Nick Saban has spent a career turning hard jobs into title runs, but there was one NFL opening that nearly pulled him out of college football years before he ever got to Miami.
The former Alabama coach said Thursday on SiriusXM with Chris "Mad Dog" Russo that the New York Giants offered him their head coaching job while he was at Michigan State. Saban said the process got as far as a private interview arranged with Giants general manager George Young at Saban’s home in East Lansing, Mich.
"Yeah, they did offer me the job, actually," Saban said.
At the time, the Giants had just moved on from Dan Reeves after the 1996 season, and Saban had finished his second year with the Spartans. He explained that a college coach has to be careful about how any NFL flirtation looks while still trying to recruit and coach.
"In some of these cases, it's very difficult in college," Saban said. "You have an opportunity to go to the NFL.
You're still coaching. You're still recruiting.
If you stay in college, you don't want it to upset your coaching, recruiting and all that. So you don't want to say that I'm going to go interview for the Giants job."
That led to the unusual setup.
"So George and I worked out a deal," Saban said. "He said, 'Well, where do you think we can meet and nobody would know it?'
And I said, 'The least obvious place you would ever think. Just come to my house in East Lansing and nobody will ever know it.'
That's what he did."
The interest wasn’t a secret forever. A Jan. 16, 1997, New York Daily News report first made it public, and Giants co-owner John Mara later confirmed it in 2015.
"We were very impressed with him," Mara said. "We offered him the job."
Mara also said Young told him and his father, Wellington Mara, that Saban was "the best candidate" he had ever interviewed. The deal never got done, though, because Saban wanted more control over personnel and the coaching staff than the Giants were willing to hand over to a head coach.
Instead, the Giants hired Jim Fassel, who eventually took them to the Super Bowl after the 2000 season.
"I would have loved to have had you," Russo told Saban. "Fassel did a good job, and he wanted to get the quarterback going and everything else. You would have been really good there."
Saban stayed at Michigan State through 1999, then went on to win a national title at LSU, went 15-17 in two seasons with the Dolphins and returned to college at Alabama in 2007.
The 74-year-old was telling the story as part of the rollout for "Saban," a six-part ESPN docuseries about his career. The first episode airs Oct. 8 at 6 p.m. ET on ESPN, and all six episodes will be available on the ESPN app the same day.
The series looks at his 17 seasons and six national championships at Alabama, along with his time at LSU and with the Dolphins. More than 70 people were interviewed, including Bill Belichick and Kirby Smart.
In Other News...
Chris Beard Just Gave Ole Miss Fans Another Recruiting Reason To Believe
Chris Beard added another piece to Ole Miss long-term backcourt picture with a commitment from Texas-based shooting guard Paxton Ivy in the 2027 recruiting class. Ivy, who moved back to Dallas for his senior season, brings the kind of profile Beard and his staff have tended to value: outside shooting, a feel for the game and the basketball IQ to fit into a system that asks guards to make quick, smart decisions.
For a program that is already looking ahead to the 2026-27 season, which begins Nov. 2, it is another sign that the recruiting momentum is not slowing down. Ole Miss also has an exhibition against Alabama on Oct. 15, a useful early test as Beard continues building toward the future while keeping the current roster on track. [Read more 🡒]
Ole Miss Has A Quarterback Drawing Rare Praise From Herbstreit
Kirk Herbstreit spent part of ESPNs college football conversation this week making an unusually bold case for Trinidad Chambliss, the Ole Miss quarterback whose rise has turned heads well beyond Oxford. Even with Alabamas Keelon Russell fresh off a strong performance, Herbstreit singled out Chambliss as the passer he would take above every other quarterback in the sport, and Joey Galloway joined in the discussion by pointing to the traits that have made Chambliss such a tough player to ignore.
For Ole Miss, the praise only adds to the intrigue around a quarterback who has already forced his way into the national conversation while working through his sixth year of eligibility granted by a court injunction. Chambliss has produced strong passing and rushing numbers through four games, and the bigger question now is how his game translates down the line, especially with his height mentioned as a possible NFL limitation. [Read more 🡒]
Former Rebels Are Making NFL Noise And Fighting For More
A number of former Rebels were in the middle of the NFL conversation in Week 4, with familiar names showing up across box scores and on special teams in ways that should keep Ole Miss followers paying attention. The recap touched on everything from receptions and pass breakups to tackles and sacks, a reminder that the programs reach in the league runs well beyond the marquee quarterbacks and receivers fans tend to notice first.
Some ex-Rebels also dealt with the less glamorous side of an NFL season, with injuries and limited roles shaping how much they were able to contribute. Even so, the week left open the question of who can turn a strong early-season showing into a bigger opportunity next, and which of these former Rebels is on the verge of forcing more meaningful snaps. [Read more 🡒]