Nick Saban admitted to tampering during 2024 NFL Draft coverage while at Alabama

As Nick Saban gets more and more accustomed to newfangled widgets, gizmos and gadgets concocted in the 21st century, he probably should not have said what he said about Quinyon Mitchell live over the air covering the 2024 NFL Draft for ESPN. The former Alabama head coach flat-out admitted to tampering with the former Toledo Rockets star defensive back ahead of last season.

Said the following on ABC about Mitchell while covering the draft. This is borderline unbelievable.

"He was our No. 1 guy in the portal last year to try to get him to come out of the portal, and he never would get in the portal."

This has to make Toledo head coach Jason Candle absolutely furious. Toledo may be the best program in the MAC, but to have the greatest college football head coach of all time saying he was trying to do everything in his power to get Mitchell to leave Ohio for Alabama has to be maddening. Candle lost his starting quarterback from the last few years in DeQuan Finn to Baylor this offseason.

Mitchell was not even in the portal, yet Saban wanted him more than Mitchell wanted to leave Toledo.

Mitchell would become the first-round pick by the Philadelphia Eagles in the 2024 NFL Draft.

Nick Saban admitting to tampering with Quinyon Mitchell over the air

It may have slipped his mind that he cannot say things like that publicly, or even on the record. While Saban is living the life of luxury in sweet retirement, Kalen DeBoer has an insurmountable task in trying to succeed the greatest college coach of all time. He is not from the southeast, and got spanked in the transfer portal back in January after being hired. Now what if he has to deal with this?

I think DeBoer will come out of this alright. Probably the same for Alabama. However, I think this may force the NCAA, or whoever governs college football these days, to look behind the curtain at what is actually going on. Keep in mind that Alabama already had guys like Terrion Arnold, Caleb Downs and Kool-Aid McKinstry in the same defensive backfield Saban wanted Mitchell to join ahead of last year.

There is so much going on behind the scenes that we can never hope to know. What Saban said over the airwaves during the 2024 NFL Draft only further illustrates that everybody is doing stuff like this, not just Alabama. There are ways to exploit the transfer portal. Tampering has become increasingly popular in football, but you have to wonder if anybody really cares about any of that stuff in the end.

Even if Mitchell transferred to Alabama, he would not have won a national title playing for Saban.