Transition game: LSU’s move from Saban to Miles

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It felt like Charlie Weems spent every day on the phone with Nick Saban in the week leading up to Christmas of 2004. Weems had been here before. For at least the third straight year, Saban was fielding an offer from a professional team, and LSU battled to keep him. “It seemed like every hour for days I spent trying to influence him to stay,” Weems said. “My sense is that Nick has a hard time pulling the trigger. I think he always wanted to go to the pros. The whole time he was at our place, we were fighting off suitors every year. It was an annual event that we weren’t happy about and were tired of.”

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Weems was in the locker room after “The Catch” doomed Saban’s last game. “It was as emotional as you’ll see him,” Weems said. “The message was, ‘You’ll always be my boys, I’ll always be your coach and I’ll always be a Tiger.’ ”

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Then-Jacksonville Jaguars coach Jack Del Rio never made it to his interview. For fear of his contract being voided by the NFL team, he did not enter the restaurant in Daytona Beach where committee members waited. They could see Del Rio in his car in the parking lot talking to his agent on the phone. “Unbelievable,” one committee member described the ordeal.

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If LSU got into the mix before South Carolina, “We could have had Spurrier,” one committee member said.

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Do you think Saban suggested Nutt in case he wanted to come back?

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