Former Saban Asst'.s 'Welcome to 'Bama' Moment Had Police Escorts, Private Jets, To Golf

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“We’re going to Kiva Dunes to play in a golf tournament and we have a staff meeting at 7:30 in Tuscaloosa,” Siskey said. “I figured, hey, we need to get out of this meeting at 10:15 at the latest or he’s going to be pissed because he’s going to be late for the golf tournament, the press conference, the whole deal. Kirby [Smart] comes to me and goes ‘Hey, look, you have your bag packed and you have it by your door. When he says it’s time to go, grab your bag and run to the parking lot.’ I’m going, ‘Are you serious?’ He’s like, ‘Yeah. You’ll understand. Trust me.’”

For those that are wondering, Kiva Dunes is a little less than a five-hour drive from Tuscaloosa. Or a 22-hour bike ride if you’re into that sort of thing.

Siskey continued: “At 10:57, one hour and three minutes before tee time in Gulf Shores, Alabama—for those that are listening that don’t understand the geography, that’s a long way away. [Saban] has his reading glasses on and takes the reading glasses off real nice and calmly and goes, ‘Alright boys. I told ‘em we wouldn’t be late. Let’s go.’ And when he said that, the room scattered like cockroaches with the light on. I mean, grown-arse men running down the hall and he never broke stride. He is as calm as day, just got up, went to the office and just starts walking down the hall. We get out there to the parking lot. There are two vans and a guy goes ‘Offense over here, defense over here.’

“They had a police escort that got us through town that took us straight on the runway. There were two jets cranked up. Not on the taxiway, on the actual runway. We got on, 23 minutes later we landed in Gulf Shore … I hit my first golf ball at 11:57, sixty minutes exactly from sitting in the staff room to hitting my first golf ball.”

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