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Had his wife not wanted out of South Beach, Nick Saban’s illustrious run at Alabama may not have happened.
Terry Saban’s yearning to leave Miami is one of the primary reasons the Crimson Tide coach left the NFL for Tuscaloosa in 2007, according to Monte Burke’s biography of the four-time national champion coach entitled “Saban: The Making of a Coach,” reported by the Palm Beach Post.
According to a chapter centering around Saban’s tenure with the Dolphins, he became close with Alabama athletic director Mal Moore whose nephew, Chuck, previously helped Saban remodel one of his homes in Georgia.
Chuck became a ‘key intermediary’ in the process according to Burke.
“During the last few weeks of the 2006 Dolphins season, despite his very public denials, Saban had called Chuck a few times to tell him that he was possibly interested in the Alabama job, knowing full well whom Chuck would call the minute they hung up the phone,” Burke writes.
It was Terry, however, who sealed the deal.
During a time of no contact for Saban after Mal Moore had already gauged the coach’s interest in Alabama, Moore met with Saban’s wife and his agent, Jimmy Sexton.
“She made it clear to Moore that Saban was miserable in the NFL and dearly missed coaching in college,” Burke writes. “She also made it clear that she wanted out.”
Then-Dolphins owner Wayne Huizenga, who once thought he had retained his coach, told Saban to “follow his heart” after learning Terry had other plans.
Happy wife, happy life.
Publisher Simon & Schuster says “Saban: The Making of a Coach” is scheduled to release in August.
