Saban Excited to Join Preds Ownership Group, Work to Bring Championship to Nashville

Nick Saban has done just about as much winning as anyone in the history of college football. Now, he’s hoping to bring that pedigree to Nashville and the Predators.

Saban, who became part of the Preds ownership group last week - along with his business partner, Joe Agresti and Dream Sports Ventures, LLC - addressed the Nashville media on Monday afternoon alongside Predators Chairman and Majority Owner, Bill Haslam.

And, after hearing Saban speak, it didn’t take long to understand why the seven-time NCAA Football national champion as a head coach has found that degree of success in his career.

“We're happy to be here,” Saban said of joining the Predators. “We’re excited to be here. Dream Sports is something that we created because we wanted to get involved in sports organizations. So, my partner and I, Joe Agresti, decided that we would make this entity, and we’re absolutely excited about it because we are connected to this town with the businesses that we have. We think Nashville is a great, growing city in the right part of the country for us. And to be a part of the hockey team here is something special, and we'd love to build it into a championship. So, we'd love to partner with Mr. Haslam on anything that we can do to help this organization be successful.”

So, how exactly did Saban - someone who retired with 297 career victories as an NCAA head football coach and is now a member of the ESPN College GameDay broadcast team - come to be wearing a Preds jacket at Bridgestone Arena three days before Christmas?

Haslam was part of a Nashville group that made a bid for a WNBA team over the summer, and he revealed that not only was Saban intrigued with that venture, but the former Alabama coach also made his interest in hockey known.

“And I thought, ‘Well, that's the greatest no-brainer of all time,’” Haslam said of the possibility of getting Saban involved with the Preds. “You have somebody who understands building the championship culture, who understands, I think, better than almost anybody in sports, the process that's needed to get to where you compete as a champion, and somebody who just, like I do, loves sports and loves the idea of being involved. And he's obviously a fan of Nashville as well, since he has some investment here in the car business. When he decided to add on to that and join the sports business, I thought, ‘That's a great day for Nashville.’”

Saban says one of the biggest fears he had upon retiring from coaching was no longer being a part of a team. That’s a role he’s held in some capacity since the age of nine growing up in West Virginia before eventually becoming a member of the College Football Hall of Fame, among a slew of other accolades.

Now, Saban feels he’s part of a team once more, even if he won’t be on the sideline or behind the bench.

“To have the opportunity to be partners with Mr. Haslam, a successful organization, with a great brand like the Predators, was really something that was appealing to us and an opportunity that we were so excited to be able to take advantage of,” Saban said. “I'm no expert in hockey, so don’t look at me like I'm going to make some huge impact coaching around here, because that's not going to happen. But, I do have a pretty good idea of what it takes to have successful organizations. And one of the reasons that we wanted to partner with the Predators and Mr. Haslam and this organization is they want to be successful. They want to be successful, the people in this town, the fans who support it.”

Now, how does Saban envision his new role with the Predators? Well, for one, Haslam joked that he wants Saban playing a lot less golf this winter and perhaps spending some more time around an ice rink instead.

And while Saban readily admits he’s not qualified to be a professional hockey coach, he does know a thing or two about not only building a championship organization, but inspiring the people in that group to become champions.

“What does it take to be a successful organization? Process,” Saban said. “I mean, Bill and I talked quite a bit about some of the things that we did in football that may bleed over into what they could do here in the hockey organization, that may be helpful. Some things maybe not, but anything like that we can do, we'd love to do.”

Saban defines that process as simply what one must do to be successful. That entails first identifying what the ultimate goal is, and then what’s necessary to bring that desire to fruition.

And that’s when the real work starts.

“It's not just an organizational thing - it’s an individual thing,” Saban said. “My success probably was more about helping people be successful. In other words, I wanted everybody in the organization to have goals and aspirations, and I wanted to help them define what they had to do to do it, and provide the leadership to help them to do it. So, if we could get everybody in this organization playing like a champion, we might have a chance to win a championship. And that's something that I always try to promote with our players and the people in our organization, and I know Mr. Haslam wants to do that in this organization. If there's anything I can do to contribute to that process, I'd be glad to be helpful.”

Saban, who affectionately refers to his wife, Terry, as “Miss Terry,” said she is also invested in this process, if only from an emotional perspective.

“To be honest, Miss Terry has never asked me, ‘Who won a game last night?’” Saban said. “I was looking at scores, and she asked me who won the Predators game. So, this runs deep in our house.”

The Sabans were certainly pleased with the results over the weekend as the Preds defeated the Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday by a 5-3 final before topping the New York Rangers, 2-1, just 24 hours later.

Moments like that give Saban and Haslam encouragement and excitement for what the organization is capable of now and in the future. And after almost 20 minutes of conversation with the newest member of Nashville’s ownership group, there was plenty of reason for optimism.

"If you're in this room and you don't get a sense for who ‘Coach’ is and how competitive he is and how much he wants to win, then you've missed it - or you don't have a pulse,” Haslam said. “When I talk to ‘Coach,’ again, both of us understand we're not going to coach this team. We’re not going to decide who we draft, we're not going to decide what's going to happen at the Trade Deadline. But he does bring a history of winning - I'd argue - almost like no one else. And I love it that he wants to be involved here. So, it's just real… We won Saturday night, Sunday night…and we had huge crowds both nights, and we're playing .500 hockey, and we're packing the Arena out. It's really a great atmosphere. And I thought, ‘These folks deserve a great team,’ and that's what we want to be a part of.”

Saban couldn’t agree more, and while he may not be deciding who's on the top power-play unit anytime soon, he doesn’t seem interested in being a stranger in his new role.

Especially someone who knows how to win better than just about anyone else on the planet.

“It's exciting as hell to be a part of this organization,” Saban said. “A couple games that we've been to in the past, the fans, the enthusiasm, the passion in the organization, were tremendous. The brand is really outstanding… When you have a successful organization, a lot of people will relate to that, and that's certainly the goal here.”