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As the hours and minutes passed through the most unlikely Iron Bowls for Nick Saban, he couldn’t help but think of his late father, Nick Sr. – “Big Nick” as he was called in their Monongah, Virginia. -Western, community.
Saban, forced to watch the dismantling of Auburn 42-13 in Alabama on Saturday from his home in isolation after testing positive for COVID-19, did so with agitation, passion and a little heavy heart.
The only other time in his career that he wasn’t sidelined with his team for a game came as a 22-year-old freshman assistant under Don James at Kent State. Saban’s father died suddenly of a heart attack two weeks after the start of the 1973 season at the age of 46.
“I came home from my dad’s service when we played Game 3 of the season at San Diego State,” Saban told ESPN. “That was 47 years ago. Man, that was tough, and it was too.”
Difficult, but not much different for Saban, the ultimate creature of habit.
“I did pretty much everything, really, the same. I just wasn’t at the stadium,” he said.
This included getting up on Saturday morning well before sunrise, making a few calls to staff members as early as 6.30am, and preparing for meetings via Zoom.
Saban has set up his Saturday operation upstairs in his spacious bonus room which he uses to entertain recruits and their families. His wife, Terry, is also in quarantine and she stayed downstairs.
Terry, or Miss Terry, as Saban calls her, told ESPN it was her “first real look into the ‘Process’.”
“He showered, put on his gray suit and red tie, spent a few hours doing his notes and then had a few Zoom meetings,” said Terry. “I was aware of the X’s and O’s, but it was more about motivation. … I had tears in my eyes at one point and I was like, ‘Wow, I’m ready to to play.'”
Saban’s two children, Nicholas and Kristen, came by the house to say hello and pick up their tickets before the game, but they couldn’t get in. Nicholas came to the back porch, and Kristen raised her father through the window.
She continued her tradition, dating back to Saban’s time at LSU, of giving her father a new penny to bring him luck. Only this time she had to slide it under the bottom of the door.
It was a surreal feeling at the Evil M. Moore Athletic Facility in Alabama.
Jeff Allen, Alabama’s head track coach, is the only member of Saban’s football team who has been there since Saban’s arrival in 2007. Allen found himself walking up to the Saban’s office this morning to update him on injuries.
“Almost out of habit, I walked past his desk to give him a report and I was like, ‘Dude, he’s not here,'” Allen said. “It didn’t feel right to me, especially in the pre-game and in the locker room. You kind of get a glimpse of what life would be like without him, and I didn’t like it.”
Saban never breaks his game-day routine, so some Alabama staff were rightfully wondering if they should bring Saban’s game-day training outfit home with his normal pre-game meal.
But that day, Saban changed him a bit.
“[Terry] wasn’t into that pre-game meal thing and was making hot dogs, “said Saban, a notoriously light eater.” This is my favorite, man, with a chili sauce. She makes homemade chili sauce. “
Saban spoke to his staff at 9:15 a.m., as he normally would, but this time virtually, and then to the whole team later in the morning. And although he was at home, he was wearing his usual suit and tie.
“Just a reminder that he may not have been there physically, but is still there,” a staff member said. “It’s like that voice from heaven. He’s there, and doesn’t think he’s not. It’s just the tone he sets, and it’ll never change … even when he’s watching. from is home.”
Under NCAA rules, Saban had to cut off all communication with the staff and the team 90 minutes before the game. Offensive coordinator Steve Sarkisian stepped in for Saban as game day coach on the sidelines.
“Sark asked me what I wanted him to say to the team in the locker room,” Saban said. “I said, ‘Hey, you can’t be me. You have to say what you have to say, but here are the three things I would like to talk about before I go out. ‘
“I just didn’t want to affect his ability to call plays and make corrections with offense and everything. I was really impressed with Sark and the job he did, all of you guys. went as well as possible. could. “
That said, Saban was his usual animated self during the match. It had two TVs side by side with different streams, the CBS broadcast and then the live stream from different vantage points in the stadium that the coaches use to rate and rate the film. The live stream is seconds ahead of the TV show.
