Alabama coach Nick Saban tests positive for coronavirus

By Alan Blinder, New York Times

Coach Nick Saban tested positive for the coronavirus, and top-ranked Alabama said Wednesday that though he had received an inaccurate diagnosis last month, it was real this time.

Saban, who has won five national championships at Alabama, will miss this weekend’s Iron Bowl, the in-state rivalry showdown with No. 22 Auburn.

“We hate it that this situation occurred, but as I said many times before, you’ve got to be able to deal with disruptions this year, and our players have been pretty mature about doing that,” Saban, 69, said on a conference call with reporters less than an hour after Alabama announced his positive test, the lone one in the football program.

“We just want to carry on the best we can,” said Saban, who is in his 14th season at Alabama. He said that he had a runny nose but none of what he described as “the cardinal signs of the virus,” like a fever or a loss of taste or smell.

Still, coming the morning after the College Football Playoff announced its first rankings of the pandemic-upended season, Alabama’s disclosure convulsed the sport anew. More than 80 top-tier games have been postponed or canceled because of virus-related concerns, and a handful of coaches and popular players, including Clemson quarterback Trevor Lawrence, have tested positive for the virus this season.

For a spell last month, Saban was among them. Alabama announced on Oct. 14, just days before a crucial game against Georgia, that Saban had tested positive for the virus but had no symptoms. Alabama immediately turned to a new Southeastern Conference protocol that allowed an asymptomatic person to undergo days of repeated tests for the virus to try to determine if the initial result was a false positive.

Saban’s subsequent tests were negative — the final result returned hours before kickoff and not long after his sample had been ferried to a laboratory in a private jet — and he was cleared to coach against Georgia.

Alabama, which is 7-0, said Wednesday that the league’s protocol would not be applicable now.

“He has very mild symptoms, so this test will not be categorized as a potential false positive,” Jimmy Robinson, a doctor for Alabama, and Jeff Allen, the football team’s head athletic trainer, said in a short statement. “He will follow all appropriate guidelines and isolate at home.”

Coaches who are in isolation may not lead their teams during games, even by phone or videoconference, so Steve Sarkisian, Alabama’s offensive coordinator, will run the Crimson Tide in Saban’s absence. But Saban, reputed for both his coaching acumen and his taskmaster approach to his program, insisted Wednesday that he would be involved in preparations for the Auburn game, just as he was before the matchup with Georgia.

“I absolutely did everything from home that I did at the office, just did it on Zoom,” Saban said.

Saban has been among college football’s foremost proponents of recommendations to wear masks and adhere to social distancing, and he even filmed a public service announcement this year alongside Big Al, the university’s elephant mascot.

He said Wednesday that he did not know how he had contracted the virus.