Paul Finebaum: Nick Saban seems like a disgruntled employee

Alabama head coach Nick Saban suffered a 32-31 overtime loss to LSU this weekend, which would make any coach upset. But ESPN college football analyst Paul Finebaum believes that his frustration lies deeper than just the recent performances of his ball club, but with his relationship with the latest changes to the college football landscape, which he detailed in a recent conversation with Matt Barrie on their recap of week 10’s action.

“Matt you work at a big corporation where there are happy campers and disgruntled people, we have seen it all. I’m about to say something you may laugh at, Nick Saban seems like a disgruntled employee.” Finebaum said. “Now as I say that, he’s the highest paid coach in college football, he’s got a lifetime contract. What he’s disgruntled about isn’t his salary, isn’t his contract, it’s not his working conditions, he’s disgruntled about the condition of college football, he hates it.”

Finebaum believes that Saban’s attitudes toward NIL can be traced back to his offseason back and forth with Texas A&M head coach Jimbo Fisher.

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“And I don’t care what he says about NIL, he doesn’t like that, he doesn’t like giving players freedom, he doesn’t like entitled players and it just seems like when we saw him that night that created that fire storm that now seems like ancient history with Jimbo Fisher, that was really him talking,” Finebaum said.

Deciphering how Saban truly feels about NIL is a hard task, but Finebaum believes his intel makes it clear that Saban has had some gripes with the new changes we have recently seen in the college football landscape.

“And I know that was real because I had heard the same thing from Nick Saban a couple weeks earlier in a private phone conversation,” Finebaum revealed. “I’ve spoken to other people in prominent positions connected to college football who have been at the other end of Nick Saban complaining about this and why can’t this guy do that and I just don’t think he’s been able to scrape that away.”

Between NIL, the transfer portal, and the upcoming conference realignment changes, it’s no secret that college sports are changing and changing fast. And it will definitely be worth watching how a coach with Saban’s success and experience plans on adapting to them.

“Because players are smart, they see what’s going on, they know that whatever they get out Alabama it’s because Nick Saban was forced into doing it to be competitive with Kirby Smart and everyone else. Brian Kelly’s ten years younger than Nick Saban, he’s still in a pretty senior age group, he looks like a new man, Nick Saban looks like an old man,” Finebaum concluded.