The LSU Tigers fired Brian Kelly from their head coaching role on Sunday night, and immediately, just about every name across the college football world was floated as a potential option.

Lane Kiffin was naturally connected to the job, but so was his coaching idol and former boss while serving as the Alabama Crimson Tide’s offensive coordinator from 2014-2016, Nick Saban.

CBS Sports’ Chris Hummer believes LSU AD Chris Woodward will have the moxie to ask Saban to return to Baton Rouge, where he won a national championship with the program in 2003.

Hummer doesn’t predict it will go well after Saban made comments earlier this week about wanting to stay retired.

Saban bowed out of the sport in January 2024, citing concerns with NIL and the transfer portal repeatedly in the aftermath.

“It was only earlier this week when Saban said, ‘I want to stay retired.’ But if there was a non-Alabama job that could tempt Saban, it’d be LSU, the place he won his first national championship. Would he take the job if offered? Probably not. But Woodward’s history tells you he’ll at least ask,” Hummer wrote.

Nick Saban would only return to coach at Alabama

Woodward could ask, but Saban could say no. Saban has admitted that leaving LSU for the Miami Dolphins in December 2024 was the biggest mistake of his career. If he ever returns to coaching, it’d be because he felt he left Alabama too soon.

Potentially burning the bridge to Tuscaloosa isn’t in the cards. His disciple, Kiffin, is the most realistic person to go back on his word. Kiffin said he’d only leave the Ole Miss Rebels for the Crimson Tide.

We’ll see how that word holds now that LSU is an option.