Rumors are running wild between the University of Texas and University of Alabama. Every day this week provided a new “report” about Texas head coach Mack Brown’s job. One day he is fired, then he is staying and now he may be stepping down. This has caused many to prop up Alabama’s head coach Nick Saban as the next Texas coach, even though it is all speculation. Alabama star quarterback AJ McCarron said he knows Saban will not leave Tuscaloosa anytime soon.
“I messed with Coach, [saying] he’s getting too old to start up again somewhere else,” McCarron said on ESPN’s “College Football Daily” from Walt Disney World. “He told me he’s not leaving. And I know Miss Terry [Saban’s wife] well enough; she runs that house. And she’s not allowing Coach to leave either. I think he’ll be at the University of Alabama for a little while.”
Despite his statement, it is still speculation. Before he left the Miami Dolphins for Alabama Saban reiterated many times at press conferences he was not the next head coach at Alabama. However, it did not take him long to secretly split and board a plane for Tuscaloosa.
In March 2012, Alabama gave him an extension to 2020 and a raise to $5.62 million a year. Saban even said it “represented his intention to finish his career at Tuscaloosa.” But Geoff Ketchum, owner and publisher of the popular Texas website Orangebloods.com, tweeted that Saban may be testing the waters.
No one will confirm or deny anything, which is not surprising since it is bowl season. Alabama athletic director Bill Battle said they are concentrating on their BCS bowl game against University of Oklahoma.