Saban offers intriguing response when asked what would entice him to return to coaching

Anytime an accomplished coach steps away from the sidelines with plenty "left in the tank" it invites speculation each off season about a potential return to coaching.

Look no further than coaches who have stepped away relatively young in recent years like Mike Tomlin and Urban Meyer, as well as some names from further back like Bill Cowher, John Madden and Tony Dungy. 

The greatest college coach of all time, Nick Saban, has also been the subject of speculation each off season since stepping away as the most accomplished college football coach ever.

Whether on the set of College GameDay or various other appearances, he's always been able to shoot down that speculation pretty definitively.

While appearing alongside Paul Finebaum on SEC Network yesterday, the topic came up again when then host asked Saban if there was anything that could ever convince, or entice him to return to come back to coaching, and Saban offered an interesting response.

"Well, when people call, all I can tell the fans out there is Miss Terry says 'If you take a job, you're commuting.' She's not moving. She's not leaving the grandkids. She's not leaving any of that."

That playful comment got my wheels turning - right after this scene from Dumb and Dumber played in my head.

Tuscaloosa isn't exactly in the middle of nowhere, there has to be a few college football programs within a reasonable commutable distance, right?

So what's a reasonable commutable distance? Well, some quick research says that the average American commute is just over 27 minutes from the door of their home to their place of work. Commute times generally were on the rise from 2010 through 2019 and are on the rise again the temporary drop we say post-COVID, as just over 9% of the working population have a commute of 60 minutes or more.

So what college football programs are within an hour drive of Saban's Tuscaloosa home? 

Well Stillman College is a former Division II program located right in Tuscaloosa, and they revived their football program back in 1999 after about 49-years without one. Unfortunately for those that would like to see Saban return under Miss Terry's parameters, Stillman dropped their football program in 1999 to focus and invest in their other sport offerings.

Also, UAB is about 60 miles away in Birmingham, so less than an hour commute. FCS program Samford is also less than an hour's drive as well. Then, at the Division II and III level there's University of West Alabama (D-II) about 45 minutes away, and Miles (D-II) is also less than an hour away at 55 miles. 

If Saban really wanted back in bad and needed to be able to commute, a quick search also reveals the Saban's own a 6-bedroom home on Jupiter Island, FL that he bought back in 2023 for a cool $17.5 million. Options to commute from there are Keiser University (NAIA), a program in West Palm Beach just over an hour away, and FAU in Boca Raton, located within about a 40 minute drive.

College football fans everywhere: "...So you're saying there's a chance..."