Nick Saban might not care about the eclipse, but lots of other coaches do

Football coaches are noted hermits about major pop culture happenings. As intense creatures of routine, they aren’t folks who let things like a rare celestial event deter them from preparing for a football season.

That means that when a total solar eclipse comes to America for the first time in decades, they’ll probably be sitting it out as prep for Week 1 begins in earnest.

Alabama’s Nick Saban is, of course, not going to be watching it. Saban’s the guy who has a salad every day at lunch so he doesn’t have to think about meal choice. You best believe he’s not here for your little eclipse.

We’ll set it up so if the players wanna go out there and look at it and get some sunglasses, I guess they can. That’s not something that I’m really that focused on right now. I watch the Weather Channel every day. They’re already saying what it’s gonna look like in every city in America, so what’s gonna be significant?

Just watch the Weather Channel. You see what it’s gonna be like in Portland, Oregon. Clayton, Georgia’s the No. 1 place in the country. They have a hundred percent. There are all kind of people there.

My house will probably be the only empty house on the whole lake. So I’m gonna watch it on TV. Maybe we should have a team meeting about how we’re gonna do this. I haven’t thought of that yet.

Neither is Baltimore Ravens coach John Harbaugh. From a back-and-forth with reporters:

When is it? It’s Monday?

Can you see it from everywhere? Can you see it from here?

Eighty percent? It’s not 100 percent here? We’re chasing perfection here, alright?

So you’ve got to go to North Carolina for 100 percent? Nah. I don’t know. You’ve got to wear glasses or something, don’t you? I don’t want to blind anybody.

We’ll be in meetings. It’s going to be tough.

His brother, Jim, is leaning all into it, though.

Will Muschamp, whose South Carolina program is actually right smack in the path of totality, had nearly exactly the response you’d expect out of him.

“We’re practicing. Are you kidding?” he said.

His program came around, though, which is good, because it had an excellent look.

Across the state in Clemson, Dabo Swinney is all the way here for the eclipse.

As is Mike Leach.

Tom Herman does have some helpful information:

Boston College’s Steve Addazio disagrees, however.

The Pacific Northwest got some of the best views:

Other teams are having fun with the whole thing, too.

So be sure enjoy the eclipse today in a way some college football coaches can’t or won’t.

No huge sports events are likely to be interrupted — the MLB schedule is full of evening games, with even the earliest game, Twins-White Sox in Chicago, hours after the eclipse passes the area around 2 p.m. ET — but it’s still something to think about for a bunch of teams across the country:

Oakes and the Winston-Salem Open won’t be the only events in the sports world having to account for the solar eclipse. The Connecticut Open, a Women’s Tennis Association tournament, will play matches in New Haven. The Saratoga Race Course in New York has a full slate of races scheduled. The Little League World Series has games on deck for the day in South Williamsport, Pa., and at the East Coast Surfing Championships at Virginia Beach, a watch party on the boardwalk is planned.

Outside of those events, several Power Five college towns and professional franchises fall in the direct path of the eclipse, raising the question of how the eclipse may affect practices.

Hours before Oakes takes in the solar eclipse in Winston-Salem, Oregon State’s football players will experience one of the earliest totalities. In Corvallis, the start of the total eclipse is estimated for 10:16 a.m. local time, and it will reach its peak about a minute later. It will be about 25 minutes before the Beavers begin practice.