Over the past year Jeremy Davis has spent more time thinking about Nick Saban than even the most diehard Alabama football fan.
Davis, a senior majoring in ceramics and printmaking, was chosen by faculty members in the art department to sketch and later sculpt the Saban statue, which will commemorate the coach and the 2009 national championship winning football team.
Daniel Livingston, who teaches ceramics and drawing, and Craig Wedderspoon, a professor of sculpture, recommended Davis as the ideal student to create the sculpture.
“He’s got some real talent with the human figure and his understanding of it,” Wedderspoon said. “He’s got tremendous skills.”
Davis’ artistic process began at the end of June, when he came up with a few basic pencil sketches to present at a meeting with representatives from the athletic department.
“The athletic department had a pose in mind,” Davis said. “They wanted a teaching or coaching moment, and they asked me to translate that into the sculpture.”
Though the bronze Saban will join the likes of head coaches Paul “Bear” Bryant, Frank Thomas, Wallace Wade and Gene Stallings on the Walk of Champions outside Bryant-Denny Stadium, the statue is quite different from the others. Unlike the four coaches formally posed and dressed in suits, Saban is wearing more casual gameday attire and clapping his hands.
Working from his initial rough sketches, Davis developed a more refined set of sketches, all while keeping in contact with Saban’s wife, Terry, who offered him advice on any necessary corrections.
“It’s amazing how much she knew about his face without even looking at it,” Davis said.
His work was sub-contracted through an outside company, allowing him to remain close to the Sabans to facilitate collaboration. Throughout the entire process, he met the family several times, which he said put more pressure on him while creating the sculpture.
Along the way, both Livingston and Wedderspoon provided constant input and discussed the process with Davis. Davis eventually created a basic structure of the sculpture itself, which was finalized in November.
The finished 9-foot statue will be dedicated before kickoff of the A-Day football game Saturday.
Davis, who will be onstage during the unveiling, said he is extremely excited and nervous about finally displaying his creation.
“That’s a whole lot of people to be sitting in front of,” he said.
Though the Saban statue is complete, Davis’ work for the athletic department isn’t. The University has also commissioned him to create a bust of Saban to be displayed in the Mal M. Moore Athletic Facility.
