The most intriguing aspect of Friday afternoonās announcement of a contract extension for most UA observers wasnāt the dollars. It was the years. Will Saban really be on the sidelines through 2025? He doesnāt show any signs of slowing down and as long as he is given the resources to win, there is little need to look elsewhere. His health is good, and his family situation seems settled.
Was it entirely coincidental that the announcement was made at the beginning of a huge recruiting weekend? If you think that was random, you havenāt been following closely for the past 11 years. Everything connects to recruiting in some way. No one in college football recruits negatively ā that is, if you ask them whether they do. But in the wake of Alabamaās success, somehow the talking point comes up for recruits, who have a little bird, one supposes, hinting to them that Saban might retire. What better way to counteract that ārumorā for the visitors to Alabamaās campus?
Even better, since recruiting is sometimes like five-dimensional chess, what more proactive way is there to speak to all those recruits who are heading to other campuses than to have a big ESPN story about how Saban has agreed to a lengthy extension? (ESPN does not stand for Eternal Saban Propaganda Network, no matter what you might hear on social media.)
Thatās the biggest evidence of all that Saban isnāt pondering retirement. Sure, cashing a big paycheck helps but Saban clearly deserves to be the highest-paid coach in the game. When you look closely, though, the real story is that he is still thinking, considering every angle, doing everything possible to stay ahead of the competition. For Alabama fans, that says more than all the dollars you can put in a contract.