In a development that surprised absolutely not one, Nick Saban was fantastic on ABC's coverage of the NFL draft's first round on Thursday night.
The recently-retired legend clearly did his homework on each prospect, and Kirk Herbstreit did a great job deferring to Saban by allowing him the floor to give his take on each pick and drawing Saban into places where he could educate the audience on football evaluation and technique. I genuinely enjoyed Herbstreit setting up Saban to explain how Dallas Turner converts "speed to power" as a pass rusher.
Of course, it didn't hurt that Saban had personal experience with many of the draft picks Thursday night. He coached three of them, coached against 10 of them, and recruited many more that went elsewhere, like North Carolina-turned-New England Patriots quarterback Drake Maye.
And then there was the case of Toledo cornerback Quinyon Mitchell.
Mitchell is a rare case of an elite talent who emerged as an elite talent before his final season and didn't use his status to transfer up the ladder.
Not that he didn't have options. From an ESPN profile of Mitchell before the draft:
In a pre-draft process spent being asked by teams and media why he never chased bigger opportunities, Mitchell flipped the script with his answers. Why would he leave coach Jason Candle's program after everyone there all stuck with him?
"Facts," Mitchell said with a laugh in a phone interview last week. "I feel like Toledo was loyal to me. They gave me that second chance. I feel like I got to develop so much. They made me the person and player I am today."
Turns out, one of those options was... Alabama?
Nick Saban on ABC about Toledo CB Quinyon Mitchell: "He was our No. 1 guy in the portal last year to try to get him to come out of the portal, and he would never get in the portal."
— Mike Rodak (@mikerodak) April 26, 2024
It's possible that Saban misspoke, that he meant Mitchell was the No. 1 prospect that Alabama's personnel department identified to recruit if he entered the portal. If I were a betting man, this is what I'd place my money on.
Or it's possible that Saban meant exactly what he said: That Alabama actively tried to get Mitchell into the portal and he declined to comply.
Aside from the obvious, there's a meta-narrative attached to Saban's quote. It's a matter of debate how much of a factor the transfer portal played into Saban's retirement. "So I'm saying to myself," Saban recalled in March, "'Maybe this doesn't work anymore, that the goals and aspirations are just different and that it's all about how much money can I make as a college player?"
If Saban walked away because of his annoyance that players continually tried to improve their station in life by transferring elsewhere, while he was actively trying to get other players to transfer into Alabama, it paints his comments in a different light. Portal for me, but not for thee, to quote the author Nat Hentoff.
Saban has been absolutely fantastic on television so far, and I'll look forward to hearing his analysis of players on Friday and Saturday. And I'll really look forward to it if he tells us which non-Bama players his staff tried to tamper into the portal.
As always, stay tuned to The Scoop for the latest.