And while he got to see his Aflac commercial a few times (yes, the one with the duck), Saban turned down the volume on the CBS show.
“I had it, but I didn’t listen to the comment,” Saban said. “I didn’t want to listen to them and try to watch both copies of the game. What I didn’t know was that there was a little time lag between what was on TV and the live stream, so I could look at the cheek twice.
“Sometimes I heard Miss Terry screaming downstairs after the play had already taken place.”
Always a perfectionist, Saban’s point of view on a play would often be very different from Terry’s.
“When there was a bad play, I would curse the TV. When there was a good play, it would scream, so we were kind of polar opposites,” Saban said. “And sometimes I would hear her clapping and I was like, ‘What is she clapping?’ ‘
Terry already had an idea of what was going to happen during the game. She said she had been listening all week during training, Saban exposing himself to analyst Charlie Strong on the phone while Saban watched on his home screen. The bond is strong as Saban watches practice, and Saban’s home setup allows him to see everything too, in many cases better than he would if he was actually on the training ground.
“Poor Charlie Strong! Said Terry. “I tried to explain to Nick that yelling things during training [on the phone] don’t help, that he’s only yelling in Charlie’s ear, not at the players. I explained that if he made his point calmly and succinctly, Charlie would be better able to convey it to the players. He looked at me like I had two heads, but I think it’s starting to sink. “
Even though there wasn’t a lot of drama in the game, as Alabama took a 21-3 lead at halftime, Terry knows as well as anyone that her husband has two draws. Scoreboard – the interior scoreboard (performing to the best of your ability in every game) and the exterior scoreboard (wins, championships, NFL players, etc.). And the only one that matters in her husband’s world is the internal dashboard.
“Yes, I was clapping, clapping and jumping a bit, but a few times it scared me and I froze when I heard a deep growling voice coming from above,” said Terry. “At first I was like, ‘What the hell was that?’ Then I realized that Nick was coaching … coaching television.
“Old habits are dead and I wondered if he had thrown away his cup of coffee since he didn’t have an earphone.
The worst moment for Saban was the 90 minutes before kick-off when he was cut off from his staff and players.
“I just sat there and kind of watched the pre-game warm-up on the live stream like a monster fan sitting on the top deck,” Saban said. “You talk about weird. It was different.”
At one point, during that 90-minute hiatus before the game, Saban thought about doing what he had done the day before on Friday.
“I was so tired of being locked up here that after the tour I got in my car and took a tour on my own,” Saban said.
When asked where he was going, Saban replied, “Nowhere. I just went up, anything to get out of the house.”
As the game wrapped up on Saturday and Alabama avenged last season’s 48-45 loss to Auburn, Saban was eager to reconnect with his team.
Allen walked into the locker room, looked at his phone and saw that he had already had two missed calls from Saban.
“He was watching for injuries, just like he would if he was here,” Allen said. “That’s exactly what would have happened if he had been here.”
It was the same with Saban’s post-game speech to the team. He told them via video how proud he was of them for not letting the distractions of the week affect them and reminded them of how important it was, especially during a pandemic, to have this “So what? ? And after that?” kind of attitude. Saban then led the team’s prayer and they sang the Alabama Fight Song.
Never one to remember, Saban admitted how much he missed being there with his players and coaches, especially because it was Senior Day.
“Just being out of the spirit of the game, especially this game, the Iron Bowl, and what that means to so many people in our state was tough – and I mean really tough,” said Saban, whose team was ranked. No. 1 in college football qualifying rankings last week.
Saban, whose positive coronavirus test result returned last Wednesday, said on Monday he expected to be on the sidelines for this weekend’s game against LSU. He said he didn’t have a fever yet and other than a runny nose and a bit of a cold he hadn’t had any other symptoms.
“It’s hard to explain how much being there with the players and the coaches means to you,” Saban said. “And when you can’t be there, it makes you realize how much you would miss it even more.”
Allen said it could be a worrying sign for the rest of the college football world.
“He might never leave training,” Allen said with a laugh. “All this experience only reinforces that.”
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