Ole Miss football coach Lane Kiffin thinks legendary Alabama football coach Nick Saban could make a comeback to coaching, this time in the NFL.
Kiffin, who coached under Saban for three years in Tuscaloosa, suggested on the latest episode of "This Past Weekend" that his former boss might miss coaching and would want to get back into it because of how he's "wired." He said he wouldn't be "surprised" if Saban returned to the field.
“I do (think he misses coaching),” Kiffin told host Theo Von. “I did always think, OK, if he was going to do this, he was going to have to have, and they used to say he’s going to have to kind of have that 'College GameDay' spot, because he’s going to want to still, like, be involved. You know? He’s just so wired to all day long to do something for his entire life, now he’s not going to sit around and just, you know, be a grandpa? That’s not him."
“So I think because of that, that’s helped a lot. I wouldn’t actually be surprised if he came back in the NFL, even, you know, as head coach, because he’s just so good at it, and it's so in him that I’m not sure he won’t come back," he added.
Saban left Alabama's head coaching gig abruptly in January 2024. He later cited the landscape of college football with NIL, the transfer portal and other aspects for retiring.
A month after stepping away, he was announced as an analyst for ESPN's "College GameDay." The coach has been busy in retirement, having also been featured in Vrbo commercials, lobbied for NIL reform, received the Icon Award at the 2024 ESPYS, had the field at Bryant-Denny Stadium named after him, been inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame and endorsed Tuscaloosa Mayor Walt Maddox in his reelection bid.
If Saban were to get back into the NFL, he would have the chance to improve the 15-17 record from his short stint with the Miami Dolphins.
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