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ESPN college football talking head Nick Saban defends disdain for college football talking heads

Nick Saban, now an ESPN *College GameDay* analyst, doubled down on his long-held skepticism of media chatter in college football during the network’s latest broadcast from Tuscaloosa, Alabama. The seven-time national champion coach—whose Alabama Crimson Tide were once dismissed by analysts as “rat poison”—reiterated his belief that players should ignore pregame hype, even when it’s coming from his own team’s corner.

A newly released ESPN docuseries about Saban highlighted his infamous halftime switch from Jalen Hurts to Tua Tagovailoa in the 2018 national championship, as well as a clip where he berated players for trusting analysts over their coach. When co-analyst Pat McAfee jokingly asked if athletes should heed ESPN’s takes now that Saban is part of the show, the coach’s response was blunt: *“Hell no.”* The irony wasn’t lost on Georgia head coach Kirby Smart, who playfully accused Saban of hypocrisy after the Alabama coach praised the Bulldogs on *GameDay* the prior week, seemingly serving up his own brand of “rat poison.”

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