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Nick Saban Admits He Might Not Have Talked to Amari Cooper in Three Years at Alabama

Josh Wilson

Saban coached the Crimson Tide to six national titles
Saban coached the Crimson Tide to six national titles / Robert Hanashiro-Imagn Images
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Amari Cooper is set to make his debut as one of Josh Allen's top receiving weapons following a trade to the Buffalo Bills from the Cleveland Browns.

Cooper, who has put together an impressive decade-long career inclusive of five Pro Bowl seasons, including one as recently as 2023, will now play for his fourth NFL franchise. He's been traded thrice.

Put simply, he's been productive and consistent, but never quite stuck anywhere. Why is that?

Well, maybe former Alabama Crimson Tide coach Nick Saban has an answer.

"I think Amari Cooper sometimes is a little bit misunderstood because he's such a quiet guy. I mean, he went through three or four years at Alabama, however long he was there, and I don't know if we ever had a conversation," Saban said on The Pat McAfee Show.

Wait, what? Cooper led the NCAA in receptions and receiving yards in his final year at Alabama. He was a massive part of the puzzle for at least that season. Surely he and Saban talked at one point or another, right? Saban might mean he never really got to know Cooper or had discussions beyond purely tactical and football topics, but that still lands as surprising.

He explained more:

"He was never in trouble, I mean, he never came in my office. He did everything he was supposed to do... But never said a word. So sometimes as a coach you think, 'Well he's not really with it.' Or, 'He's not really with us.' But he is."

The Alabama football program is massive and turns over its roster often due to the transient nature of college athletics. There is probably a great deal of delegating to assistant coaches, and Saban was known to not necessarily endear himself to players until they made themselves known with their performance.

So, maybe this is possible?

Cooper just might be that introverted. All of a sudden, that introspective three-hour car ride on the coast of Lake Erie makes a lot more sense.

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Josh Wilson
JOSH WILSON

Josh Wilson is the news director of the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated. Before joining SI in 2024, he worked for FanSided in a variety of roles, most recently as senior managing editor of the brand’s flagship site. He has also served as a general manager of Sportscasting, the sports arm of a start-up sports media company, where he oversaw the site’s editorial and business strategy. Wilson has a bachelor’s degree in mass communications from SUNY Cortland and a master’s in accountancy from the Gies College of Business at the University of Illinois. He loves a good nonfiction book and enjoys learning and practicing Polish. Wilson lives in Chicago but was raised in upstate New York. He spent most of his life in the Northeast and briefly lived in Poland, where he ate an unhealthy amount of pastries for six months.

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