Kirby Smart jokes that he offered Nick Saban Will Muschamp's job at Georgia

ESPN’s Greg McElroy, who played for legendary head coach Nick Saban at Alabama, set the college football world ablaze this week when he reported that someone close to the situation believed Saban could return to the sidelines.

McElroy brought up the idea during an interview on the show with Paul Finebaum. Saban currently works as an analyst for ESPN, but is not part of SEC Network’s coverage of SEC Media Days in Atlanta and is not in attendance this week.

McElroy pointed out it was someone “notable” who told him they think Saban isn’t necessarily done coaching. In fact, he said the person was “adamant.”

“This is a little bit out of left field, but the question was asked of me … 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,” McElroy said. “They seem to think Nick Saban’s not done coaching. I had a similar reaction. He’s pretty adamant that he thinks Nick Saban will be coaching again. … Look, if it wasn’t someone notable, I’d never say a word.”

Kirby throws friendly jab at Will Muschamp

During the SEC Media Days event, Georgia head coach Kirby Smart was asked about the potential rumors swirling around Saban’s return. He denied the rumors with a humorous spin, joking that he offered Saban the Georgia defensive analyst job (currently held by former South Carolina head coach Will Muschamp) but was turned down.

“Yeah I called and offered him [Will] Muchamp’s job but he was overqualified,” Smart said with a grin. “So, he wasn’t interested. I heard all the scuttlebutt and everything about it, but I just laughed. It’s almost like someone wanted something interesting to talk about yesterday so they chose to go to Coach Saban to do it. You know, the game is better with him involved. He is passionate about it. He and I still talk and share ideas from time to time about defensive philosophies and the way to do things and he’s still watching tape and he’s still very, very involved in football. He loves it.

“His brilliance, as brilliant as he is, in many ways is around football. It’s around scheme. It’s around another way to do something to stay ahead of the offensive minds. That’s one of the elite talents he has and he still loves that. He’s still passionate about that. But make no mistake about it, the boss at home [Miss Terry Saban] is gonna make that call for him. Not him.”

Saban retired with a record of 292-71-1 and seven national championships. He was the head coach at Toledo, Michigan State, LSU and Alabama in his career. Saban also had a brief stint with the Cleveland Browns as the DC under Bill Belichick.

On3’s Nick Kosko contributed to this article.