Paul Finebaum reacts to report of Nick Saban interest in returning to coaching

Paul Finebaum had an interesting reaction to the wild Nick Saban coaching report put out by Greg McElroy on Monday. The former Alabama quarterback said he heard from someone “in the know” that believes Saban will return to coaching.

Finebaum spoke to some others on a different occasion that said Saban is having the time of his life not coaching. Currently, the former Alabama coach is an analyst in ESPN’s College GameDay, plays a lot of golf, does speaking engagements and hangs out with his wife, Miss Terry.

Fibebaum would love the news cycle if Saban decided to return to coaching, likely in college of course, but that’s not happening in his mind. Heck, just imagine if he did the opposite of Bill Belichick and tried his hands at the pros following a Hall of Fame college career.

“As much as I would love to have turned SEC Media Days upside down and said to Greg, ‘I’ve heard the same thing,’ I told Greg I was with somebody,” Finebaum began during SEC Media Days. “I was walking around somebody the other day, let me put it that way, who’s around Saban a lot, not in the state of Alabama, but in Florida. And he described to me what I’m sure you’ve heard many times, and you’ve heard, you know Nick very well, is that he’s having the time of life. 

“He’s playing at better golf clubs than he’s ever played at and that will continue, because everybody wants Nick Saban to be in their golf club. He’s making a fortune when he decides he wants to make a speech. He’s making a fortune when he shows up on ESPN once a week. And why would you give all that up at the age of 74? Don’t ask me how I know about things like that, but I hang around a lot of people who are turning 70, and it makes no sense, except that Nick Saban is the most competitive human being. And maybe if somebody said, ‘Coach, listen, Pete Carroll, same age, $10-15 million we’ll give you this, we’ll give you that.’”

For full context, McElroy explained what he heard regarding his former coach Monday morning on McElroy and Cubelic. There’s a reason why he brought it up.

“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 during an interview with Paul Finebaum on the show. “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.”

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 Belichick.