Georgia coach Kirby Smart on whether Nick Saban will coach again: ‘I just don’t see it’

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ATLANTA — Nick Saban is not here at SEC media days. And yet the retired coach, and whether he will stay retired, has become a storyline.

Greg McElroy, the former Alabama quarterback and now an ESPN/SEC Network analyst, opined Monday that Saban, who retired after the 2023 season, could get back into coaching. McElroy downplayed it later, but by then SEC coaches were being asked about it, especially those who worked for Saban.

Ole Miss’ Lane Kiffin, always willing to stoke a storyline, told the Clarion-Ledger he thought Saban, 73, would be back.

“I don’t think he’s done. I think he’ll be back,” Kiffin said. “Whether that’s college or NFL, I think he’ll be back.”

But another prominent former Saban assistant disagrees. Georgia coach Kirby Smart, who spent nine years working for Saban at LSU and Alabama, said he speaks regularly with Saban and thinks his coaching days are over.

“That’s not happening. I don’t think Nick’s coming back. I think he’s too happy where he is,” Smart said. “I have talked to Nick pretty regularly and I just don’t see it. It’s one of those things that if he wanted to, he’d be unbelievable at it.”

Smart also made light of the story, while shooting down reports that another former Saban assistant — Will Muschamp — was no longer on Smart’s staff. Muschamp, the former Florida and South Carolina head coach, has been a quality control assistant the past couple of years, and remains at Georgia despite not appearing in this year’s media guide.

“Well, considering y’all reported erroneously that Will was leaving, I was going to fill y’all in that Nick was taking his spot,” Smart said.

The Saban conversation began Monday when McElroy said on his radio show that “someone in the know” told him that Saban would return to coaching at some point. This unnamed person was “pretty adamant,” McElroy said, adding: “If it wasn’t someone notable, I would never say a word.”

This started things in Atlanta, with Paul Finebaum of the SEC Network countering that he talked to someone else who knows Saban and said he was very happily retired. Finebaum said this on air to McElroy, during a segment from media days, leading to a back-and-forth where McElroy said “everyone is overreacting” and referred to it as a “nothingburger.”

Absent from all this, of course, is Saban himself. He is employed by ESPN now, and was at SEC media days last year, getting some experience. But this year, he was not in attendance and not due to be part of the coverage, per a network spokesperson.

And yet he still became Topic A, much to Smart’s amusement.

“I think you all were lacking buzz. And maybe that was the only thing that could generate some,” Smart said. “There’s just not a lot there.”

(Photo: Jason Getz / Imagn Images)

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