The most surprising episode in Alabama's young season didn't happen during a game. It took place in the moments after one.

As the Crimson Tide's band played a victory tune following a 37-point rout of Louisville earlier this month, ESPN reporter Maria Taylor sidled up to Nick Saban and stopped him for an interview.

The first question she posed to the Alabama coach was about the resolution of the team's quarterback question that had dominated headlines for the past eight months as Tua Tagovailoa and Jalen Hurts competed for the starting role. In a matter of seconds, Saban became agitated.

"Why do you continually try to get me to say something that doesn't respect one of them?" he huffed. "I'm not going to. So quit asking."

That Saban became testy with a member of the media wasn't noteworthy. There is a catalog of rants he has delivered in news conferences throughout his tenure that speak to his ornery disposition. What was shocking in this instance, however, was that he scolded someone who works for ESPN -- the sports broadcasting giant that has nurtured a strong relationship with Alabama at the same time it has intensified its coverage of the nation's top college football program. Because of this, Saban immediately realized his error in judgment and called to apologize to Taylor.

Almost overnight, both parties moved on and continued as they had been during the last eight months -- ever since the Tide's theatrical overtime triumph in the national championship game versus Georgia. Stretching from last winter and deep into the summer, the Crimson Tide has maintained a constant presence on the network's fleet of outlets while earning regular placement in the top headlines on ESPN's website.

During that period, the Worldwide Leader -- as ESPN bills itself -- has aired an all-access series focused on Alabama's preseason camp, filmed a segment on Saban's pickup basketball games, featured the Crimson Tide's coach on the cover of its magazine and carried three of Alabama's first four games on its main channels.

The only win ESPN didn't show live was the Tide's rout of Texas A&M last Saturday that CBS grabbed as its SEC Game of the Week. Yet ESPN still dispatched an army of talent to Tuscaloosa during this past weekend. Paul Finebaum and the crew from SEC Nation posted up outside Bryant-Denny Stadium, while inside the 102,000-seat venue were multiple Internet reporters and Marty Smith -- the hyper-caffeinated talking head with the thick Southern drawl.

"There is a want for Alabama," said Lee Fitting, ESPN vice president of production. "There is an intrigue about Alabama. People like success. People like seeing really good teams lose. And people like learning about really good teams. When a team rates, it's like, 'Why not do more? Why not try to put more of their games in high-profile spots? Why not try to do access-type series and feature stories and interviews on that?' The viewers want it. We should be doing more of it."

ESPN's thirst for all things Alabama makes sense. The Crimson Tide has appeared in half of the ten most-watched cable telecasts ever, and Birmingham has been the No. 1 local market for ESPN's college football games ever since the network began tracking those ratings.

"Alabama has become the program, the team, the brand and the coach that people either love or love to hate," said ESPN College GameDay host Rece Davis, an Alabama alumnus. "Nick Saban is a really compelling figure. He's the most interesting person in the sport right now."

The Crimson Tide's coach is also one of the most guarded. Despite a wariness of the media and the "rat poison" they supply, Saban has embraced ESPN.

"They have given us a very fair shake in everything that we've done," Saban said.

ESPN has also provided him with a national platform to sell the program to recruits, influence the conversation about the sport's biggest issues and also get out in front of controversial stories. At the site of the ACC title game last December, he appeared on College GameDay and stumped for Alabama's inclusion in the College Football Playoff -- an event ESPN has had the rights to since its inception four years ago. He continued to make the Tide's case that evening on SportsCenter with Scott Van Pelt. Months later, when the battle between Tua Tagovailoa and Jalen Hurts started to percolate, Saban first planted the idea he could play both quarterbacks in an interview with ESPN's Chris Low -- bypassing outlets in the state in order to deliver the message to a wider audience.

"ESPN is one-stop shopping," said Finebaum. "If a story breaks on dot-com, it's disseminated a lot more quickly. I have worked in local and if something comes out on a more local or regional level, it will get picked up if it's Nick Saban. But it's a lot easier this way, so why bother? Just go to ESPN."

Finebaum did. Once recognized as a big personality in Birmingham, he parlayed a radio show that captured the zeitgeist of Southern football fanaticism into a national gig based in Charlotte. His meteoric rise occurred around the same time Alabama entrenched itself as the sport's modern dynasty and became appointment viewing.

Since 2014, when Finebaum emerged as the face of the ESPN-run SEC Network, Alabama has played in seven of the 11 most-watched college games on any channel. Even the Tide's 62-7 victory over Ole Miss on Sept. 15-- a humdrum affair decided midway through the second quarter -- drew 4.1 million viewers and led all cable telecasts in ratings among the 18-to-49-year-old demographic that day.

"Alabama is not a local brand or a local market," said Fitting. "They are a national brand...As every year goes on and the team continues to win, and the team has more and more success, interest continues to rise. That's not unlike any other sport or any other program."

But it's fascinating nonetheless -- particularly to those who recall where the Crimson Tide was positioned in the sports landscape prior to Saban's arrival in 2007. During the volatile days of Mike DuBose, Dennis Franchione, Mike Price and Mike Shula, Alabama's relevance didn't extend much beyond the South. A cloud of NCAA probation helped obscure the Tide and so did the absence of sustained success. In 2002, the same year the program was hit with major penalties and a bowl ban, two of its conference games were carried on Pay-Per-View and a showdown with Middle Tennessee State was broadcast on Jefferson Pilot Sports.

