Nick Saban didn’t have an answer when Pat McAfee asked him about Alabama Crimson Tide football coach Kalen DeBoer’s hot seat live on ESPN’s College GameDay in Norman, Oklahoma.
McAfee gave Saban an exact script that he rhetorically asked the 73-year-old if he had shared with DeBoer after Alabama’s 31-17 loss to the Florida State Seminoles in Week 1.
“Did you pull Kalen DeBoer into your office down there and say, 'Hey, Bud, these people are getting restless! Coach DeBoer, I love you, you've won everywhere, but boy, it is a hot seat down here?'” McAfee asked on Saturday morning.
Saban, who is a special advisor for the University of Alabama’s football program and has an office at Bryant-Denny Stadium, towed the company line live on air.
“He wants to do well and he's going to do everything he can to do well. We're going to support him to do that,” Saban said.
The day before, Saban sounded perplexed and sad about how the Crimson Tide looked on both sides of the ball.
“I do think there was something in that game that was tough to understand in my opinion, in that Alabama looked great going down the field on the first drive, Florida State goes right down the field and scores, and then the whole sort of psychological disposition of Alabama’s team changed for what reason I don’t know,” Saban said on Friday’s edition of the Pat McAfee Show. “Was it anxiety? Was it expectation?”
Saban isn’t happy about what’s going on in Tuscaloosa. He faces the fire every week on ESPN airwaves with McAfee playing the pest jester.
It certainly puts him on the minds of Crimson Tide fans who may want him to un-retire and bring back the good old days.