Nick Saban spent years warning that college football was heading down a dangerous road. Now, Danny Kanell thinks Saban may have become part of the very problem he spent so much time criticizing. One comment on College GameDay was enough to make the former Florida State quarterback question whether college football’s longtime guardian is suddenly helping normalize the chaos he once warned against.
During a live broadcast of ESPN’s College GameDay, Saban was discussing KaMario Taylor, the breakout sophomore quarterback who has been playing phenomenal football for Mississippi State. Danny Kanell quickly took issue with where the conversation went. “I hate when the supposed guardians of the sport are actively undermining the things that make it great,” Kanell wrote on X.
His frustration came after Saban looked directly into the cameras and said, “If I was coaching right now, I’d be trying to get KaMario Taylor to get in the portal.” Saban openly saying on national television that he would try to get Taylor into the portal immediately caught attention, and the irony of that statement clearly did not sit well with Kanell.
And as true as that sentiment may be, for media analysts and fans alike, watching a Mount Rushmore figure like Saban openly lay out a strategy to lure a rival program’s quarterback into the portal is an uncomfortable look.
It raises the exact concerns that have followed college football’s new era of player movement: tampering, roster poaching, and the growing perception that smaller programs can simply become talent pipelines for the sport’s biggest brands.
People with Saban’s legendary status are supposed to be protecting the sport from these very issues. That is what made the comment stand out even more, especially given Saban’s prominent role in the broader push to address fairness and other major problems facing college football.
Of course, Nick Saban may or may not have meant the comment exactly the way Kanell perceived it. But it is easy to understand why programs across the country are already keeping a close eye on the sophomore quarterback.
And right after Saban made those controversial remarks on television, Taylor went out on the field and showed everyone exactly why he is getting so much attention.
In his biggest test of the season against No. 19 Missouri, Taylor briefly left the game with an injury before returning to orchestrate two massive fourth-quarter touchdown drives. He capped his career-high 360-yard performance with a beautiful, game-winning 24-yard touchdown pass with under four minutes remaining.
The Mississippi native has helped lead the Mississippi State Bulldogs to a perfect 4-0 start.
Through four games, Taylor has thrown for 1,192 yards, averaging nearly 298 passing yards per game while completing 69.2% of his attempts.
Even more impressively, he leads the FBS in touchdowns with 14, ahead of quarterbacks such as Jayden Maiava and Julian Sayin.
Taylor has also developed one of the most lethal deep balls in the country. Ten of his first 16 career passing touchdowns have come on plays of 20 or more yards, showing just how dangerous he can be when he gets a chance to attack downfield.
All of that elite production has caught the attention of national award voters and Las Vegas sportsbooks.
Taylor has already picked up multiple National Player of the Week honors this month and has climbed all the way to third in the Heisman Trophy odds.
Despite national media talking heads treating his eventual transfer like an inevitable outcome, Taylor completely slammed the door on those rumors during his postgame press conference.
When asked about all the portal noise, Taylor shut it down outright.
“If you know me, you know I bleed maroon and white.”
Taylor is a local kid from Macon, Mississippi, who grew up just 35 miles from Mississippi State’s stadium. He has now made it clear that, at least for the moment, he has no intention of abandoning his home-state team.
Mississippi State fans can breathe a huge sigh of relief knowing their superstar quarterback appears fully locked in. But that probably won’t stop the college football vultures from circling Starkville, especially with Taylor continuing to put up numbers that are becoming impossible for the rest of the country to ignore.