Former Alabama football staff member Charles Kelly isn’t sure if former Crimson Tide coach Nick Saban will return to coaching.
Kelly does know there is one important decision-maker who will ultimately have a say if Saban will return to the coaching ranks, Saban’s wife Terry.
“Coach Saban, I’m sure there’s days that he’s missing it because he was so good at what he did. Coach, he enjoyed the relationships that he had not only with his players but his coaching staff. Coach was always excited the first day we came back from vacation, you could tell he was ready to go. So I’m sure that there’s days that he’s missing it but, listen, coach loves his grandkids,” Kelly said to the Gadsden times on Wednesday. “He is a great grandfather. There’s things he has, businesses that he enjoys, and I know he probably enjoys the things he’s doing with ESPN — they couldn’t hire a better analyst. I’m sure there’s things that he enjoys doing. Whether he’ll come back, I’ll say that all depends on Mrs. Terry. In her own right, everybody talks about coach, but she was a big part of what made coach so successful. I learned a lot from her as well.”
Kelly was the assistant defensive coordinator and safeties coach under Saban from 2019-22 at Alabama. He helped lead the Crimson Tide to the 2020 national title, the sixth and final one at Alabama for Saban. Kelly would go on to Colorado and Auburn before taking the Jacksonville Statehead coaching job in Dec. 2024, joining the long list of current head coaches who coached under Saban.
