Alabama insider says Jeremy Pruitt and the Tennessee Vols factored into Nick Saban's decision to retire

An Alabama Crimson Tide insider suggested this week at SEC Media Days in Dallas that Jeremy Pruitt and the Tennessee Vols factored into Nick Saban's decision to retire earlier this year.

Saban announced his retirement from Alabama in January after leading the program to six national championships over a 17-year period.

97.7 ESPN The Zone 's Drew DeArmond joined Off the Hook Sports ' Dave Hooker at SEC Media Days to discuss a variety of topics, including Saban's retirement.

DeArmond told Hooker that Saban's inability to hire Pruitt -- thanks to the NCAA recruiting investigation/scandal that cost the former Tennessee head coach his job in early 2021 -- was a big part of why Saban retired from Alabama.

"I think a big part of it (Saban's decision to retire), too, was that Jeremy Pruitt, after his issues with the NCAA, is not coaching right now at the college level," explained DeArmond. "He's at the high school level at Plainview High School back in his home town in Alabama....Coach Saban couldn't get Pruitt back. Pruitt, he and Kirby Smart were the two best he ever had to do it (as defensive coordinators). And Coach Saban spent a lot of time the year before trying to get Pruitt back, because they thought he (Pruitt) would be cleared potentially. Maybe through his lawyer they could work out a deal with the NCAA and he would be back at Alabama. But it didn't happen.

"Once he wasn't able to bring [Pruitt] back, Kevin Steele was brought in. Coach Steele, a Tennessee alum -- a guy that's coached at Tennessee, he's coached all over the SEC. It became obvious when they hired him late that he was only going to be a one-year guy."

When DeArmond was asked if he thought if Saban would still be the head coach at Alabama in 2024 had Pruitt been cleared by the NCAA, the Alabama insider said he thought there's a "great chance" that would be the case.

"They (Saban and Pruitt) had a very good relationship, a very close relationship," said DeArmond. "And I still believe if he could've brought in Pruitt, and hadn't had to take on as much of a heavy load defensively, I still think there's a chance he might stay....I think Coach Saban wanted to go back to what he's familiar with -- that's Jeremy Pruitt -- and he couldn't get it. I think it was the first domino in what kind of led to him retiring. Because Jeremy Pruitt knows his system backwards and forwards. And he knew how to adapt it -- he was the first one to get Coach Saban to simplify it when he was there in 2016 and 2017. So not being able to bring Jeremy [back to Alabama] was the first in a few dominoes that fell that ultimately drove Nick Saban to retire."

DeArmond's timeline of Saban's interest in hiring Pruitt checks out , by the way.

In early 2023, CBS Sports' Dennis Dodd reported that Saban had reached out to Pruitt about the defensive coordinator job at Alabama. Kevin Steele was hired just a few days after that report from Dodd.

There were then rumblings in early 2024 that Saban wanted to hire Pruitt just days before the legendary Alabama head coach announced his retirement. Pruitt, however, is subject to an automatic one-year suspension if he returns to college football, which essentially ruled him out as an option for Alabama.

Tennessee and the rest of the SEC should be thankful that Pruitt wasn't able to be hired at Alabama. Saban wasn't quite as a dominant in his final years in Tuscaloosa, but he still had the Crimson Tide among the elite programs in college football. And the return of one of his top lieutenants certainly would've made Alabama extremely dangerous once again.

Related: Former Tennessee QB Joe Milton deserves a lot of credit for any success the Vols have early in the 2024 season