Nick Saban Embraces Alabama Media In Return To Birmingham, Tells Story Of Beating Tua Tagovailoa In Golf

You could tell by the look on his face that Nick Saban was overjoyed to get back in front of the local media in Birmingham on Wednesday to partake in the Regions Pro-Am golf tournament. 

Along with current Alabama coach Kalen DeBoer, Georgia's Kirby Smart, Sen. Tommy Tuberville and plenty of others in the college football world, Nick Saban took his golf game from his beautiful course at Jupiter Hills, Fla., to Birmingham. 

But before teeing off Wednesday, Saban got in a practice round with former players Mark Ingram and Tua Tagovailoa at Jupiter Hills on Monday, according to an interview with WJOX this morning. Knowing how competitive Saban is, it's hard for the legendary coach to give out a compliment about the competition, but he tried his best. 

"I had an interesting day on Monday. I invited Mark Ingram and Tua (Tagovailoa) to Jupiter Hills to play with me and another member, and we had a blast," Saban recalled about Monday's matchup. "I mean, I got killed about the defense vs. the offense in practice. They hit it good, and Tua's a really good putter. They didn't play great. Jupiter Hills is a hard course if you've never played it before, but we had fun, it was great. 

"Mark and I took on Tua and Burk Wyatt, who is the member. Of course we won."

Would you expect anything different from Nick Saban? Even with local media attending the event, the former Alabama coach had a little fun with those gathered to ask questions. All that was missing was the coke and water bottle at the podium. 

Never the one to get sarcastic with the media, or just have a little fun at the expense of the ones who peppered him with questions during his tenure at Alabama, Saban was in a jolly mood as he prepared to tee-off this morning. 

"Good to see you guys. Can't tell you how much I missed y'all," Saban jokingly said to media members. "Really the only reason I came here was to see y'all."

If you haven't noticed by now, the former Alabama head coach is enjoying life outside the office and practice field. It's not as if the legendary coach has disappeared from the spotlight, whether it's a speaking engagement or doing an incredible job at the NFL Draft recently. But life is different, and Saban seems to be adjusting well in the retirement stage. 

Life Outside Of Coaching Has Not Slowed Down Nick Saban

As for life over the next few months before the college football season arrives, Nick Saban is staying busy as he tries to help navigate the current landscape of this new era in collegiate sports. With so many questions to be answered on how we get to a potential point of revenue sharing with athletes, there's still a ways to go according to Saban. 

"What happens in college football is really important to me, it's what i went through for fifty years," Nick Saban noted to WJOX. "All my comments have been based on not the way players get what they get, but how they get it, so that we keep some type of competitive balance. This is a really complicated issue. The lawsuits, and how they get sorta settled, and how can we move forward from that. What kind of structure do we have, whether the players are employees or not employees. Are we profit sharing or not profit sharing. How do we deal with title nine, and what we do with non-revenue sports. 

"My thing is that I'm hopeful we come up with a system that doesn't impact other sports. So we can continue to create opportunities for 400-500 kids and 82% of the kids in the Olympics get developed in college. So if you eliminate those opportunities, we're eliminating that development as well. I just think there's so much to be learned by sports that i think whatever the venue we create for these guys to succeed and have quality of life is going to enhance their chances of being more successful in life."

SCOTTSDALE, ARIZONA - FEBRUARY 07: Nick Saban hits a shot on the 16th tee box during the Whoop Shot at Glory, prior to WM Phoenix Open at TPC Scottsdale (Stadium Course) on February 7, 2024 in Scottsdale, Arizona. (Photo by Ben Jared/PGA TOUR via Getty)

As for his golf game, that's one aspect of retirement that he's certainly trying to get better at. I don't think Nick Saban is taking many mulligans on the golf course. But, it's easy to notice how much more relaxed he has become in his days off the field, with his downtime being spent on the golf course. 

According to the legendary coach, his golf game hasn't flourished much with all of this extra practice time he's had over the past few months. 

"No better than it was before. There's always something missing. You know golf is like a metaphor of life. You got a different shot, so you gotta deal with whatever comes next. One day the putting is not there, one day the chipping is not there, and then you can't hit it off the tee. So it's a challenge no doubt."

At least he's got a lot of time on his hands to fix those problems with his swing, along with saving the college football world.