The play that has become known by college football fans as Kick Six that helped Auburn capture an Iron Bowl victory against rival Alabama back in 2013 will forever go down as one of the most iconic moments in college football history.
The win ended Alabama's bid for a third straight national title and paved the way for Auburn to play in the BCS title game, which they lost to Florida State.
According to a new book out, The Leadership Lessons of Nick Saban, the Kick Six may have also served as a catalyst for Saban to explore life after football.
The book shares that, following the 2013 season, Saban reached out to CAA sports media talent agent Nick Khan and asked them to reach out to ESPN as he was beginning to consider the next chapter of his career.
This was a bit more than just kicking the tires too.
The New York Post notes that Khan set up a meeting between Saban, his agent Jimmy Sexton and ESPN senior executive John Wildhack (who is now the AD at Syracuse) that took place in Pasadena, California.
That meeting consisted of Saban asking Wildhack about the work environment at ESPN was like, and if a role there felt like working on a team. The Post shares that Saban had his sights set on a role on College GameDay.
After that meeting, Khan reportedly shared that Saban was appreciative of the meeting, but he wasn't ready to step away from the sidelines.
Over the next several years, Saban would lead the Tide to national titles in 2015, 2017 and 2020 proving that he still had (and continues to have) plenty "left in the tank."
Set to turn 71 this Halloween, a lot of folks wonder how long Saban will continue to coach, and this book, set to be released August 9th, peels back some of the mystery behind what he may have planned next. Picturing him on set covering games come Saturday's in the fall seems like a natural transition and he'd be incredible breaking down schemes and strategies.