TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — In the roughly 30 seconds it takes to walk from the entrance to Alabama’s football headquarters to the office occupied by coach Kalen DeBoer, you will pass at least a dozen poster-board-sized pictures of the coach’s predecessor. In most of them, Nick Saban is hoisting a national championship trophy.
At lunch on this random early April afternoon, the restaurant’s TV shows “The Paul Finebaum Show.” The host is interviewing Alabama draft prospect Chris Braswell. A bright red graphic beneath him reads “Nick Saban retired after 28 seasons as FBS head coach.”
Saban is not physically present at Alabama’s spring practice that afternoon, but the man is still on people’s minds.
“I miss him,” one practice observer says to another.
DeBoer arrived in January, just days after leading Washington in the national championship game against Michigan. Saban and his wife, Terry, sat in the front row at his Jan. 13 introductory news conference. The seven-time national champ has largely stayed away since, spending most of his time at his home in Jupiter, Fla. But he’s also spent some time in his new office at Bryant-Denny Stadium — only a couple of blocks from DeBoer’s.
DeBoer might be following a legend, but the legend is also unwittingly following the…
