After narrowly avoiding it against Georgia, Nick Saban was not able to test his way out of quarantine last Saturday, missing Alabama's Iron Bowl game against Auburn.
And weird as it was for all of us to see Alabama play without Saban for the first time since the 2006 Insight Bowl, it was even weirder for those involved.
ESPN's Chris Low wrote a great piece detailing what it was like for Alabama to be without Saban and for the Sabans to be without Alabama. I say the Sabans because Miss Terry has some great quotes in here, like telling us that, although Steve Sarkisian was Alabama's head coach on game day, Charlie Strong was Nick Saban during practices.
"Poor Charlie Strong!" Terry said. "I have tried to explain to Nick that yelling things during practice [on the phone] does not help, that he's only yelling in Charlie's ear, not at the players. I explained that if he calmly and succinctly makes his point, that Charlie would be better able to pass it on to the players. He looked at me like I had two heads, but I think it's starting to sink in."
The piece also includes some great Saban quotes -- "I just sat there and kind of watched pregame warm-up on the live feed like a freakin' fan sitting in the upper deck" -- but most importantly Low details how the experience, strange as it was, provided an important opportunity for Saban to take his temperature on his coaching career.
In short, anyone who hoped Alabama's 42-13 drubbing of Auburn would serve as the beginning of the end -- that it proved Alabama can live without Saban and vice versa -- you are sadly mistaken. There's a greater chance it had the opposite effect.
"It's hard to explain how much being out there around the players and coaches means to you," Saban said. "And when you can't be out there, it makes you realize how much more you would miss it."