Wow.. what a week it’s been in the sports world! For those of us who are NBA fans, it’s been a day or two of absolute blowout games. Milwaukee beat the Boston Celtics by 33, and Oklahoma City beat Portland by a whopping 62! But that’s not all… in football, some of the biggest names in the college and pro games made career-ending announcements.
In the pros, longtime New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick is out. And down in Tuscaloosa, legendary Alabama head man Nick Saban announced his retirement. As the old song goes, “the times, they are a’changing.”
The Patriots have already announced Belichicks’s replacement. The real question is who will take over the Crimson Tide at Alabama, one of the most storied, successful programs in the history of college football. Not to diminish the Patriots outstanding record. Having Tom Brady for all those years certainly helped.
Word is Alabama wants to move quickly to name Saban’s replacement. Plenty of big names have been thrown into the ring, and our man Shaq has definitely made his feelings known. How does Coach Prime sound for the Alabama top job?
The BIG Podcast with SHAQ
On his own Instagram feed last night, Shaq posted a short, to-the-point video, saying, “Hey I don’t usually do this, but I’m going to do it today. Deion Sanders for the Alabama job?” The post has already had well over a thousand comments.
O’Neal captioned the video by tagging Sanders and adding, “@DeionSanders at Alabama would be crazy.” What do you think?
In his first season as head coach at Colorado, Sanders had crazy-big media coverage and publicity. But when all was said and done at the end of the season, the Buffaloes went 4-8. Not the best record… but it was an interesting first-year effort. Previously, Sanders won back-to-back SWAC championships at Jackson State and went 27-6 over three seasons.
OK, time for a little honest assessment. Plenty of commentators and analysts – not just Shaq – have named Sanders as Saban’s potential replacement. And even while Sanders’ name comes up often, pretty much everyone agrees it’s a very unlikely move.
Over on Fox Sports, college football analyst says the man who just lost the CFB National Championship is much more likely the man for the job. Analyst Joel Klatt says Washington’s Kalen DeBoer is his top pick, but he’s also got an eye on Florida State’s Mike Norvell as a Saban replacement.
Klatt says after the loss to Michigan, DeBoer has been looking at career options: Klatt: “I don’t believe DeBoer’s interest in Alabama or elsewhere is not slight at Washington. But the athletic director who hired him, Jen Cohen, is now USC’s athletic director.”
Klatt also says DeBoer recently hired agent Jimmy Sexton, saying, “If you follow college football enough, you’d know Sexton’s an agent extraordinaire, but he specializes in the SEC and is Saban’s agent. DeBoer can be in the middle of all of the SEC coaching circles with Sexton as his agent.”
So… who’s up for Alabama? No matter who gets the job, we all know it’s going to be one of the most closely-watched hires in the history of college football. Will Shaq’s man Sanders get the gig? We’ll find out soon…