Will Nick Saban still be at Alabama when the Crimson Tide play Ohio State in 2027?
By John Buhler
Will Nick Saban be on the sidelines when Alabama plays Ohio State in 2027?
Alabama football will be playing Ohio State football in a home-and-home beginning in 2027.
The Alabama Crimson Tide and the Ohio State Buckeyes most recently met in the 2015 College Football Playoff. The No. 4-seeded Buckeyes beat the No. 1-seeded Crimson Tide in the Sugar Bowl. Ohio State would go on to beat the No. 2-seeded Oregon Ducks to win the first ever College Football Playoff. That was Urban Meyer’s last national championship as a head coach.
Meyer had already been a college football analyst prior to winning it all at Ohio State. Though health concerns forced him into a second early retirement, how sure are we that Alabama coach Nick Saban isn’t destined to replace Lee Corso on ESPN’s College GameDay? We know Saban is phenomenal on television. What are the chances he’s coaching the Crimson Tide in 2027?
Is Nick Saban leading the Crimson Tide when they face Ohio State in 2027?
It will be Sept. 2027 when the Crimson Tide make the trek to Columbus to face Ohio State in The Horseshoe. Saban will turn 69-years-old on Halloween this year (nice!). If Saban wants to coach the Crimson Tide for the next eight seasons, he will be 76-years-old for that particular ball game. Conversely, Ohio State head coach Ryan Day will be 48-years-old then.
Do we really think Saban will coach into his late 70s like Joe Paterno, Bobby Bowden or Bill Snyder did before him? He could, but he’d probably rather be a grandfather and do some occasional work by 2027 rather than relentlessly recruit high school kids like he’s done for decades. Simply put, Saban is getting too old for this nonsense.
Is there a one-in-a-million chance Saban is coaching the Crimson Tide for a 21st-consecutive season in 2027? Potentially, but Alabama will be a shell of itself if that were the case because some other national power will have emerged by then to take Saban’s seat at the throne if Dabo Swinney hasn’t already. Heck, Swinney has a better chance of coaching in this game than Saban.
Though Swinney replacing Saban seems unlikely given his great stature at Clemson, he did play his college ball for Gene Stallings in the early 1990s at Alabama. If a coach says he doesn’t want to lead his alma mater one day, he’s lying. However, Swinney can’t be the guy who replaces Saban, but maybe he can be the guy who replaces the guy who replaces Saban? That could be in play.
If Saban is coaching vs. Ohio State in 2027, it would be shocking to say the very least.
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