ESPN’s “College GameDay” had to move indoors Saturday. The remnants of Hurricane Isaias were still hanging around Tuscaloosa, so the show set up shop at Coleman Coliseum ahead of No. 6 Alabama vs. No. 2 Georgia. When you need somebody to tell you whether it’s gonna be a monsoon at kickoff, you call the one man the whole state trusts.
You call James Spann.
Spann has been openly lobbying to be the guest picker on the show for a while now. Bryce Young got the gig, but Spann wasn’t leaving empty-handed. He used his airtime to go after a bigger fish.
“These are my people,” Spann said, settling in like he’d been on that desk for years. Then he turned to Nick Saban, who was sitting right there, and got to work.
“Let me say one thing about Nick Saban. He knows how to use weather information better than any other college football coach in this country.”
Then came the pitch: “If he ever needs anything other than this ESPN gig, if it doesn’t work out, he’s got a job as a senior meteorologist with the Alabama Weather Network.”
(Alabama Football/Facebook)
Saban hit the transfer portal in the other direction, and Spann is ready to hand him a polygon and a headset.
Saban took it in stride and backed Spann up, too. He asked if he actually used Spann’s forecasts at Alabama, he didn’t hesitate.
“All the time,” Saban said. “He would predict when it would start raining to the minute during practice every day.”
If you ever wondered how those practices ran like clockwork, now you know. Coach had the weather man on speed dial.
As for the forecast itself, Spann kept it simple. The game dodged any major weather event, with the morning boiling down to wind and rain after what he called “a long, long stormy night.” Gusts hit 27 mph during the broadcast, and more than 300,000 people across the state were without power, including roughly 3,000 in Tuscaloosa County. The rain was due to clear out by lunchtime, leaving mostly cloudy skies and temps around 70 at kickoff. “No big deal,” per Spann.
His sign-off was classic: “Respect the (weather) polygon, and Roll Tide.”
Words to live by, y’all.
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