Former Nick Saban assistant: Greg Sankey is 'scared of Nick'

On3 imageby:Nick Schultz05/21/22

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When Texas A&M coach Jimbo Fisher held his press conference Thursday about Alabama coach Nick Saban’s comments about the Aggies and NIL, he urged the media to talk to people who worked for him. The Athletic’s Bruce Feldman, Brody Miller and Matt Fortuna did just that — and one former Saban assistant made quite a prediction about a potential punishment from the SEC.

The unnamed assistant predicted the SEC wouldn’t do much, if anything, to punish Saban and Alabama for what happened. During an event in Birmingham, Saban said Texas A&M “bought every one of their players” during the 2022 recruiting cycle, which saw the Aggies pull in the nation’s No. 1 recruiting class, according to the On3 Consensus Team Recruiting Ranking.

The SEC issued a public reprimand to both coaches, but took no further action. The former Saban assistant didn’t sound surprised considering who was involved. Then, the coach didn’t hold back as they called out SEC commissioner Greg Sankey.

“The irony of it all is the NCAA & the SEC ain’t gonna do sh*t to em,” the assistant told The Athletic. “If this was Miss. State & Ole Miss, they’d be investigating em. Sankey ain’t gonna touch ‘em. Sankey is scared of Nick.”

College football coaches, athletic directors weigh in on Nick Saban, Jimbo Fisher

The college football world seemed like it went on hold to watch Fisher’s response to Saban, for whom he worked at LSU from 2000 to 2004. In fact, one Big Ten assistant coach said their program stopped what it was doing to watch Fisher fire back at his former boss.

“I think there was like a universal 90 minutes where no one got s— done because they were just laughing their asses off, us included,” the assistant told ESPN.

A Power 5 athletic director also shared their thoughts, noting Saban likely had a reason for saying what he said during the event in Birmingham on Wednesday night.

“Everybody knows Nick is very smart,” the athletic director told ESPN. “There’s a reason he’s doing this. It’s almost like for him to do this, A&M is a serious threat or even bigger. I think he sees this as an existential crisis. He can see it, and unless something changes, that’s his way of saying you guys gotta do something. I think he sees this as man, this gap could potentially close, and he’s trying to ring the alarm.”