How involved will retired Nick Saban be with Alabama football?
Nick Saban is no longer working for Alabama football as its head coach, but he's not gone completely.
He has an office now at Bryant-Denny Stadium and Tuscaloosa continues to remain home base. Alabama athletics director Greg Byrne has also said that Saban will be an adviser for UA. But how involved will he be now that Kalen DeBoer is the head coach?
Saban spoke with reporters at the Nick Saban Legacy Award event in Birmingham on Monday and explained his involvement, now that he is retired from coaching the Crimson Tide after 17 years.
"That's our home, that's our family, it's our community," Saban said per ABC 33/40. "We're going to continue to do things to continue to help the community every way we can. The coaches all know I'm available if they need me in any way, shape or form to help them. I talk to Kalen every now and then. I talk to the defensive coordinator (Kane Wommack) every now and then. He's going to come over and meet me this week sometime. We're around. We're there to support the players and help them in any way that we can to help them be successful."
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Saban has already been quite busy in retirement otherwise. Some of his recent activities include spending time in Florida, golfing and attending the Texas A&M basketball game at Coleman Coliseum this past Saturday.
"I really try to stay at arm's length," Saban said. "I don't want anybody to think I'm looking over their shoulder. I think he's hired a good staff. I think he's a good man, and I think he's a good coach, and I think he'll do a really good job."
ESPN also announced two weeks ago that Saban would be joining College GameDay in the fall as well as contributing to other coverage, such as the NFL Draft and SEC Media Days.
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DeBoer has stressed on multiple occasions publicly that he welcomes Saban's help.
“He’s the best in the business to ever do it," DeBoer said at his introductory press conference. "I’m just going to make sure it’s all known that that’s how I feel, with 100% access to everything. I would be a fool if that wasn’t the case. I’m going to ask him that he shows up and makes sure to give me at least one thing every day. I’m sure he’s got 10. But I’m going to be good with that. At least one thing that he sees that we can get better at."
Nick Kelly is the Alabama beat writer for The Tuscaloosa News, part of the USA TODAY Network, and he covers Alabama football and men's basketball. Reach him at nkelly@gannett.com or follow him @_NickKelly on X, the social media app formerly known as Twitter.
This article originally appeared on The Tuscaloosa News: Nick Saban talks involvement with Alabama football in retirement
