The Weekender: Tyler Booker Wins SEC Media Days with Response to Nick Saban, Lane Kiffin Spars with Paul Finebaum and Utah State Fires Blake Anderson

By 11W Staff on July 21, 2024 at 2:35 pm
Tyler Booker
Brett Patzke – USA TODAY Sports
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Own the group chat with The Weekender, highlighting the biggest stories in college sports, standout writing from Eleven Warriors, and a glance at what's next.

Alabama guard issues perfect response to Nick Saban

Despite coaching Alabama for the last 17 years, Nick Saban isn’t picking the Crimson Tide to make this year’s SEC Championship Game. Now an analyst for ESPN, Saban predicted last week that Georgia and Texas will be the two teams facing off for a conference title in Atlanta in December.

Saban’s former players at SEC Media Days said they were unbothered by their former coach’s snub. But Alabama guard Tyler Booker used it as an opportunity to take a humorous jab at his former coach, delivering one of the most memorable quotes of SEC Media Days in the process.

“Something he taught me was not to pay attention to external factors, and since he works at the stadium now and not the facility, he's an external factor, so I'm not really paying attention to him,” Booker said with a laugh. "He said, 'Don't listen to a guy who sits in his mother's basement and tweets all day, so I'm not going to listen to a guy who plays golf all day.”

In case there was any doubt, Booker clarified in a later interview that his response to Saban was intended as a joke and that he still has a great relationship with his former coach.

Alabama quarterback Jalen Milroe responded to Saban’s prediction by saying “all we want to do is focus on us and worry about us.” Alabama safety Malachi Moore acknowledged, however, that he and his teammates had taken notice of the prediction from Saban, who was initially denied entry into SEC Media Days after forgetting his media credential.

“It's so quick to see Coach Saban take on another role other than being Coach Saban,” Moore said, “but he has a job to do, and he's entitled to his own opinion. But yeah, we heard him.”

Despite his SEC title game prediction, Alabama will honor Saban this fall by naming the playing surface at Bryant-Denny Stadium as Saban Field, Alabama announced Friday.

Kiffin to Finebaum: “I don‘t know what you‘re good at”

Lane Kiffin still considers Paul Finebaum to be partially responsible for his firing from USC 11 years ago, so it’s no surprise that the often-outspoken Ole Miss coach had some things to say to Finebaum while appearing on the ESPN radio host’s show at SEC Media Days on Monday.

On the morning before USC’s 2013 loss to Arizona State that ultimately resulted in Kiffin being left on the tarmac, Finebaum called Kiffin “the Miley Cyrus of college football coaching” on College GameDay, a comment that Kiffin said resonated with then-USC president C.L. Max Nikias and athletic director Pat Haden.

Now, Kiffin says he is grateful to Finebaum for “helping getting me fired,” as his firing from USC led to his opportunity to spend three years working for Saban at Alabama before becoming the head coach at Florida Atlantic and Ole Miss. But Kiffin still used his appearance on Finebaum’s show to take a shot at the opinionated analyst.

“Really, I don’t know what you’re good at,” Kiffin said to Finebaum. “You predicted Coach Saban was done, that didn’t happen. You basically said Miley Cyrus stinks and she’s still going.”

“It’s always great to be ridiculed by Lane Kiffin here at SEC Media Days,” Finebaum replied with a laugh.

Utah State officially fires Blake Anderson

Sixteen days after announcing that it had placed head coach Blake Anderson on administrative leave with intent to terminate his contract, Utah State officially fired its football coach on Thursday.

Utah State said in a statement that it fired Anderson for “significant violations of his contract obligations.” Per ESPN, an investigation commissioned by the university found that Anderson attempted to personally investigate a player’s domestic violence arrest by asking the player’s girlfriend and roommate to provide written statements about the altercation that led to the player’s arrest.

Anderson is disputing the allegation that he violated university policies. His attorney, Tom Mars, told ESPN that the player’s girlfriend and roommate provided statements to Anderson without the coach asking for them.

Nate Dreiling, who joined Utah State’s staff as defensive coordinator earlier this year, will serve as interim head coach this season following Anderson’s midsummer firing. He’ll be hoping to lead the Aggies to their first winning season in three years after back-to-back 6-7 campaigns.

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What’s Next

  • Tuesday-Thursday: Big Ten Media Days
  • 11 Days (Aug. 1): Ohio State’s first day of preseason camp
  • 41 Days (Aug. 31): Ohio State’s season opener vs. Akron
  • 132 Days (Nov. 30): The Game
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