- ABC News
- December 29, 2016
Had it not been for Don James, Nick Saban isn't sure what direction his life would have taken. Maybe he would have sold cars. Maybe he would have opened his own gas station, like his dad did in West Virginia. Maybe he would have climbed the corporate ladder in the business world. But James opened the door to the coaching world, and then nudged a resistant Saban through that door. "I didn't really want to be a coach. I never really thought about being a coach," Saban said last week. "But Coach James had other ideas, and I'm glad he did." Imagine that: The same guy who's closing in on coaching immortality -- if he's not already there -- with four of the past seven national championships didn't want to be a coach. But it's true, and it took an impromptu meeting with James right after Saban's senior season at Kent State (along with a little coercing) to change the course of college football history. It's a meeting that Saban has thought about more than a few times over the...