Rece Davis reveals how Nick Saban is already handling NFL Draft prep

About a month after his retirement from coaching, Nick Saban had a new job with ESPN to work on College GameDay and some other college football programming as an analyst. Now, as Rece Davis explained, the legendary former coach is already diving into his new role.

On a recent episode of the College GameDay Podcast, host Rece Davis actually revealed just how Nick Saban is preparing for the upcoming NFL Draft.

“He’s already had conversations with a number of us about what it looks like,” Rece Davis said. “And to your point, about the draft and getting a number of guys and even to the point today I was having a conversation with one of our producers about this.”

It was how Nick Saban interacted with one of those producers that made Rece Davis confident that Saban’s attention to detail is going to make him great as he covers the game on TV.

“And he was asking, ‘Do I need to pick the plays for all 100 guys?’ He said, ‘No. You can give me themes. He moves well in the pocket or he maintains leverage well, whatever it might be.’ And Nick’s response was, ‘Well, what if he fumbles a lot?’ It was like, and he was speaking broadly, but what if there’s a flaw in his game? He’s like, ‘That’s fine but you don’t have to go find, unless it’s some kind of glaring thing, that’s something you can say that you don’t have to [show].’ So, it’s the little things like that but it shows the level he’s thinking already in terms of evaluating players. He’s thinking of it already in terms of would he be recruiting the player. From his days in the NFL, whether he would sign this player, draft this player, whatever it might be,” Davis said.

“And I think it’s really going to really give an added dimension to our show and certainly a different perspective from someone who’s accomplished what he has as a coach in recent years.”

Will Anderson on Nick Saban joining ESPN

Shortly following the news that Nick Saban would join ESPN, one of his former players and star for the Houston Texans, Will Anderson, shared his thoughts on the move.

Anderson shared that now his old coach “is the rat poison.”

Rat poison is, of course, a term that Nick Saban was known for using during his time at Alabama. Basically, it refers to commentary from media and fans that can distract a team from working on what it needs to work on and accomplishing its goals. That could be praise making someone complacent or it could be criticism that becomes a distraction. Either way, now it’s Saban’s job to share that rat poison.