Bruce Feldman on Deion Sanders as a possible Nick Saban replacement: 'It wouldn't entirely shock me'
There really isn’t any debate at this point, Nick Saban is the best college football coach of the 21st century. However, at 71 years old, it looks like he’s coached more seasons than he has left and he could, ultimately, decide any season could be his last.
When Saban does decide to call it a career, Alabama is going to go through a massive search to find his replacement. One name that college football insider Bruce Feldman wouldn’t be surprised to hear come up in that search is Deion Sanders.
“The thing that was interesting to me and I had this conversation with somebody who I would say is an industry source, and said, ‘How long do you think Nick Saban is gonna be at Alabama?'” Feldman said on The Audible. “Neither one of us was ready to say this was gonna be his last year, but I would be surprised if he’s gonna be there another five years, especially the way this is going, and I would always think most coaches wouldn’t want to replace a legend. You don’t want to replace John Wooden, here.”
Nick Saban has been the head coach at Alabama since 2007. Prior to that, he spent time in the NFL and was the head coach at LSU, Michigan State, and Toledo. During that time as a head coach, Saban has won seven national championships and 11 conference championships.
For Feldman, Deion Sanders makes sense to replace Nick Saban for several different reasons.
“Deion Sanders is probably the one guy who is in the country that would probably be like, ‘Yeah, I’ll replace him.’ I’m not saying that’s definite, but it wouldn’t entirely shock me. I think the question is going to be, Colorado is going to the Big 12, it has much more stability now than it felt like it did when he was hired there, but again, the Big 12 money is not going to be what the SEC or the Big Ten money is,” Feldman said.
“I think because of how the transfer portal is set up, he can reshape a roster in much more profound fashion than he could if he was an NFL head coach, where you don’t get — the old line used to be, ‘You can have 25 first round picks in college.’ That was pre-portal. Now, you can have way more first round picks because you’re not limited to that. So, I don’t know. It seems like he’s doing really well as a college coach. I’m not ready to say he’s gonna bolt from Boulder because maybe he can, he’s already getting these big time recruits. I want to see what he’s doing.”
Nick Saban on when he’ll know it’s time to retire
Recently, while speaking to Big Noon Kickoff, Nick Saban shared when he’ll know it’s time to retire.
“When you don’t have the same amount of enjoyment and I think probably there’s always a time where it might be better if someone else did it. I don’t know for sure exactly how you know when that is.” Saban said. “I love it.”