized in-house competition. In 2022 the “unorthodox” and animated Pat McAfee joined “GameDay,” quickly becoming a dominating presence on the show.
Despite his credentials and stature, the Saban style came out of nowhere. Those who had seen other coaches attempt to make the transition to TV, like the legendary Bill Parcells or the late iconic Bill Walsh, were used to seeing guys who wanted to get back into coaching. To them, TV gigs were highway rest stops.
Saban is different. His words and opinions revealed someone who is all in. Someone who didn’t have one foot out the door before his seat was warm.
From the get-go on “GameDay,” Saban wasn’t shy about criticizing players, coaches or college football’s powers that be. He didn’t give off a good-ole-boys clubby vibe. Nor did he come off as an Alabama apologist. His analysis was not delivered in coach-speak, even when he was making technical points using video.
Saban didn’t hold back nor did he launch gratuitous critiques. He obviously knows the football stuff and benefits greatly from the credibility he’s developed succeeding on the highest level of the game.
Yet Saban has demonstrated three attributes that cannot be taught — personality, presence and likeability. This may have surprised “serious” college football fans who only saw Saban as an unbending, intimidating sideline force.
Yet on camera his facial expression and tone of voice are mostly deadpan. Nonetheless, through the poker face he often delivers humor. Sometimes he goes for yucks to make a point. Like when the Southeastern Conference fined universities after students stormed the field, Saban said: “It’s like worrying about mouse manure when you’re up to your ears in elephant s–t.”
Saban delivers these lines with a great sense of timing, especially when he appears in commercials. Like the one for Vrbo when he tells his “guests”: “There’s a great barbecue outside — but don’t touch it.”
Maybe we should not be surprised by Saban’s performances in front of a camera. Still, if this season has revealed anything it has been this: Saban is no one-trick pony.
ESPN should find more for him to do.
JERRY GRABS THE SPOTLIGHT
Even with his Cowboys out of the playoff mix, Jerry Jones, in what appears to be an intentionally high-profile coaching search, has upstaged the NFL’s postseason.
Jones’ “process,” which started with a bang when Deion Sanders’ name “suddenly” leaked out as a candidate for the gig, is no surprise to the Cowboy owner’s NFL brethren — including Roger Goodell — but still must be aggravating the league “establishment” that wants the playoff product to be the only focus of fans.
Goodell wants no distractions.
Yet, it’s times like these we applaud Jones. For isn’t he acting just like other NFL owners who think only in their own $elf interest?
They approve the NFL’s stashing games for billion$ behind streaming services, or playing night games in frostbite conditions while, at the same time, claiming their mission is to make the league more “fan friendly.”
Jones is no pretender. If conducting an extended search, which includes big name candidates, is good for his underperforming team’s business, he should let it drag on for as long as possible.
THE DOG AND DYLAN
Is Christopher (Mad Dog) Russo a bit confused?
Apparently, he believes Timothee Chalamet is the real Bob Dylan.
Why else would an obsessed Doggie 1) Try Dogging down the 29-year-old actor, who stars as Dylan in the biopic “A Complete Unknown,” for an interview on his SiriusXM afternoon show? and 2) Fly to London on Tuesday to meet Chalamet and attend the UK premiere of the movie (which Russo had already seen) and walk the red carpet?
That’s a lot of effort to meet with Miracle Whip, not Hellmann’s.
So perhaps Russo will now try equally as hard to get an interview with the 83-year-old Mr. Dylan.
Ain’t nothing like the real thing.
MORE MINDLESS CHATTER
It’s no secret local sports-talk radio has been reduced to Gasbags finding stuff to talk about on X (aka Twitter) then pontificating on the subject.
Still, some of the “analysis” is not worth all the time devoted to it. Such was the case on Thursday when 880’s David Rothenberg and Rick DiPietro went on and on and on over Karl-Anthony Towns daring to wear an Eagles shirt while he sat on the Knicks bench Wednesday night during Knicks-76ers.
This was hardly a compelling subject (unless you fall into the mindless category). Guess the fellas were running out of their “A” material. Or simply ran out of gas while speculating on Jets coach/GM candidates.
TRIBUTE TO MR. BASEBALL
Neither being a Brewers fan or baseball aficionado was necessary to love Bob Uecker, who died Thursday at the age of 90.
If laughing is a priority, Uecker, who entered the Brewers radio booth in 1971, was your guy. Yet it was his self-deprecating manner, tremendous likeability and comedic timing that allowed him to transcend the game and cross-over into the sitcom world (George Owens on ABC’s “Mr. Belvedere”), late-night TV (“The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson”), movies (“Major League”), and commercials (Miller Lite).
Uecker’s broadcast “style” was impossible to duplicate. If anything, his radio play-by-play, was underrated. His everyman wit was off the charts but he never purposely soared over a listener’s head. His storytelling, so essential in a baseball broadcast, was natural.
His nickname, “Mr. Baseball,” was a gag, Nonetheless, Bob Uecker’s personality was bigger than the game, but for all the notoriety he achieved he never attempted to become bigger than baseball.
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DUDE OF THE WEEK: JIM NANTZ
The CBS Sports vet logged his 500th NFL game last Sunday. And he continued his tradition of not making the telecast about him. Just the facts with a dose of humor and opinion.
DWEEB OF THE WEEK: COLLEGE FOOTBALL PLAYOFF HATERS
Well, well. The worm has turned as the college football playoffs have delivered excitement while the NFL postseason got off to a largely predictable start.
DOUBLE TALK
What Tom Thibodeau said: “I really don’t read what you [Knicks beat writers] write.”
What Tom Thibodeau meant to say: “I get all my NBA news on TikTok.”
