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Dave Wilson, ESPN Staff Writer
ON A THURSDAY night in September, Nick Saban sat in front of a crowd of fans with a headset on, bracing himself for a question. The Crimson Tide were coming off a loss to Texas, their first home nonconference loss since Saban’s first season in Tuscaloosa way back in 2007.
Even worse, the Longhorns manhandled Alabama up front, pressuring Jalen Milroe on 49% of his 39 dropbacks and sacking him five times. Alabama averaged just 3.1 yards per carry.
Saban knew what was coming. Here was Peewee from Grand Bay, always the first caller on “Hey Coach & The Nick Saban Show,” the weekly call-in radio program. Peewee had a specific interest in the offensive line, so much so that he was sometimes called the “line coach emeritus” by Saban.
But before Peewee could even ask a question, Saban went on the offensive.
“Well, Peewee, I’ve been wanting to talk to you all week, man. I mean, we gotta firm up the pocket,” Saban says, gesticulating like he was talking to his team. “We’re setting too soft. We’re getting pushed back in the middle. Aight, everybody thinks we can’t hold up against the blitz, but they’re sacking us with a four-man rush, one three-man rush. Only one sack came off of a pressure. So I wanted to ask you: What the hell’s going on?”
“So I wanted to ask you, ‘What the hell is going on?'”
– Coach Saban during epic rant on Hey Coach while taking call from Peewee #RollTide | @Alfa_Insurance pic.twitter.com/1fZeJdExRE
– Crimson Tide Sports Network (@UA_CTSN) September 15, 2023
There wasn’t much Peewee could add.
“I believe you covered it all right there, Coach.”
The setting for the weekly show, in a restaurant in front of a crowd, always revealed a different side of the fiery coach, showcasing the masterful way that Saban handled the pressure cooker that is Alabama football. At news conferences, Saban hammered home his points while sometimes hammering the people who asked the questions. But here Saban was disarming a fan before he could even get started. The coach demonstrated weekly on the show that he was quick on his feet, self-effacing and most of all, genuinely loved hearing from the people who loved his team.
And for people like 65-year-old Elbert “Peewee” Roberts of Grand Bay — “in the very southwest corner of the state of Alabama, four miles from the Mississippi state line” he said — it offered a direct line to the most important person in the state.
“He’s always said when he came to the show, that that was his first opportunity for the entire week to see and talk to people outside of the football complex,” Peewee said. “And I’m the first guy that calls.”
In November, Peewee made the 250-mile trip to Baumhower’s Victory Grille in Tuscaloosa to see the show in person, which he’s done from time to time. Once, in 2014, the show’s producers said that Peewee hadn’t called in. That was concerning to Saban, who stopped the show and said, “Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. We’ve won a lot of games around here with Peewee calling first.” Then, he looked up, saw Peewee right in front of him, and broke out into a big smile.
This fall, Saban made it a point to bring Peewee up and introduce him to his guest, broadcaster Brad Nessler.
“Peewee is really, for those of you who don’t know, is really the offensive line coach,” Saban said. “We get very good coaching tips every week. … Any information that you give me that I pass along to them, I tell them, ‘This came from Peewee.’ They respect that. They respect you for all that you’ve done to help them. So we appreciate that a lot. … You know, when you help ’em get better and they respect you, then they don’t want to disappoint you. So they’re really out there playing hard for you.”
Peewee had become something of a known commodity around the program, even being called a “reluctant folk hero.” He’s gotten to meet Saban and his wife, known as Miss Terry. He got in a car accident once on the way to the Iron Bowl and broke his leg and was unable to make it to the game, and got a shipment of gourmet apples from the Sabans. Nick Saban’s retirement stunned everybody in college football, including Peewee.
“Him and Miss Terry have always been very nice, very very kind to me,” he said the evening Saban announced he was hanging it up. “They sent flowers to both of my parents’ funerals when they passed away here in the last few years. I’ve enjoyed it. I think he did, too. I just got along good with the man. I ain’t nobody, man. I’m just a guy who loves Alabama football.”
ELI GOLD, THE voice of Alabama football since 1988, missed all of the 2022 season battling stage 3 cancer. He spent 186 days in the hospital. Upon his return in April 2023, Alabama sought to help Gold cut back on his workload, but there was one part of the job he wouldn’t give up.
“I said look, one thing I ask you not to take away from me is the Nick Saban Show,” Gold said. “It’s educational for me, stuff that I learn on Thursday that I can use on the broadcast on Saturday. But I just love being with the guy. I’m learning from him. He is a teacher.”
Coaches everywhere used to do radio shows with live callers, but they’re becoming more and more rare. Of those that do, several take pre-written submissions on social media or through email. Bob Stoops quit taking calls in 2012 after an obnoxious caller asked why he showed up and the team didn’t. Florida State stopped after an in-person guest asked Jimbo Fisher “where’s the loyalty to the program, Jimbo?” amid rumors he was headed to Texas A&M. In 2019, the “Inside Michigan Football” radio show was moved from Ann Arbor’s Pizza House, where it had been for more than a decade, to Schembechler Hall on UM’s campus where it is now closed to fans. Kirby Smart doesn’t do a radio show at Georgia.
But Gold reiterated what Peewee said, that Saban has always told him that the show was a highlight of his week. He worked the crowd, signed autographs and even invited a media member each week to sit between him and Gold and ask questions of their own.
