Greg Byrne had always dreamed of Nick Saban being Alabama’s football coach for all time. In 2017, after replacing one of the best head coaches in history, he was asked about his intentions to become the Crimson Tide’s athletic director.
Byrne remembered his response when he appeared on the Paul Finebaum Show on SEC Network on Wednesday.
“It was as simple as ‘kick the can down the road as far as we could,'” Byrne remarked. On the other hand, being unprepared when the time came was among the worst things I could do in my capacity as AD.
Byrne brought up the anecdote that states athletic directors have a list of possible replacement coaches in the top desk drawer. He denied that applied to him, but he was prepared with a more flexible list of possible Saban substitutes.
He claimed that over time, the list had evolved.
Over the years, we had probably interviewed a dozen or so instructors and determined whether or not they would be a good fit. Byrne stated. “A greater number of them made sense than others. We knew exactly what we wanted to find.
According to Byrne, no candidate was able to check every box in the situation. He made a jest that Saban wasn’t going to be doing this job interview.
After DeBoer’s introduction, Byrne made sure to clarify with reporters that he was not speaking with possible successors as long as Saban was still in position.
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