Josh Pate Tells NEW Nick Saban + Lane Kiffin Story (Late Kick Cut)

John talty and Arman cayan have teamed up to write a book called the price and it is on news stands August 27th I've got myself an advanced copy it is very eye openening these are two of the best at what they do and there is a story from this book making the rounds and the story you may not be surprised to learn is about Nick Sabin and his time with former offensive coordinator Lane kein now Nick Sabin is as diplomatic as it comes and was when he was a coach you never heard him throw his staff under the bus uh but that does not mean it was very harmonious at all times behind the scenes so there is a quote from a story and there's kind of a paraphrased version of the story that's making the rounds from some folks who got an advanced copy of this book and it's basically explaining how during keen's tenure he had the same agent as he still does as Nick Sabin Jimmy seon they're both repped by CAA CA has a lot of the big clients from the head coaching perspective in the SEC so I will explain to you what I think is the biggest perceived Gap in perception and reality so so perception and reality don't always match in a lot of ways but I've I've intimated this before with you guys but I'm going to go a little deeper tonight the perception versus the reality of how hires are made in college football could not be any more different there is a world that that normal fans think exist when it comes to hires and then there's the actual way that hires happen and these two do not touch these two do not touch at all and frankly I think it would disappoint a lot of you the way that hires actually happen in this Sport and it has a lot to do I mean a lot to do with who you're represented by I don't think that's a surprise to you guys I think what the surprise is is when a head coach needs to back fill a defensive line position it's not that head coach you know flipping through the Rolodex or going to his memory bank for all of the years and years and years of relationships and wisdom that he has Acquired and he's not going through film evaluating candidates he is calling his agent or he's answering a call from his agent who's beat him to it and he's getting a list sent to him and it's basically uh here's the one you can pick from and that's how it happens even with Nick Sabin that's how it happened and so it's detailed in this story how Jimmy seon talked Nick Sabin into giving Lane kein a shot and Lane kin was Lane kein and so that's where the story picks up and Sabin is on the phone calling Jimmy seon every name in the book threatening to fire him forever sending this exploitive exploitive exploitive exploitive to my coaching staff and that kind of went on for a while and famously Sabin fired kein the week of the national championship game okay that's how bad it got and then Lane kein leaves and he goes on to do what he does and now he's the head coach at Old Miss and they may have very win the SEC this year for all we know and anytime that they've publicly spoken about each other it's always been very cordial it wasn't all that way behind the scenes so once upon a time I came here to this company but before that I was working in local news down in Columbus Georgia so I loved college football my whole life I finally get myself from Radio to TV and I'm in position where I can get credential to go to games so the first times that I ever got to really be around Nick Sabin Alabama were the mid-20 teenss so 2014 2015 2016 comes around and they're in the SEC Championship game and Lane kein is the offensive coordinator there and this is the last year that he was the OC there and they I think they played Florida or Missouri I can't remember who it was but they won the game but leading up to the game there were all these rumors about kein and was he going to take this job or that job the LSU job I think was coming open and so there were a lot of rumors okay so no one knew what to believe as far as the external no one knew what to believe but Lan keen's name was a very hot commodity so kein had made a promise there was a report that there was a promise that he made to sabbin that he wasn't going to talk to any other school until after the SEC Championship game so the game happens I'm on the field for it and it's one of the first SEC Championship games I got to cover I think I was there the first couple of years so that may have been the third one but you know the whole world's still kind of new to me from that perspective I walk off the field after the celebration and everything I walk off the field I'm walking down a tunnel it's the same tunnel as Bama goes down to go to their locker room Jimmy seon is standing right there he is standing there and I kid you not he has a phone in his hand he's got the full hand over the speaker he is waiting for Lan kein to come off the field he has a phone call that his client needs to take and so kein grabs the phone as he walks off the field I can't prove to you who he's talking to I can pretty well prove to you what that was in conjunction with because kein ended up taking I think the FAU job a month or so later I walked down the tunnel and I had my ey Josh with me at the time I snapped a picture just in case you guys didn't believe this I just kept it with me until a couple of years ago I tweeted it out and I didn't really go much further into detail this is it if you're listening on podcast we have Jimmy seon looking at his other phone and we have Lane kein on the phone that Sexton has just handed him talking to who knows who but that wasn't the part that stood out to me the part that stood out to me is Nick Sabin is represented by this same man and it was the first time I ever saw how this Dynamic works I see the game on the field and then I see the postgame and Vern and Gary say goodbye and that's that's my exposure to the sport just like yours up until a few years before this point but now you're seeing the sausage get made behind the scenes now you're seeing the inner workings so here was what was wild to me so me knowing Savin repped by sexon just like Lane kein is Nick Sabin walks down the tunnel walks right past both of them and no eye contact is made not a word is said and and me knowing full well that's his agent too and I'm thinking wow what a massive awkward conflict of interest this may be except seon standing there and might as well have yawned and pulled a toothpick out from behind his ear and put it in it's just like standard operating procedure for him so then Sabin walks back out the locker room because he has to go to the postgame press conference and I followed him because I just wanted to see what happens here like what does this look like he gets done he walks back to the locker room they're still standing there he walks back by both of them again again doesn't say a word to either one of them and then they're ready to go okay cuz the way this works is these Championship Games it takes a little longer so the coach has a Trophy presentation and then you've got postgame obligations with a network at that time it would have been CBS and then you've got your postgame press conference which is going to be extended because they talk to the losing coach and the winning coach and so what's happening with your players during that time is they're getting showered they're getting dressed they're grabbing their Chick-fil-A box and they're getting on the buses so the buses are ready to go by the time Nick Sabin gets done with this press conference he goes in there he may shower he changes into his suit to travel in he's ready to go Lan kein is not ready to go nowhere close to ready to go cuz he's been on the phone the entire time I'm just standing there watching all this it's theater it's great so Ellis Ponder who ended up being a long time like right-hand man for Nick s he still at Alabama he was the DFO Chief Operating Officer for a long time he may have already been the DFO if not the assistant DFO but his role is to make sure everyone gets out of here everyone gets on the bus cuz we got to get back over to harst we got to fly back to Tuscaloosa and he works for essentially someone who gets pissed off if there is a second wasted here or there and so it's a very very heat seeking position that he's had over there for a long time and it is really not sinked up at all with having to manage someone like Lane kein so I watch him tell kein two or three times you got to get showered you got no time you got to get on the bus then it turns into you don't have time to shower you got to get on the bus and this was my first real peak as to how lanin operated on a little different wavelength than everyone else Ellis finally yells at him it's time to get on the bus we got to go everyone else is on the bus kein says okay Ellis Ponder turns his back Lane runs in the locker room and jumps in the shower I believe he got left at the building that night I believe that's one of the times they had to leave him at the stadium so I watched all this happen and it was like my first real indoctrination into how these organizations even the ones that are operating at the highest level like Alabama Alabama's the number one program in the country here they're coming off a national title they're about to get within a second of another National Championship uh kin's GNA get fired as the OC the week before the national title game it just goes to show you you hear all these rumors about these teams that go four and eight and how their staff is a mess and how there's all kind of discontent it was like that at Alabama They just won anyway so if you want to know how great Nick Sabin is it's not all the titles he won it's he dealt with some of the same mess and actually dealt with a lot of consequences from his success above and beyond what his peers dealt with and he won anyway it never dropped off Alabama never dropped from being the top program in the country and that was fascinating so the book is called the price it's by John talty and Arman and it will be out August 27th which I believe is the same day that Connor stallion's documentary drops one has nothing to do with the other [Music]