Nick Saban may be retired, but that hasn’t stopped his name from circling back into football conversations, and now the Browns are being tied to him again.
According to radio host Tony Rizzo of The Really Big Show for ESPN Cleveland, Jimmy Haslam could be looking at Saban for a role that would not involve coaching. Rizzo laid out the idea this way: "I have to say this because I've heard a lot of rumors, but I heard Jimmy [Haslam] is not done going after Nick Saban,” Rizzo said.
“Now Nick wouldn't coach but he would have some kind of role. And to combine him with Arch Manning."
That mention of Arch Manning adds another layer to the speculation. The Browns could end up in position to draft the Texas quarterback, which would create a potential pairing of Saban and one of college football’s biggest names inside the same organization.
Cleveland’s quarterback situation is still unsettled, with Deshaun Watson’s contract situation hanging over the team and the future at the position still unclear. Even in Week 2, the Browns are in the mix for the first overall pick in the NFL Draft, and Manning is viewed as the favorite to go No. 1.
Saban, for his part, has already shown he can work in an advisory capacity after stepping away from coaching. He immediately took on an advisor role with Alabama athletics after retirement.
He has also made no secret of how much he enjoys life away from the sideline. Last year on the Pat McAfee Show, during the Penn State rumors that followed James Franklin’s firing, Saban made his feelings plain.
“You know, I want to stay retired,” Saban said. “I do not want [agent Jimmy Sexton] anywhere near [his wife] Miss Terry.
Because when she hears some of these numbers, she gets interested. And I’m not interested… I have so much fun working with you (directed at McAfee).
Why would I go do that?”
Miss Terry backed that up later last season on College Gameday, telling McAfee, “Look, Pat, I have no doubt if Nick wanted to go back to coaching, he could win his eighth national championship,” Miss Terry said. “But we’re having too much fun, and we wouldn’t want to take that opportunity away from all of our baby coaches, like Kirby (Smart) and Lane (Kiffin). I haven’t heard a number yet, Pat.”
If the Browns ever did bring Saban into the building, Rizzo’s description suggests it would be a front-facing but hands-off advisory role. And Cleveland is not some random stop for him - Saban was the Browns’ defensive coordinator from 1991 to 1994 before taking the head coaching job at Michigan State.
For now, Saban appears settled in retirement in Tuscaloosa. Still, the rumors keep coming, and that alone says plenty about how much teams continue to covet him.
In Other News...
Alabama's Mike Norvell Near-Miss Looks Even Bigger Now
When Nick Saban announced his retirement in January 2024, Mike Norvell surfaced as a serious name in Alabamas search, with reports indicating he had moved into advanced talks with the Crimson Tides athletic director. In the end, Norvell stayed at Florida State after landing a contract extension, closing what looked at the time like one of the biggest coaching possibilities of the offseason.
Since then, the backdrop in Tallahassee has only grown shakier, with Florida States football fortunes sliding and the programs athletic director recently being fired. For Alabama fans looking back on that search, the near-miss feels more significant now, because the decision to stay put has placed Norvell in a far more uncertain spot than the one he passed up. [Read more 🡒]
Keelon Russell May Have Changed Alabamas Ceiling Faster Than Expected
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For Alabama, the performance was about more than one flashy afternoon. Russell still described himself as a quarterback in development afterward, which is the part that should make the rest of the sport take notice, because if this is where he is while still growing into the job, the ceiling in Tuscaloosa may have moved up faster than anyone expected. [Read more 🡒]
SEC Power Struggles Keep Reshaping The World Around Alabama
Conference disputes have become a defining backdrop for the sport Alabama lives in, with schools and leagues repeatedly testing just how much control each side really has. LSUs effort to add former NFL training camp players to its roster and the SECs response is only the latest reminder that the ground around college football keeps shifting, whether it is a coach suspension in the Big Ten, Florida States lawsuit against the ACC over media rights or Washingtons sanctions from the old Pac-10.
For Alabama, the bigger point is how often these fights reshape the competitive landscape before anyone plays a game. Texas A&Ms move into the SEC came out of frustration with the Big 12, and the pattern is familiar enough now that each new dispute feels like another sign of a sport still working through who has leverage, who gets heard and what happens when schools decide their conference no longer fits the job they want done. [Read more 🡒]