And the Next UT Football Coach Is?

Having read the correspondence between Tom and Steve Hicks concerning the football coaching situation at UT, and having listened to media reports saying that new athletic director Steve Patterson is known for making big and bold decisions, I’m inclined to give considerable credence to the rumors that University of Alabama football coach Nick Saban may be the next football coach at the University of Texas. Here is a key paragraph from the Hicks’ correspondence:

[UT Regent] Wallace [Hall] came to my home a little after 7 pm, and we talked it through prior to the call. We spoke on my home office speaker phone to Sexton [Saban’s agent] for approximately 45 minutes. Both Wallace and I participated. [Sexton] confirmed that UT is the only job Nick would possibly consider leaving Alabama for, and that his success there created special pressure for him. We told Sexton that Mack had leadership’s support to stay, and that I would go talk to him as a friend to see if Mack had any interest in retiring. I told him it would have to be Mack’s idea, and that I really didn’t know how Mack and Sally were feeling about the pressures of the job at this time.

In that same call, Hall is reported to have said that UT president Bill Powers “wouldn’t be here at the end of the year.”

I don’t have any inside information, but I will say this: Given the turmoil surrounding Mack Brown and the UT football program, I would not be surprised if Saban did accept the head coaching position at UT in the near future, depending upon Patterson’s timetable. Saban has been open that the UT position is the only one that could lure him away from Alabama. Furthermore, the move of Saban from Alabama to UT would come at an ideal time for UT, as Texas A&M has upstaged UT over the past two seasons, and hiring Saban would allow UT to turn the tables on the Aggies. As I said above, I have no inside information other than reasonable speculation given the information that is known at this time. Readers are free to draw their own conclusions.