DALLAS — Steve Sarkisian stood at the podium confidently, eyes centered, ready to address the large contingent on hand. On a few levels, it was an odd setting as Sarkisian was introducing Texas as a new member of the SEC, which about a decade ago, seemed like only a possibility on a college football video game.
Back then, the idea of Sarkisian leading an elite program in a premier conference seemed just as unlikely. For that reason, he couldn’t get far into his introductory statement without addressing someone sitting in the farthest corner of the room at SEC media days: Nick Saban.
“You know you’ve impacted a lot of people who have been up on this stage,” Sarkisian said. “No one have you impacted more than me. I would not be standing here today without you. What you’ve meant to my career, to my life and the impact that you’ve had on our game has been second to none. I just can’t thank you enough. I want to be able to publicly do that to you, Coach. Thank you very, very much.”
Sarkisian shares a path similar to Ole Miss’ Lane Kiffin as coaches who were fired by USC but then found a coaching reset with Saban. Their time at Alabama rebuilt their careers, and years later, Sarkisian and Kiffin are leading programs that are trendy picks for the College Football Playoff this season.
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“I’m very appreciative, not just of what I learned (from 2014-16),” Kiffin said of his time as an Alabama assistant coach. “But the opportunity he gave me to come there when a lot of people wouldn’t because it was controversial. For an old-school coach, why he was so good for so long with all of this movement in college football … most old-school coaches didn’t evolve, didn’t change or weren’t willing to take risks. He did that with me.”
Saban’s position at SEC media days was much different this year. In the far back corner of the room at the ESPN desk, he has stepped into broadcasting since retiring in January. But his presence has been at the forefront of his former competitors’ minds. Now that the element of competition isn’t present, there’s a two-fold feeling among those coaches: fond memories and lighthearted encounters between coaches and Saban having the chance to openly talk ball with each coach, which is going to take some getting used to.
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“It’s weird, just take the call to set up media days,” Georgia coach Kirby Smart said. “I was nervous, like for 15 minutes (while appearing on ESPN). I’m going to share with him? About my team? I feel like I’m giving the answers to Darth Vader. So it was different.”
.@Lane_Kiffin and @KirbySmartUGA get really excited about getting a text from Nick Saban 😅 pic.twitter.com/zgP5yqiSud
— SEC Network (@SECNetwork) July 16, 2024
With that backdrop, the question becomes: Who will replace Darth Vader? The void that Saban is leaving in the SEC is multi-layered: He was the most dominant coach, the longest-tenured coach and the most influential coach. College football at large focused on everything he said and did.
He was passionate about speaking about the game holistically, and he was a leader of the conference and the sport as much as he was at Alabama.
“Whenever I go to the head coaches’ meeting, it goes in alphabetical order, and I sit right next to Coach Saban,” Arkansas coach Sam Pittman said. “I’m not saying he took me under his wing, but I was nervous sitting next to him. I’m sure I asked him more questions than what he might have wanted to answer. But he answers every one of them.
“I think there is a reason why I went and worked for Kirby at Georgia; it had a lot to do with Coach Saban. (He) is the GOAT, and he is someone that our league is going to miss dearly.”
There certainly are candidates to replace Saban on Saturdays on the field because the coaching depth in the conference is strong. The leader in the clubhouse is Smart, who worked for Saban for more than a decade and is a two-time national champion as the Bulldogs’ boss. Saban’s direct replacement at Alabama, Kalen DeBoer, has been in Power 4 athletics for a short time, but he has the on-field resume to take on a big role.
Then there’s Sarkisian, the last former Saban assistant coach to defeat him en route to a College Football Playoff berth in 2023. Perhaps Kiffin emerges behind a reconstructed Ole Miss roster primed to compete, and it’s worth noting that only Alabama and Georgia have won more conference games than Ole Miss since Kiffin was hired by the Rebels.
Brian Kelly went to the Playoff at Notre Dame and has back-to-back 10-win seasons at LSU, while Josh Heupel (Tennessee) and Eli Drinkwitz (Missouri) are building momentum with their programs.
The new elder statesmen of the league is Kentucky’s Mark Stoops, the longest-tenured SEC coach (12 years) and the sixth-longest tenured coach in the country. Whether he becomes the leading voice in the head coaches’ meetings remains to be seen, but Saban’s example was evident when Stoops took the podium on Thursday.
“A lot of people ask me what he’s like or thinking that he’s overbearing or demanding in there,” Stoops said. “Don’t get me wrong, Coach is passionate at times, but it was never about self-interest. To me, he always was worried about college football. He was worried about the betterment of college football and making young people better. I truly believed that.
“And listening to him and the arguments, the debates that we’ve had for 12 years and just the knowledge that he brought and still brings, people need to listen to him because he’s one of a kind in what he’s done.”
The Saban celebration tour doesn’t appear to be complete. On Thursday, it was reported that the Alabama board of trustees will hold a special meeting on Friday to consider renaming Bryant-Denny Stadium. And “Nick Saban Field at Bryant-Denny Stadium” feels like a formality.
(Photo: Todd Kirkland / Getty Images)
