The biggest storyline of 2025 SEC Media Days had nothing to do with an active player or coach, but a rumor — propogated by former Alabama quarterback Greg McElroy — that Nick Saban might not be done coaching.

The 73-year-old Saban retired after the 2023 season, and currently works as an analyst for ESPN’s College GameDay. He’s given no indication that he might one day return to the sideline, but such rumors will probably always exist as long as he’s alive and healthy.

One coach who twice made a similar move was Urban Meyer, who took the Ohio State job in 2012 after a year away following his departure from Florida and then briefly coached the NFL’s Jacksonville Jaguars in 2021 after three years out of the game. Meyer, now a college football analyst with Fox Sports, was a guest on The Herd with Colin Cowherd Thursday, and the subject of Saban’s future came up.

“I have not talked to him about this,” Meyer said. “… But I don’t think he’d go back to college. I don’t see that fit. … I would say very little to no chance he would get involved in college. But I think he would take phone calls from the NFL.”

Cowherd brought up the case of Jim Harbaugh, who repeatedly turned down NFL jobs while at Michigan before finally joining the Los Angeles Chargers in 2024. The biggest enticement for Harbaugh, Cowherd said, was the chance to work with top-level quarterback Justin Herbert.

That’s something to which Meyer could relate. He said the main reason he went to Jacksonville was because the team was in line to draft Clemson quarterback Trevor Lawrence with the No. 1 overall pick in the draft.

“That’s so intriguing when you see a player of that caliber,” Meyer said. “If Nick Saban can get that kind of position where he believes that this is a Hall of Fame, future Hall of Fame quarterback or a world champion quarterback, the more I’m thinking, I think he’s going to take that call. I really do.”

One big difference between Meyer and Saban, of course, is age. Meyer is just 61 now and was 56 when he took the Jacksonville job, some 17 or 18 years younger than Saban would be if he joined an NFL team in 2026.

Meyer also took Alabama to task for its recent lack of spending on NIL relative to other top-level teams in the SEC and Big Ten, saying “Coach (Kalen) DeBoer, I’d be asking some hard questions. ‘Say, what’s the problem here? We can’t compete. We can’t pay our players.’”

Here’s video of the exchange: