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Nick Saban, social media star Sydney Thomas link up at golf course

Stephen Samraby: Steve Samra01/13/25SamraSource
Sydney Thomas, Nick Saban
Sydney Thomas, Nick Saban (@itssydneythomas on X)

Legendary former college football coach turned ESPN College GameDay analyst Nick Saban linked up with viral social media sensation Sydney Thomas on the golf course on Monday.

Evidently, Saban is enjoying some time on the course before preparation begins to cover the College Football Playoff National Championship Game, and Thomas found him for a picture. Check it out below, as the two Alabama internet celebrities collided for a moment.

Since serving as a ring-girl for the fight between Jake Paul and Mike Tyson, Thomas has seen her star rise. When she’s not breaking the internet in various ways, she’s a student at the University of Alabama. Hence, it makes sense why she considers Saban the GOAT.

Over the past couple of days though, Thomas has come into the news for revealing a fascinating piece of information, as she said in a recent podcast interview that a college football coach from the SEC slid into her direct messages.

“It was from another SEC football team coach. And they just DM’d me, ‘Roll Tide,’” she said, via the Like a Farmer podcast when asked about the “craziest DM” she received, via FOX News. “So I’m not going to say what coach it was, but they’re an Alabama fan, now at least. We’ll let everyone else figure that out for themselves, who it was.”

Thankfully for Nick Saban, he’s retired and doesn’t fit the bill. For the rest of the SEC, at least one coach is going to be on the hot seat, and it has nothing to do with their performance on the field.

Nick Saban reacts to surprise College Football Hall of Fame induction

Ahead of the Texas–Ohio State showdown on Friday evening, ESPN’s College GameDay crew surprised their co-host in Nick Saban by telling him he is being inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame. Instead of gloating about the achievement, Saban immediately praised all the coaches and players who helped him along the way.

“Anytime anything like this happens, it’s because you had a lot of great people in your organization,” Saban said. “A lot of great players, a lot of great coaches, a lot of support staff, and they made a great team. And I was happy to drive the bus, but we had some great people on it. So thank you so much.”

If anybody deserves a spot in the Hall of Fame, it’s Saban. The college football icon coached for over half a century and won seven national titles as a head coach, the most by any college coach ever. Saban won all but one of those national titles during his 17 seasons as Alabama‘s head coach. He won the other at LSU in 2003.

Saban won 201 games at Alabama — tied with Vince Dooley (Georgia) for the second-most wins at a single school in SEC history. Saban only trails Bear Bryant, who won 232 games in his 25 seasons with the Crimson Tide.

In total, Saban boasts an all-time record of 292-71-1 at the collegiate level. For his efforts during his extensive career, Saban was named the SEC Coach of the Year five times and the AP Coach of the Year twice.

On3’s Grant Grubbs contributed to this article.