A transcript of the proceedings might read like an FBI case file. Helicopters swarming. Reporters emerging from shadowy streets. Intermediaries. Rumored meetings. Faux search committees.
By the end of the odyssey, the hiring of Nick Saban at Alabama would require a private plane, a limousine company, and a driver named Francisco. Secret meetings would be held in Tuscaloosa, New York, Fort Lauderdale and a laundry room. But what happened across the 38 days between the firing of Mike Shula and the hiring of Nick Saban would prove to be the fulcrum on which Alabama football swung. “It was one bizarre event after another,” Steve Townsend, a retired special assistant to Mal Moore, recalled during a series of interviews with Saturday Down South.
