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College Football

Twitter reacts to the subtle shade Nick Saban threw at Ohio State, Urban Meyer and Zach Smith

Andrew Olson

By Andrew Olson

Published:

Nick Saban’s fall camp kickoff press conference always has the attention of the college football media (and their followers on social media). Saturday’s press conference came with extra intrigue as Saban was asked directly whether he offered a job to former Ohio State assistant Zach Smith.

On Friday, Ohio State released 2,000 texts and emails to and from Urban Meyer relating to the school’s investigation of how he handled domestic violence accusations made against Smith. Messages of Meyer and Smith discussing an offer for Smith to become Alabama’s passing game coordinator and wide receivers coach got the attention of the college football world. Meyer told Smith to turn the offer down. Saban, however, said there wasn’t an offer:

“I really never did ever offer this guy a job,” Saban said. “We did interview him. … When we did a background check we decided it was better to hire someone else.”

Fans and media members were quick to take note of Saban’s mention of a background check. Considering the Meyer-Smith messages were a big story Friday, it’s fair to presume that Saban knew a Smith question was coming and carefully crafted his response. Only Saban can speak for himself, but mentioning the background check as a reason for not hiring Smith comes off as a subtle dig at Meyer and OSU. Saban may be expecting to have to go against (the currently retired) Meyer again on the recruiting trail sometime in the future.

Andrew Olson

Andrew writes about sports to fund his love of live music and collection of concert posters. He strongly endorses the Hall of Fame campaigns of Fred Taylor and Andruw Jones.

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