From the Sideline — ‘The Nick Saban Show’ Has a New Look but My Kid Has on Old Paint

Game weekends are great, but they can sometimes take a couple of days from which to recover. That's part of the reason I'm just now getting my weekend recap posted.

After the game is over, and my responsibilities with the Crimson Tide Sports Network are complete, I head home to Hoover and go back to just being "Dad" to three incredible kids. My daughter, Anne, will be 13 next month, while my boys Parker and Hudson are eight and two, respectively.

As I posted Sunday on Twitter (and as pictured above), you know you're in SEC Country when you get to church, and realize the two-year old still has on his eye-black from the previous day!

As many of you know, my role as sideline reporter for CTSN requires me to be in the locker room after each game. While I will never divulge what I hear or see in those private team settings, I will alleviate one concern that many Alabama fans may have had coming out of the Colorado State matchup.

While there wasn't much energy on the field or the sidelines during the game, there was plenty of it leaving the Bama locker room. Suffice it to say, the individuals that you would expect and hope to speak up, did just that. I fully expect that to carry over into this week's prep for Ole Miss.

The highlight of the weekend for me, from a professional standpoint, was hosting Coach Saban's first TV show in the new digital media center at Bryant-Denny Stadium.

This incredible facility takes up the third and fourth floors of the stadium's North End Zone. While WVUA-TV and the Center for Public Television have yet to move in, Crimson Tide Productions (the athletic department's in-house video production company) has already set up shop, and Saturday night marked the first time we've used the facility to tape "The Nick Saban Show".

It really is amazing to see what all goes on from a production standpoint, but it is even more entertaining to see what transpires just to get the coach into place.

After Coach Saban finishes his post game radio network interview, he leaves the locker room and we go to an elevator that was being held for us (Okay...it's held for him. I just happened to be along for the ride.).

As usual, there are two Alabama State Troopers along side the coach, as well as myself, three or four UA officials, and UA Athletics photographer Kent Gidley.

After the elevator makes the quick trip up two floors, each door we approach is already held open by an usher, and several others looking on to get a quick glimpse of Saban as he passes by.

As we wind our way through the hallways of the media center and toward the studio, I notice that the facility still has that fantastic "new car smell".

We walk into the beautiful new studio, put on the mics, and get ready to roll. Unlike Coach Bryant's TV show, this program is not done live - nor is it recorded "live to tape". Each segment is recorded individually, and the fantastic staff at CTP then put the pieces of the puzzle together.

That allows us to save the middle segment of the show for last. That's important, because that segment is a potentially tricky one.

Rather than sitting at the desk, Coach Saban and I are standing in front of an incredible 82-inch TV monitor called a Sharp Aquos Board. This screen allows Coach to diagram a play using the same technology he uses in his team film room.

As you would fully expect, he was very much at home with the remote and Telestrator pen in his hands, and the new segment went off without a hitch - allowing all of us to breathe a sigh of relief.

The production of the show - and the production involved with getting Coach Saban around after a game - is truly a sight to see.