➡️Coach Saban on @Lane_Kiffin -�� pic.twitter.com/OILD3S4o0r
– Coach Johnny Croyle (@CoachCroyle) January 5, 2024
“I have been told this by his wife, by his secretary Linda Leoni, by other people, that he genuinely loves doing that show every Thursday night,” Gold said. “I said, ‘you guys don’t need to blow smoke up my rear end’ and they said no, it’s the one day of the week he gets out of the office at a decent hour and sees people that he doesn’t work with every single day. It is just a breath of fresh air for him.”
Gold thinks he started doing the show in 1990 with Gene Stallings — which is about two years after Peewee said he started calling in to talk to Bill Curry — and said he’s always marveled at Saban’s ability to embrace the fans, even as he won his way into history.
“Look, the coach is not as tolerant for bad questions as he is for good,” Gold said. “But he will never embarrass a fan. If there’s a bad question from a media guy, he might look at him and it might be a little uncomfortable. But if Ralph from Sylacauga calls in and has a question, even if it’s not a good football question, he’ll explain it, because they were kind enough to call in.”
And Peewee never wanted to be the guy that set Saban off, so he’d focus on his responsibility during games.
“I see what happens when people ask Coach silly questions. I’ve seen it for reporters. So I tried not to ask some of them because I didn’t want him going off on me,” he said. “I tried to pay attention to the offensive line during the games. Everybody else wants to try to follow the ball.”
That’s a fan after the head coach’s heart. But that’s the level of detail that fans came with for Saban on the show.
“We don’t get, ‘What’s Miss Terry’s favorite flavor of pudding?’,” Gold said. “We get good solid football questions. And Coach respects our fans for wanting to learn.”
The fans are serious and well-behaved. There are no “Tyler from Spartanburg” incidents, like on Dabo Swinney’s show this year, where a caller suggested Swinney’s $11.5 million salary didn’t make sense given Clemson’s 4-4 record. Swinney responded by telling Tyler, “I don’t care how much money I make. You’re not gonna talk to me like I’m 12 years old. … You’re part of the problem, to be honest with you.”
Gold said like any radio show, he has a “dump” button to keep any uncouth incidents from making air. But the fans aren’t the problem.
“He’s just very loose, the coach is,” Gold said. “The only times I have had to use it was when the coach himself got a little bit blue on the air.”
It’s in those moments, when Saban is excitable, engaging and funny, that Gold said he told listeners that this was the real Saban. It’s also one of the only times Gold got the eye from Saban.
“So what he’s saying is that during the week, I’m a schmuck?” Saban asked the crowd. Gold replied, ‘Well, Coach, that’s your words, not mine.”
GOLD UNDERSTANDS THE importance of his voice to a legion of fans who build their Thursday nights and Saturdays around listening to it during football season, and he is grateful that he had a 17-year run with the greatest coach of all time. The Alabama job carries a unique burden due to its history, legacy and its role as the biggest show in the entire state, with apologies to Auburn.
“We don’t have professional sports here, nothing in the entire state,” Peewee said. “All we really have is college. This sport, football, has divided families. It’s caused marriages and it’s caused divorces. I don’t know if other people or other fan bases understand.”
So Peewee, a season-ticket holder for 30 years, always figured, if he had a question about the program, why not go straight to the man? He focused all his attention on this show and not the others where callers screamed and ranted. And in return, Saban seemed to take a shine to him.
“In the last year, [Saban’s] really loosened up even moreso in talking to people,” Gold said. “And in the case of Peewee, this year it’s been like a comedy show, the two of them, opening up the program. It’s like Laurel and Hardy talking about the offensive line.”
So imagine you’re a fan from Grand Bay getting a shipment of apples from the coach after a car accident. Imagine the coach and his wife sending flowers to your parents’ funerals. Imagine Miss Terry’s assistant walking up to you and saying, “Are you Peewee?” and handing you a football signed by Nick and Terry Saban. Imagine the Alabama coach asking you why you were at his show in person two weeks in a row but missed the week of the Iron Bowl, telling him you had to work, and having him reply, “Well, hell son, I coulda fixed that with one phone call.”
Then imagine hearing it’s all over.
“I’m not really over the shock of it,” Peewee said. “We all knew it was coming at some point in time. But I just didn’t think it would be now and I didn’t think it would be like this.”
But Peewee won’t be going anywhere. He’s ridden out the highs and lows and he’ll be ready to roll with the Tide once again.
“When Coach Stallings came in, I talked to him all the time,” Peewee said, going through the list in his head. “Coach [Mike] Dubose, Mike Shula … I actually got to go to a couple shows while Fran [Dennis Franchione] was our coach. He just bailed out on us because of the probation and then went to A&M and didn’t do nothin’ there. I never really got to talk to Mike Price because he was an idiot.”
So he has worked through his emotions this week, ultimately writing Saban a letter and emailing it to one of his connections in the athletic department. He thanked him for bringing Bama out of the “dark years” and all that he and his charity had done for the school, the program, the state and the players who played for him.
Coach I can honestly say I will miss being able to talk to you to ask you questions or have you turn it around and ask me questions about our offensive line each week on your radio show. I have looked forward to that each and every week over these last 17 years. … The Bama Nation loves you and Miss Terry very much!! Forever your friend and offensive line coach Peewee Roberts. Roll Tide!!
It’ll be hard to move forward with the next coach, but Peewee was there before Saban, and he’ll be there for Kalen DeBoer.
“It’ll be different, that’s for sure,” Peewee said. “But it will still be about the University of Alabama, right? I’ll be there for the next guy. As long as I can pick up the phone and call, I’ll be there.”