AL.com’s Joseph Goodman had one of the wilder ideas in an opinion column titled “Alabama doesn’t know how to play for its new coach”: re-hire Nick Saban as a part-time defensive coordinator on Kalen DeBoer’s staff.

Goodman went as far as to wonder if, without Saban, Alabama is just another FSU.

“Is it arrogance, as Nick Saban suggested on ESPN College GameDay? Is it poor preparation by the coaching staff? Or is Alabama just another Florida State without Saban as the coach? Seriously, what is it going to take for Saban to come out of retirement? Maybe he doesn’t even need to be the head coach. Maybe he can just be a part-time defensive coordinator,” Goodman wrote.

Goodman suggested the Crimson Tide fire first-year defensive coordinator Kane Wommack and put Saban to work since he’s already on Alabama’s payroll and has an office at Bryant-Denny Stadium.

“Here’s an idea,” Goodman prefaced before saying, “Just fire current defensive coordinator Kane Wommack before Monday and let Saban work two days a week. Saban is already on the payroll. It wouldn’t exactly be charity work.”

Nick Saban won’t come back to Alabama to work for Kalen DeBoer

Saban isn’t going to come back as DeBoer’s underling. Perhaps if things get bad enough, Saban would take the full-time head coaching job back. But Goodman’s suggestion was purely hypothetical and borderline conspiratorial.

Saban has stressed that he doesn’t want to get too involved with DeBoer’s process. If Saban were to come back even as a part-time defensive coordinator, Crimson Tide fans would demand he become the head coach again.