Woah-now that’s what you call a perfect inside story. This sports commentator and Nick Saban’s confidant always hated anything pre-scripted. In an interview, GOAT Nick Saban offered him exactly what he aspired for as an interviewee, an unscripted, unplanned, and unconventional response. Only later, this guy learned that some questions cannot be asked, especially when in conversation with the Alabama Crimson Tide HC and the question entails comparisons of any sort. This story of the Saban interview going wrong will surely provide you with an insight into the ex-Crimson Tide HC’s mentality.

Some lessons are better found out the hard way. And commentator, Eli Gold has been lucky enough to imbibe the best teaching from the GREAT Saban. The commentator made an appearance on the Beat Everyone podcast on August 1 and took us back to Crimson Tide’s Golden Age. Time to go back down the memory lane! On one occasion Gold asked Saban a question that he regrets to this day. And what was the blunder-bomb question? Gold started with, “We’re taping this in his office and I said you know Alabama’s had some great running backs. He got this one, he got that one, he got this style that style, hard runners, finesse guys tell me about Eddie Lacy. How would you compare him with others?”

And there Gold knew that he messed it up. All Saban did was give him a death stare, “He stared at me and folks when I mean he stared at me it felt like somebody had come up behind me with a hypodermic needle filled with ice water, shoved it into my spine and then hit the plunger on the syringe. I mean I just felt myself going cold from head to toe.” While the conversation proceeded with Saban not answering the question, Gold let out a sigh of relief. As the show came to an end, it was then the HC dropped a banger for the commenter and said, “Now that was a stupid question!” The reaction was totally legit, after all, it’s THE NICK SABAN!

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No room for favoritism, Saban’s secret to success

Alabama was one lucky program to get the seven-time nation champion as their mentor. And it did not take much time for Saban to prove himself in Tuscaloosa. On January 4, 2007, he joined as the fifth HC, and in his first season, the program went 7-6. The very next year, he led Alabama to its first SEC Championship Game appearance since 1999. The Crimson Tide won its first national championship since 1992. 

In 2010, after a 10-3 season, Alabama hit the rebound button under Coach Saban and in the same year, they took down LSU 21-0, and here came their second title under the GOAT. Even during COVID-19 in 2020, the Crimson Tide had the opportunity of playing only 13 games due to a shortened season. Saban did not let the morale of the program break down. 

Instead, held the reins and Alabam defeated Notre Dame in the semifinal and Ohio State in the final and with this Crimson Tide lifted their final national championship under Saban. If the HC had practiced favoritism within the program, the win streak wouldn’t have been in the cards.