Patrick Surtain thinks Nick Saban will return to coaching: ‘Would be great for college football’

Greg McElroy dropped a bomb in July suggesting that someone he respects believes Nick Saban isn’t done coaching.

Those close to the former Alabama coach suggested otherwise.

Enter Patrick Surtain.

The Denver Broncos defensive back and former Alabama star shared his belief that the 73-year-old Saban isn’t done yet.

“Saban lives and breathes football,” Surtain said on “Closed on Sundays with Pat Terrion” podcast. “He’s got to get back into coaching. I don’t know if it’s gonna be a smaller school. I think Saban’s the right fit to build a program from square one to build into a damn powerhouse.

“I think him going to another school would be great for college football. With all the NIL going on, kids transferring left and right for the money, I think him establishing that would be good for college football.”

Terrion Arnold, a Detroit Lions cornerback who also played for Saban at Alabama, doesn’t see it.

“Everything he’s accomplished and then his legacy,” Arnold said. “With everything going on, I don’t think that he would go back and risk tarnishing that.”

Arnold pointed out Saban isn’t a fan of NIL, relaying a story in which a recruit asked for $800,000.

He said Saban called it disrespectful to the rest of the team for a player to ask for that money with having played a down.

Over the summer, during his radio show on WJOX in Birmingham on Monday, McElroy said he had heard Saban could return to the game.

“A very much in the know person that I have a lot of respect for and have spent a lot of time around and just really, really admire, they seem to think Nick Saban is not done coaching,” McElroy said of his former coach. “He’s pretty adamant that he thinks Nick Saban will be coaching again.”

McElroy said that he wouldn’t have brought the speculation up “if it wasn’t somebody notable.”

Not long after the bomb was dropped, Saban’s daughter, Kristen, chimed in to end the discussion.