Week 11 of the 2024 college football season is headlined by No. 11 Alabama taking on No. 14 LSU. With this being arguably the biggest game of the week, ESPN’s popular “College GameDay” crew will be on the ground in Baton Rouge, meaning that Tigers head coach Brian Kelly will see former Crimson Tide head coach Nick Saban again.
After he retired as Alabama’s head coach last offseason, Saban made the jump into the world of sports media, joining the “College GameDay” crew for the 2024 campaign.
While he may be out of the game, Saban’s loyalty still lies with Alabama, which is something that Kelly is well aware of. With Saban set to get some access to LSU’s game plan ahead of this contest, Kelly joked that he’d be wary of letting the former Crimson Tide coach get too big of a peak behind the curtain.
“He still has an office over there in Alabama, so I’m not sure. But you know what they say, ‘Keep your friends close, keep your enemies closer.’ So we’re gonna let him hang around a little bit, but we’re not gonna let him in the locker room, that’s for sure.” – Brian Kelly, The Paul Finebaum Show
Saban obviously isn’t going to do anything illegal to give Alabama a competitive advantage over LSU, and after all, it is worth noting that he was the Tigers head coach for five seasons from 2000-2004 before his incredibly successful stint with the Crimson Tide.
LSU will be looking to get back on the right track against Alabama, as they are fresh off a tough 38-23 loss at the hands of Texas A&M in Week 10. The Crimson Tide, meanwhile, are picked up a dominant 34-0 victory over Missouri last weekend.
This should be a very tight game, and it will be interesting to see if Alabama can beat Kelly and LSU without Saban leading the way. Kickoff is scheduled for 7:30 P.M. EST on Saturday, Nov. 9th.
