Fake News Stories Abound Announcing the Return of Nick Saban To Coaching
Don’t Get Your Hopes Up Crimson Fans
August 23, 2025
Written by Mike Hobson
Have you noticed how many fake stories appear on social media about our beloved former UA Coach Nick Saban ? Or maybe you believe he is returning to Coaching any day now. If you are not in the “Nick is coming back” camp then you may wonder why we see all of these phony stories every day about his return.
First lets put the “Nick is returning” bunk to bed. In a recent Yellowhammer News article we find what is probably the truth about this story. Since the initial story leaked by former UA Quarterback Greg McElroy, it has been widely debunked by many including Saban himself, but he was asked again about the story — and let McElroy have it in true Saban fashion.
“I don’t know where that came from,” Saban said at the yearly Nick Saban Legacy Awards ceremony in Birmingham. “Greg McElroy played quarterback for us, and if he had done something like that as a player, he would’ve gotten his ass kicked.”
After taking a jab at his first title-winning quarterback in Tuscaloosa, Saban talked about what it’s been like with Miss Terry when it comes to him being retired as well as revealing what he misses the most.
“I don’t think she misses it…But when I come home at three o’clock in the afternoon now, she says, ‘What are you doing here?’ I say, ‘I live here,’” he said. “She’s used to me not being around, which is OK when it comes to getting a few golf games in…But I think what I miss the most, which was my biggest fear, is being a part of a team .The relationships you have with players and coaches and people in the organization and how you can impact them — I’ve been a part of a team since I was nine years old playing Little League baseball, and I had a tremendous fear that I would miss it. And that part I miss.”
Saban also told the audience what he does not miss about coaching.
“But the working 14 hours a day, the recruiting, the changes that we’re going through in college football, the challenges that that presented was a little much at my age and the last year I coached, and the last game I coached against [Michigan] was really, really difficult. So I thought it was the right time. She thought it was the right time. We don’t have any regrets. We’re happy to be part of a team on ESPN on GameDay. I speak and we have businesses, so I try to keep busy. I think that’s been very helpful.”
It’s safe to say that while Saban may miss some parts of coaching, he’s happy at home and isn’t coming back anytime soon.
So why do we see all of the fake clickbait stories on social media ranting about Saban’s return?
There are a few good reasons for the bot or Artificial Intelligence Stories. According to our own ChatGpt expert consultant, financial incentives are probably the driving reason
Financial Incentives
- Clickbait revenue: Fake stories drive traffic to ad-supported sites. Bots can churn out content at scale, then re-share it across social media to maximize clicks.
- Low cost, high output: AI text generators drastically reduce the effort needed to produce “news-like” articles. Combine that with cheap botnets, and it’s profitable for shady operators, especially in countries where costs are low and ad money is valuable.
- Affiliate scams: Some fake news links ultimately redirect to scams or products, generating commissions for the operators.
Information Warfare & Chaos Creation
- Flooding the zone: Strategists sometimes push out a torrent of conflicting or false stories so that people stop trusting any news source at all. This “firehose of falsehood” approach overwhelms fact-checkers.
- Testing AI propaganda tools: Governments and private groups are experimenting with generative AI to automate disinformation campaigns — what you’re seeing may be “pilot programs” testing effectiveness.
- Targeting algorithms: Bots don’t just create content; they game recommendation systems. By flooding platforms with coordinated articles, they “teach” the algorithm to surface misleading stories more often.
Why the Increase Lately?
- Generative AI availability: Tools like GPT-style text generators now make it trivial to mass-produce news-like articles. This slashes cost and raises volume.
- Weakening gatekeepers: Traditional newsrooms and local media (especially rural papers, as you’ve seen firsthand) have shrunk, leaving a vacuum that bots fill.
- Algorithmic rewards: Platforms still reward engagement more than accuracy — inflammatory fake stories spread faster than corrections.
- Election cycles: 2024–2025 globally has been a high-stakes political period (U.S., Europe, South America, Asia), leading to heavier bot activity around public figures.
✅ Bottom line: Bots are deployed because they are cheap, scalable, and effective at influencing perception, generating revenue, and destabilizing trust. The uptick you noticed matches broader trends: the combination of generative AI + political and financial incentives has turbocharged the fake news ecosystem.
Even though bots and AI generated fake stories are in your social media feeds you should not rely on social media for your real news information. Quality news sites, like the Centreville Press and the Bibb Voice provide you with authentic and reliable news stories. Support your local news outlets and trust us for real news. And by the way, Miss Terry told us that Nick is not returning to coaching. She has work for him at home.
And be careful what you click on.
