Nick Saban talks about his passion for coaching the secondary, makes Miss Terry joke

Some things Nick Saban loves, in no particular order: Football, coaching and teaching football, and his wife, Miss Terry Saban. He got to weave them all together in a rather touching moment from the often brusk Alabama head coach during his weekly radio show on Thursday.

On “Hey Coach and the Nick Saban Show,” a youth football player from Georgia who plays safety asked the head coach about the improvement of his own safeties this season. It got Saban to spin off about coaching and how he loves working with secondary players.

“I love it. I love coaching, I love teaching. I’ve said it many times before to recruits, I’d probably, if I had a choice, just as soon be the secondary coach as the head coach. Just doesn’t pay as well,” Saban said. “Can’t afford Miss Terry on a secondary coaches salary.”

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This came after Saban gave a fairly thorough breakdown of the safeties that have featured for Alabama this year, namely Jordan Battle and DeMarcco Hellams, who he sees as future NFL players.

He also highlighted others like Brian Branch and Malachi Moore, who play in the “star” and “money” positions when Alabama plays nickel and dime defenses with five or six defensive backs on the field, respectively.

Saban also went over, generally, what he wants from his safeties and balancing defending run versus pass, and what he looks for in a backend player on defense.

“I’m gonna tell you,” Saban said to the young man who asked about it. “You’re a safety. Three critical factors of playing defensive back: You gotta judge the ball in the deep part of the field, you gotta be able to tackle, you gotta be able to play man-to-man. So you do those things and I’m going to come and see you one of these days.”