What does Nick Saban’s last NFL Draft say about the Alabama-Auburn rivalry without him?
This is an opinion column.
Put aside getting hired to coach in the Iron Bowl, which is a rare privilege in a privileged profession. What else do Nick Saban, Hugh Freeze and Kalen DeBoer have in common?
Each of them knows what it’s like to strike out in the NFL Draft at the exact same stage of their young tenures at a major college program.
After Saban’s first season at Alabama in 2007, Freeze’s first season at Ole Miss in 2012 and DeBoer’s first season at Washington in 2022, none of them had a player drafted the following spring. In a world where the new guy often professes to find the cupboard bare when he gets there, those goose eggs were good news. They illustrated the need to rebuild a program that was not routinely pumping out professional football players.
Compared to those false starts on draft weekend, Freeze and Auburn just enjoyed a relative bonanza as five Tigers were selected Saturday, led by cornerback Nemehiah Pritchett as the first pick in the fifth round.
It’s not the volume of picks but their location that stands out. Consider it the final explanation for a woeful stretch that includes a third head coach since 2020, three straight losing seasons and a four-game Iron Bowl losing streak, the program’s longest in four decades.