Tommy Tuberville is one of the few past and present college football coaches with a winning record against Nick Saban.

But a new poll finds the recently retired legendary University of Alabama football coach could erase his losing record against Tuberville, the former Auburn football coach and Alabama’s current senior U.S. senator — in a matchup off the field.

Saban, who went 3-4 against Tuberville on the gridiron, would defeat Tuberville for the Senate seat if Saban runs as a Democrat in 2026, 42 percent to 39 percent, according to a YouGov poll shared with Slate.

The late January survey of 537 registered Alabama voters showed Saban in a better position than other potential Tuberville challengers.

Ex-Sen. Doug Jones, who lost his seat to Tuberville in 2020, would lose in a hypothetical matchup by an even bigger margin in 2026, according to the poll. Jones trailed the incumbent 52 percent to 27 percent, a larger margin than the 20-percentage point deficit he faced in 2020.

Against a “generic Democrat,” Tuberville would win 49 percent to 32 percent, according to the poll.

“Nick Saban looks like an extremely valuable recruit that Democrats should be considering carefully in this race,” John Ray, the polling director of YouGov Blue, the Democratic political research division that set up the survey, told Slate.

“I base that on the clear signs of his strong personal constituency and on his relatively strong performance compared to others who Democrats might be considering.”

Meanwhile, Saban has not expressed any interest in entering politics: