Nick Saban, darling of SEC media days, was initially denied entry for forgetting his identification card

DALLAS – In a freshly pressed gray suit and pink tie, with a mic sticking out from behind his left ear and a thin layer of makeup on his forehead and cheeks, the 72-year-old man looks into a television camera and four The stage lights are illuminating him. features.

Meet the newest member of the college football media crew kicking off his SEC media day: Nick Saban.

He covered up the matter by forgetting his identity card in his hotel room.

“It’s a little different,” Saban said on air Monday. “I have never worn any credentials in my life and for 17 years have always been able to attend SEC media days without any credentials. I had to go back to the room today and get my ID card to get in.

It’s true: A security officer first denied the uncredentialed Saban entry to media day on Monday, the first of a four-day event at the downtown Dallas Omni Hotel. He ran back to his room, got his badge and joined the program.

The disaster was averted.

What then began was a very unusual day here: Nick Saban, not a coach but an analyst, parading on media day not as an interviewer but as an interviewee. He spent nearly four hours, answering questions from hundreds of reporters not on the main chamber stage, but in the back of the room, from an elevated SEC Network platform, offering opinions and analysis and even a prediction. Of (gasp!).

His 22nd media day appearance was, perhaps, his most entertaining yet.

He predicted Georgia and Texas to play in the SEC Championship Game, took aim at new colleague Paul Finebaum and even picked a surprise team for the league title (Ole Miss).

Saban, perhaps unknowingly, went so far as to create a viral clip – not unlike the media quips he once faced as a coach.

“What kind of tickles me is that all these (media members) are asking these questions about how Texas always ran the (Big 12),” Saban said. “They’re not going to run the SEC.”

Tweet this. post it. Publish title.

But this new media member is not attractive at all. He also has ample ability to speak intelligently about each SEC team, position by position, their strengths and weaknesses. He watched replays of all 16 spring games. He has everyone’s notebooks and films, spending the summer months studying all 16 teams at his lake or beach home.

In fact, he began preparing for media days more than a month in advance, when in mid-June, he spoke on the phone with head coaches from almost all leagues to discuss their teams.

“He prepares like crazy,” said Josh Maxon, Alabama’s associate athletic director for communications, whose new role is much like his old role for the past nine years: handling communications for Saban, this time for a big-time media person. As a personality, not as a big role. -Time football coach.

The coaches here are absolutely satisfied with Saban’s new role. After all, it beats his old role, where during nearly two decades at Alabama he won 87 percent of his SEC games, nine league championships and six national titles.

“I want Nick to do that and not be on the sidelines,” LSU coach Brian Kelly said. “At least he’s not plotting anything against me.”

Oh, but he’s plotting.

SEC Network host Peter Burns said, “I’ve never seen anyone study TV rundowns like he does.” “It’s an unreal thing. “He dialed in like he was at halftime of the SEC championship game.”

He is not afraid to get into scuffles with his new colleagues on set. Finebaum joked that Saban’s retirement resulted in “the worst six months of my life.”

Saban responded, “He tried to ruin me for 17 years, so I guess we’re even.”

He is now one of them. One of us. Media.

On Monday, Saban moved from the SEC Network set to the ESPN green room, drinking coffee and eating snacks like the rest of the TV talent.

“The most nervous I’ve ever been was interviewing him on the field and having to stand next to him and drink coffee,” SEC Network reporter Alyssa Lang said with a laugh.

But not everything has changed.

As a way to avoid too much interaction with individual reporters, the SEC has designed hidden hallways and back passageways for coaches, which they can use to move from one group interview session to another. Make your way through elevators, dining rooms and even mazes. Kitchen to get from point A to B.

Only the coaches were not using them on Monday. Saban did the same, a smart way to avoid many of the loud noises in the 44-forty-four! -Radio station booths were set up along the league’s famous “Radio Row.”

But he could not escape attention completely.

During his inaugural address on Monday, SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey mentioned Saban’s presence here. Maybe he could help the league “escape rat poison,” Sankey joked, referencing Saban’s infamous line from years earlier to describe his own rising expectations.

“He can evaluate my performance because he’s sitting in the room listening,” Sankey said, pointing to Saban in the back of the room, sitting cross-legged on the SEC Network stage and scribbling notes in a notebook — any old one. Will do it like a media member.

Turns out, during a conversation between the two men a few hours later, Saban evaluated Sankey. “Really good job today,” Saban told him.

Did the Commissioner just get the blessings of the darling of media days? sure did.

Coaching or not, Saban remains the star of this extraordinary program, while a segment of the media itself is active – as hard as it is to believe.

“I didn’t expect it,” Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin said with a smile. “I had a conversation with him on the phone (in June) and today we spoke. It reminded me, even though you can be conservative and old school and all that, that he’s very good at aggressively adapting and growing and changing. And now to do this for him? He is very serious about it. He is very unique. That’s why he’ll be great at whatever he does.”