Saban saying goodbye to Tua was brilliant theatre

When Nick Saban marched onto the podium with Alabama QB Tua Tagovailoa yesterday, all I could think was: “He’s going to stay”.

After all, most great players in Alabama history made their decisions and Nick Saban said very little about them.

Maybe it was because he was too busy texting other recruits, or looking at game film on the next year’s starting opponents, or merely making sure Mrs Saban got her antiques delivery on time, but he didn’t seem to do it.

This year, he was out there. “Tua has probably has had as much of an impact on our program here as any player that we’ve ever had,” Saban said. “And I’m not just talking about as a football player.”

Tua gave Saban one of the greatest moments in his career when he led the Tide to a National Championship with an overtime throw that beat Georgia in the 2018 National Championship Game.

If it wasn’t for Tua being injured, Alabama would probably be in the play-off this week as the best team in. After all, it’s probable they would have gone to Auburn and won (Mac Jones played well but still threw two Pick-6s).

Anyway, up to now.

Saban taking Tua to the podium was beautiful. It was warm-hearted….the antithesis of what people think about Nick Saban, who’s more famed for being grumpy than anything else. But in this moment, it was like God saying goodbye to Jesus, and wishing him well on his future endeavours.

But damn, it was good recruiting theatre too.

Because if they were watching on, every new quarterback or other five-star recruit coming to Alabama must be thinking: “If I am as good as Tua was, maybe I can get The Best Coach In College Football History to give me that kind of send-off”.