Barely retired, Saban is already talking about what he misses

Nick Saban has been retired for about half a year and he’s already talking about what he misses about coaching.

To be fair, the now-former Alabama head coach was asked specifically what he’ll miss about coaching, but it wasn’t like he had to wait long to come up with an answer.

Taking questions after playing at the Regions Tradition Pro-Am in Birmingham, Saban said he knows what he’ll miss, and that’s his interactions with the players.

“I actually played golf with Mark Ingram and Tua (Tagovailoa). Had them up on Monday. Those relationships you have with players, man. There’s nothing that beats that,” Saban said (h/t On3). “But we care about them all. So, we’re going to continue with the relationships.”

It’s worth noting that Saban is still expected to be involved with Alabama in some way. He’ll be an advisor to new head coach Kalen DeBoer, but one would expect that his interactions with Alabama’s roster will be much different.

Sure, he can pal around with the players — especially the ones he recruited to Tuscaloosa — but as time goes on he’s certainly going to feel the difference between being intimately involved with a team’s day-to-day and being the head coach’s confidant. 

Will that difference be enough for Saban to decide to pick up his whistle again and unretire? We’ve seen it before and we’ll see it again, but considering the legendary coach’s consternation regarding the NIL and transfer portal era, chances are … he’s hung that whistle up for good.