When the unexpected piece of Michigan football news broke, it raised a lot of eyebrows. Alabama coach Nick Saban had made a hire, and it was a familiar name to those around the Wolverines: George Helow, who had served as Jim Harbaugh’s linebackers coach in 2021 and 2022.
In 2023, Helow was not working in the collegiate ranks. Conveniently, Saban decided he needed Helow back on board as an assistant just a few weeks before the Wolverines and Crimson Tide meet in the Rose Bowl to kick off the college football playoffs.
Underhanded? Maybe. However, given the state of Michigan football news this season, no one is about to level accusations. In fact, back in Ann Arbor, the Helow hiring was met with apathy. Or perhaps as a sign that Alabama is running scared.
That was the thought of linebacker Junior Colson, who had previously worked with Helow. “Who sent it to me?” he asked reporters. Mike (Barrett) sent it to me, I believe. I thought to myself, ‘Huh — they might be a little scared.’ You never know what might happen. He’s got a job, and I’m glad for him. I’ll probably go talk to him after the game when we go play them.”
‘Has Been Here Before’ by George Helow
Saban did everything he could to quell speculation about the hire and its significance. Despite his time with Michigan football, George Helow has a history with Saban dating back to his time as an intern with the Alabama program, and Saban dismissed the postseason hire as nothing more than a minor inconvenience—just a busy coach in need of a little extra help.
“George has been here before,” Saban explained, “and he was with us for quite some time.” He is familiar with our system. I believe we’ve tried to bring someone in every year we’ve been in the playoffs, primarily because we spent two weeks on the road recruiting. So we need someone with good experience to do some extra work.
“And being able to give us a good scouting report of what we need to know when we get off the road.” So that’s the goal, to have a sort of special assistant, whatever you want to call it, who can bring me up to speed on what’s going on when I get off the road. So that’s why we’ve always done it that way.”
Alabama Coach Nick Saban is unconcerned about the Michigan football scandal.
Saban also dismissed the notion that Alabama should be concerned about the fabricated Michigan football sign-stealing scandal. The Crimson Tide as a program has been around the block a few times and understands that the extra preparation time available before the playoffs is the ideal time to make some changes to the team’s signals.
Saban isn’t going to complain about Michigan football, at least not yet.
“We always change things up a little bit,” Saban explained. “We’re focused on what we need to do to get good execution, and we’re not concerned with any of that.”
