You never really know with a Nick Saban news conference. The Wednesday before the November FCS game is a traditional minefield for a rant. (See tin horn).

Well, this one was different.

Saban was cracking himself up on the podium in a press event unlike just about every one he's ever had.

It started with the coach walking into the room with a smirk and an unprompted moment you'd expect from a Mike Leach briefing.

"I just want to know how he got here," Saban began. "Not to offend anybody out here, I just walked by some jeans, wore out jeans, holes in them, all cut up. I just remember when I was a kid in West Virginia, I was ashamed to go to school because my jeans were wore out only because we didn't have any better.

"Now they buy them that way. I just can't figure how did we get here?"

Then he needed a moment to stop laughing.

Nick Saban.

In a news conference.

Three days before facing Mercer. Cracking himself up.

The theme continued from there. A few moments later, he was talking about the scouting process.

"Everybody has a projector," the 66-year old said. "Not a projector anymore, I guess it's a video machine or what you guys all have out there, computers or whatever it is you watch your stuff on."

Saban was also asked about playful comments made by a few of his players indicating he liked to talk trash to some of the receivers.

"I really don't do that," Saban said. "I don't know where that comes from. I am capable of talking smack to anybody that'll listen. And it's hard for me to find an audience around here."

Everyone laughed.

The room almost lost it toward the end of the 15-minute news conference. A certain reporter was called upon and the mic was passed.

Saban's again cracked a smile.

"You better be good Alex," Saban said to Alex Byington of the Decatur Daily. "Is it best for last because you always get the last question?"

Covering this team and Saban eight years, I've never heard that room laugh that loud.

Two years earlier, Saban set himself off on a rant about FCS teams when nobody asked a question to provoke a rant about overlooking a lower-division opponent. Thus, the tin horn moment.

This time, he couldn't get over jeans with purposeful holes and lamented the loss of overhead projectors.

You truly never know what's going to happen in there.

Video to come.

Michael Casagrande is an Alabama beat writer for the Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @ByCasagrande.