Why did Nick Saban turn down Texas job in 2013?

Nick Saban supposedly entertained the idea of leaving Alabama to coach at Texas years ago, but he ultimately turned down a massive offer from the Longhorns. We may now have a better understanding of why.

SEC Network host Paul Finebaum said during an appearance on the “Saturday Down South” podcast this week that there was one primary reason Saban turned down the Texas job in 2013. According to Finebaum, Saban felt there would be too many voices telling him what to do in Austin.

“The bottom line is they did want Saban and Saban was offered the job, and he considered it,” Finebaum said. “He said to me and to anybody who would confront him with this, that the reason he didn’t go to Texas — he said this privately, he didn’t say this publicly — was he did not want to have to answer to 10 or 15 different boosters who all felt like they owned the franchise. It was a little of a Jerry Jones complex or a T. Boone Pickens complex in college football in the past.”

Finebaum noted that the issue has always “haunted Texas.” He said it was also a problem at Alabama before Saban arrived in 2007, but Saban came in and made it clear that “I run this place.” He probably could have done the same thing at Texas, but perhaps he didn’t want to risk it.

For what it’s worth, a story we heard a couple years back made it sound like Mack Brown was responsible for Saban not going to Texas. We may never know the real reason.