We may not ever see a coach quite like Nick Saban ever again.

Before his retirement in January of 2024, he was the last of a dying breed. Sure, he took several coaches under his wing, and they ended up being successful coaches themselves, but no one was as no nonsense as Saban.

Saban was the kind of coach who was up 50 points with eight seconds left in the game, and would chew you out if you weren’t doing your job correctly.

But really, that did happen.

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He was known for his old school, country-like personality. He would show up to practice in a straw hat every day, wear a suit and tie during A-Day scrimmages, and would spit out one-liners that only a man growing up in West Virginia could come up with.

The man wore his heart on his sleeve. If you didn’t do something right, or the referees made a call that he didn’t agree with, he’d scream at the top of his lungs and throw his arms up, maybe even throw his headset to the ground if the mood was right.

But it was fascinating watching him as he got older, and the age gap between him and his players got wider.

A generation that was often critiqued for not handling tough love coaching, fell in love with him. The only reason why players would come play for the Alabama Crimson Tide, was because Saban was at the helm.

Former safety and now Detroit Lion of the NFL, Terrion Arnold, who had a close relationship with Saban and his wife Miss Terry, told a story about how Saban ripped him at the end of a game that was seemingly over on his podcast with other Alabama alum, Pat Surtain II.

“I was playing with the 2’s (backups) because one of the other guys got hurt, so I wasn’t even in at corner, I was in at nickel. And it was third down at nickel, so I’m getting a lot of man [coverage] calls.”

He then proceeds to talk about how he followed a man in motion, but because it was the backups, they didn’t cover for Arnold.

Eventually he got beaten badly, and the player he was guarding took the ball approximately 70 yards before getting tackled near the one-yard line. The opposing team, Kentucky, eventually ran it in for the touchdown.

Arnold then recalled Saban’s reaction as they headed to the sidelines.

“‘Three! Who the hell do you think you are? Do you think you’re bigger than the program? If I tell you to do this, then god dammit do it!’ You know how he is? … And at that point, I’m not just Terrion, I’m not T.A., I’m not T-3. I’m just Three.”

But Arnold went on to talk about how he wasn’t just an in your face coach, he wanted you to know that he cared.

“After the game, he had his little dip in his mouth and he spit in it and he’s like ‘Three, you know I love you.’ And you know anytime a coach has to come to you after a game, you know they really got onto you.”

Surtain then went on to talk about Saban’s way of dealing with players, and how everything is a test to see how mentally tough you are.

“I mean, he look at your reaction, to know like ‘OK I can keep on doing this. I want too see how he responds. I want to see if he can take coaching.’ Like if you handle it in an immature way, or you get emotional about it, best believe he gon’ keep on coming for you boy.”

Arnold quickly followed that saying, “I’ve seen him tell people, ‘I’m going to make you quit.’”

He was a true one of a kind, but luckily we still get to hear his insight weekly on College Gameday, as well as his appearances on the Pat McAfee Show.

This upcoming week, Gameday will be in Happy Valley, where Penn State hosts Oregon.