Nick Saban shares oatmeal cream pies with ESPN colleagues on set at the 2024 NFL Draft

In one of his first appearances on set as an ESPN football analyst, Nick Saban ’s influence started to show.

While the network’s broadcast of the third round of the 2024 NFL Draft in Detroit rolled late into Friday night, the legendary former Alabama coach sat around the desk on camera with several of his new colleagues eating his favorite snack — oatmeal cream pies.

Saban is a famously voracious consumer of the Little Debbie snack, eating two of them every morning with his coffee.

“Part of my motivation for getting up in the morning is I love to have a cup of coffee and two Debbie cookies every day,” Saban said in 2021 in an episode of the ESPN web series “Eli’s Places” with former New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning. “And when I don’t have them, I’m cranky.”

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On set Friday, Saban, Desmond Howard and ESPN host Rece Davis, a Muscle Shoals native and Alabama graduate, each ate an oatmeal cream pie as the draft returned from a commercial break. ESPN’s Field Yates asked how much money Saban made Little Debbie over the years, to which the recently retired coach said the company “never even sent me a free box,” though given that he made $11.4 million last year, he probably doesn’t have much trouble affording them.

When Saban retired in January , boxes of oatmeal cream pies were left at the base of his statue outside Bryant-Denny Stadium.

Though he’s no longer shouldering the onerous schedule that comes with being the Alabama football coach, oatmeal cream pies remain a part of his daily routine. In fact, he told ESPN at the Masters earlier this month that he spoke with a woman who’s part of the production crew for “College GameDay,” on which Saban will be a panelist next season, and was informed they’ll be stocking his favorite snacks for him on set.

“I said ‘At least you’ve got your priorities right,’” Saban said.

This article originally appeared on The Tuscaloosa News: Nick Saban shares oatmeal cream pies with ESPN colleagues on set at the 2024 NFL Draft