Greg Byrne sheds light on Nick Saban's post-retirement role at Alabama
One week ago, Nick Saban announced he was retiring as Alabama’s head football coach after 17 seasons. He was conducting interviews with potential assistant coaches earlier that day and said he was going back and forth on a decision five minutes before the team meeting.
In a sitdown interview with ESPN’s Rece Davis, Saban said he would be in Tuscaloosa and still have “a presence” in a new office, albeit in a new location. Alabama athletic director Greg Byrne joined The Paul Finebaum Show on Wednesday and shed more light on Saban’s role moving forward as well as his involvement in finding the coach that would replace him.
“He has an office down the street at Bryant-Denny,” Byrne said. “He is going to be an advisor for us. He’s been awesome. He and I talked during the coaching search.
“I mean, somebody asked me was he involved. I was like, ‘Man, I’m not very smart. Many people know that. But I’m smart enough to know when you have a chance to have Nick Saban involved with talking about coaching and football and decision-making and leadership, shame on me if I don’t take advantage of that.’
“He and I talked this morning. He’s been very helpful trying to talk to the young men that he’s recruited here and just again say we’re in a really good spot going forward, and he’ll continue to be here and be part of our program. And we’re very happy for that.”
Byrne told Alabama’s players to give him 72 hours to hire a new head coach, and he delivered in 49, as Washington’s Kalen DeBoer accepted the position – and challenge of being the man to follow the greatest college football coach of all time. Having Saban still be around the program, however, is something that DeBoer has seemingly welcomed since he arrived.
“I’ll give Coach DeBoer a ton of credit – he’s embraced that, as he should,” Byrne said. “That’s a great approach to take.”
DeBoer told reporters Saturday after he was introduced as Alabama’s head coach that he had already called Saban that morning. DeBoer mentioned him multiple times in his introduction and publicly told Saban he was always welcome at the Mal M. Moore Athletic Facility.
“He’s the best in the business to ever do it,” DeBoer said. “I’m just going to make sure that’s all known, that’s how I feel. And 100 percent access to everything. I would be a fool if that wasn’t the case, I would be a fool. I’m going to ask him that he shows up and make sure he gives me at least one thing every day. I’m sure he’s going to have 10. I’m going to be good with that, but at least one thing that he sees that we can get better at.”
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