Deion Sanders floated as eventual candidate for SEC powerhouse
There are no signs that Nick Saban is going anywhere anytime soon, but Deion Sanders is already being floated as his possible successor at Alabama. The Athletic's Bruce Feldman and Stewart Mandel discussed what potential candidates would be willing to follow Saban given his legendary accomplishments.
"I know one guy who would and that's Deion Sanders," Feldman explained on a Sept. 27, 2023, episode of "The Audible" podcast . "Deion Sanders, I have no doubt, would have no qualms of being the guy to replace John Wooden or the guy to replace Nick Saban."
Mandel was skeptical about Coach Prime's fit in Tuscaloosa given his unique coaching style, but the college football analyst believes if Sanders has a bit more success at Colorado, then most athletic departments are going to sign off on his approach.
"I'm saying, if you hire Deion, you have to be comfortable with the rap stars on the sideline and the video cameras everywhere," Mandel said. "And I don't know that that's going to go over everywhere. But I also think that if he turns out to be as good a coach as he's showing to be so far, you'd be crazy not to hire him.
Coach Prime has an admirer in Nick Saban
We do know from the Aflac commercials that Saban is an admirer of Sanders. Jokes aside, Saban has been vocal in his support for Sanders throughout his coaching career.
"I have a tremendous amount of respect for Deion Sanders," Saban said on September 20, per ESPN. "First, he's a great person and he's done a great job of marketing the program to create a lot of national interest."
Nick Saban has downplayed the retirement talk
Earlier this season, Saban downplayed the idea of retirement, emphasizing that he still enjoys coaching. As for Sanders, Coach Prime will need to keep turning around the Buffaloes program to be a top candidate at a college football powerhouse like Bama. That said, Sanders is well on his way to doing just that in Boulder.
“When you don’t have the same amount of enjoyment and I think probably there’s always a time where it might be better if someone else did it," Saban said during an interview with Fox's "Big Noon Kickoff," per On3.com. "I don’t know for sure exactly how you know when that is. I love it.”
When that time comes, could we hear Sanders' theme music playing in the Crimson Tide locker room? We can only imagine the recruiting classes if Sanders were to get the Alabama gig down the road.
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