"Listen," Finebaum said, "I did a daily talk show. It wasn't like I was being called very often to talk about how great things were and how unique the program was. It wasn't. In many ways, it was a laughingstock."

Over at ESPN, the interest in Alabama was tepid. Davis, who delivered the highlights as an in-studio host at the time, remembers there wasn't a major push to spotlight the Tide. Alabama was merely acknowledged because of its great tradition and the championships won during Bear Bryant's legendary tenure.

"I worked closely with a producer on content and stuff like that, and I wouldn't say they were like, 'Hey, we got to get Alabama in,'" Davis said. "They were sort of there."

Between 2004 and 2005, at the height of somnolent Shula era, the set of College GameDay was at the site of only one Alabama game. During that same period, the show made seven appearances at venues where USC was playing. At the time, the Trojans were the dominant team, seizing the marquee in Los Angeles and beyond. ESPN, in particular, was obsessed with them -- loving the mixture of celebrity and sport that Pete Carroll, Matt Leinart, and Reggie Bush created in the backdrop of Hollywood.

The network eventually assigned Shelley Smith to track USC and file daily reports about a program that marched to two national championships and came within seconds of winning a third. As they experienced outrageous success, the Trojans had the feel of a dynasty -- much in the same way Alabama does now.

"USC was very glitzy and glamorous," Davis said. "They were L.A. flash and L.A. hot."

The Trojans were also based in the second-largest television market in the country, making it easy for ESPN to highlight USC much in the same way the network blanketed the Dallas Cowboys, New York Yankees, and New England Patriots. Aggressively following Alabama, which is located off the beaten path and 210 miles from the closest major city, isn't as natural. But as the Tide started winning at a historic rate, ESPN had no choice other than to cover Alabama with zeal and foster a rapport with Saban -- the cranky coach who had been in the network's crosshairs when he arrived in Tuscaloosa.

As Saban noted this week, the relationship between Alabama and ESPN has grown. The network has aired 20 of the Tide's last 33 games on its three major channels, including a 2016 matchup with FCS opponent Chattanooga broadcast live on ESPN2. Alabama, after all, has become the closest thing to a sure bet in sports television. On the way to winning five of the last nine national championships, it has proved to have more staying power than USC did during the height of its success. Both Davis and Fitting called Alabama's run "unprecedented."

"I think ESPN is an organization that is always interested in the best story," Finebaum said. "And there are some days in college football where there just isn't enough oxygen for anyone else once you get through talking about Saban and Alabama. But I think he understands that, too. I think Nick Saban is fully aware of who he is and the influence that he has, and sometimes he very masterfully uses the media to communicate something."

ESPN has been the beneficiary, especially this past offseason as Saban has worked to counteract the momentum Georgia accrued in the previous recruiting cycle by allowing a peek behind his program's iron curtain. The network approached other schools about producing an all-access show but was rebuffed. Alabama, which opened its doors for a similar series in 2010 but turned ESPN down in recent years, enthusiastically agreed this time as Saban wanted to portray his steely juggernaut's softer side. The result was a four-part program that satisfied both parties.

With the pithiness of an excerpted review featured on a movie advertisement, Saban called it "really quality."

As the show was filmed, reporters from the network cycled in and out of Tuscaloosa. Holly Rowe dropped in along with Taylor. Analyst Joey Galloway also made a pilgrimage to Alabama's campus. They wanted to catch a glimpse of the reigning national champion and its new sensation, Tua Tagovailoa -- a player with the kind of the star appeal to rival Saban.

The sudden ascent of the Hawaiian sophomore that began in the second half of the national championship blockbuster has added a new dimension to ESPN's coverage of the Tide, making Alabama that much more compelling. Previous stars such as Julio Jones, Derrick Henry and Mark Ingram didn't move the needle in the same way.

With his flair for the dramatic, mind-boggling production and a first name that rolls off the tongue, Tagovailoa has the potential to be a powerhouse with the kind of wattage he generates.

"There have been some terrific quarterbacks at Alabama since Nick Saban has been there," Davis said. "But there hasn't been one that looked like that. This guy is special. He's really unique in the way he plays the game and I think it's captivating for players and people. I do think that gives that a layer that hasn't been there previously."

For ESPN, it's ratings gold.

Throughout the seven-month interlude between this season and the previous one, the media giant breathlessly tracked the competition between Hurts and Tagovailoa, tackling the quarterback battle from every angle.

Saban grew weary of the subject, repeatedly deflecting questions or heading them off before they were even posed.

And then he finally snapped at ESPN on ESPN's most-accessed channel, ABC -- creating yet another story for the network that can't get enough of Alabama football.

Nearly a month after he fumed at Taylor on live television in a way that surprised those working for the Worldwide Leader, Saban was asked about his relationship with the sports broadcasting empire.

He shrugged.

"I hope it's good," he said. "You'd have to ask them."

The answer, of course, is pretty obvious.

As Fitting said nonchalantly, "It just sort of works."

Rainer Sabin is an Alabama beat writer for the Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @RainerSabin