Nick Saban explains how coaching experience helps him prepare for ESPN work

In April, just three months removed from his retirement as Alabama head coach, Nick Saban headed to Detroit for the NFL Draft in his ESPN debut. He was on set for the first two days of the draft and received rave reviews for his performance as he entered his next chapter.

His second assignment is this week at the Omni Dallas Hotel. It mark Saban’s 18th straight SEC Media Days – but his first behind the SEC Network desk. He is helping set the table for the 2024 season during the first part of the network’s coverage alongside Laura Rutledge, Greg McElroy, Benjamin Watson and the rest of the impressive list of analysts.

But although the coach isn’t on the sidelines anymore, Saban still operates that way. His experience at both the NFL and college levels is helping him get ready for his work with ESPN – which included watching all 16 SEC spring games.

“For the draft, I approached the draft exactly like I did when I was a coach in the NFL and I evaluated the players on my own,” Saban told Paul Finebaum Tuesday afternoon. “To come to this, it was a little more difficult because everybody’s roster has changed pretty dramatically in terms of the additions that they made, whether it’s recruiting or transfer portal.

“But I watched everybody’s spring game. I talked to all the head coaches and tried to marry up what their thoughts were about their team, and then what I actually saw in a pretty general sense in watching the spring game. I try to prepare for it just like I do if I was playing a game. So if we were playing somebody in the opener, I would actually watch the spring game to try to get some idea of what kind of team they may have.”

Saban, of course, is no stranger to the media world. He regularly sat in on College GameDay during the College Football Playoff if Alabama wasn’t playing. Now, he’ll be on the set every week as a panelist on the show alongside Rece Davis, Kirk Herbstreit, Lee Corso and Desmond Howard.

So far, the GOAT’s venture into the media world is off to a strong start. He continues to showcase a new side of himself. Instead of the stoic, all-business coach who took the podium twice a week for media availabilities, Nick Saban is smiling and cracking jokes. All the while, he’s providing insightful analysis from a coaching perspective – which help him, once again, become the star of SEC Media Days.