Gathered at a local restaurant for his weekly coaches’ show, Nick Saban took his traditional first call from Pee Wee of Grand Bay, Alabama.
Fresh from a loss to Texas last season, the now-former Alabama coach faced a rare situation where he might expect a critical question on his weekly radio show. Instead of getting defensive, Saban rattled off a list of shortcomings from the team’s pass protection before the fan got his question out.
“Only one sack came off a (blitz) so I wanted to ask you what the hell’s going on?” Saban asked, laughing.
Saban’s successor, Kalen DeBoer, also still braves the potential minefield of taking live questions from the phone at the Hey Coach Show during the season. It’s safer territory when you’ve won seven total national championships like Saban and when you’re new like DeBoer.
Most coaches don’t bother any more, especially after Tyler from Spartanburg challenged Clemson’s Dabo Swinney with the loaded question: “Why are we paying you $11.5 million to go 4-4?”