Nick Saban stresses the importance of general managers in college football

Freshly-retired Nick Saban recognizes how important the position of general managers have become in the sport of college football.

While it was formerly an unheralded spot in a program’s off-field unit, the role of the general manager has become essential to a team’s success in 2024. Whether it’s because of recruiting, NIL or the transfer portal, or a combination of all three, a good general manager can separate a program from the pack.

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During an appearance on The Pat McAfee Show, as the college football season begins to hit it’s stride, Saban spoke about the importance of the role, and how it’s changed over the past couple of seasons.

“I think the GM is what you would refer to as a GM in the NFL,” Saban said, comparing the position to it’s NFL counterpart. “In other words, how do we bring players to the team? Like most of the time, if you were coaching in the NFL, you make a decision before you go in. I’m going to coach the players. I’m going to cut the players. But you’re going to decide who we bring to the team. So these young general managers are going to do that type of thing.

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“How do you manage the squad? How do you bring players to the team? Their influence is going to be in recruiting. They’re not going to influence the coaching on the field, the philosophy on offense, defense or special teams. The coach is going to do that, like many NFL teams are. But you have to have alignment from top to bottom. When you start hiring general managers, if the owner, the general manager and the coach is not in alignment, you’ve got issues and problems because you’re going to bring the wrong players to the team that don’t fit the system and the scheme, and they’re going to struggle, and you’re going to pay the wrong guys, which can happen in college right now.

“You can pay the wrong guy, and then you’re going to suffer for it, because some player is going to outperform a player that’s making money, and that’s going to create problems in your locker room.”

Saban’s old stomping grounds are helping to reset the market around the general manager position, as Alabama and Courtney Morgan agreed on a new three-year contract just last week. According to Matt Zenitz of 247Sports and later confirmed by On3’s Pete Nakos, Morgan received a pay increase, reportedly set to make $825,000 a year.

Moving forward, it’ll be fascinating to see how the importance of general managers continue to rise in college football. Nick Saban isn’t usually off-base about these types of things.

On3’s Riley Gates contributed to this article.