When is a hat more than just a hat?

These days, when it is made of straw and has a script “A” on it, it tends to evoke an emotion.

That’s what the folks at SEC Shorts were aiming for. As usual, they hit the mark in their latest video. Per tradition, the video of the season has the crew dishing out end-of-the-year grades to all 14 teams in the SEC as if they were elementary school students getting their report cards from the teacher.

Yet, at the end of the video, there is a subtle – yet emotional – tip of the cap to former Alabama coach Nick Saban. It was the message SEC Shorts was looking to send.

“We wanted to do something that was a send off,” Robert Clay, who writes and acts in the skits, told AL.com on Tuesday. “It is so tricky. You don’t want to be too sappy, to corny. Early on, we decided we wanted to be real subtle with it, and that’s when we had the idea of the iconic straw hat.

“Just like Bear Bryant’s houndstooth hat, that was his symbol. We thought that would be a good way to get that across. A very brief tip of the cap to his legacy.”

In the video, the final student, Alabama wasn’t excited with his performance, despite getting A’s in everything except offense, which it earned an A-.

Still, the teach gives Alabama proper encouragement, then tells the young student he should go to the playground and play. As he ran out, the teacher noticed he left his hat. The teacher – instead of chasing Alabama to return his hat – simply hung the hat on the wall, turned off the lights and closed the door. The camera panned to the hat for an extended period before the scene faded to black.

“You want the viewer to sort of impart their own emotion to it,” Clay explained. “That’s what makes it powerful. Seeing a hat hung on the wall doesn’t necessarily engage anything other than that. I think when you see it – the important part was – we tried to let it linger a little bit on the screen. For fans and people who love the game, I think in that regard you can put your own thoughts into in and what that Saban run meant to you.”

It tugged on the heart strings of the Alabama fans that reached out to Klay.

“I got a bunch of texts from Bama fans telling me it got them to cry,” he admitted. “That wasn’t exactly what I was expecting. That’s how much Saban meant to people.”

There’s no question Saban has been a big part of what SEC Shorts has done over the years, so “I think for us personally, it was the end of a chapter, including him,” Clay explained.

Saban retired last week after 17 years in Tuscaloosa, winning six national championships with Alabama. He also won one at LSU. The tribute was a no-brainer.

“Her hanging it up and turning out the lights in the class just seemed like a really good way to just convey it subtly and not overhit it,” Clay said. “You want to have the audience to understand, hopefully, from us, it comes off as respectful, and we enjoyed watching it as much as anyone else did.”

Mark Heim is a reporter for The Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @Mark_Heim. He can be heard on “The Opening Kickoff” on WNSP-FM 105.5 FM in Mobile or on the free Sound of Mobile App from 6 to 9 a.m. daily.