LSU fans, y’all really need to get over it.

Yeah, I know. You thought you were finally done with Nick Saban once and for all. He got sick of the NCAA transfer portal and name, image and likeness, and whatever and retired from torturing LSU as Alabama’s head football coach.

Ding dong, the witch is dead, the wicked old witch is dead at last.

Yet, less than a year after the sayonara, Alabama is going to Baton Rouge and — right on schedule, again — here comes Saban tagging along.

Is there no escaping this LSU nightmare from the man born on Halloween?

He’s not with Alabama, you understand, although I’m sure he could hitch a ride on the Crimson Tide’s charter jet from Tuscaloosa if so chose.

But he’s now an integral part of ESPN’s “College GameDay” show, which will set up shop in the LSU Quadrangle Saturday morning to preview the day’s college football action in advance of the night’s College Football Playoff elimination game between the Tigers and Crimson Tide.

It should come as no surprise that it took Saban about 10 minutes into this new job to become the star of the long-running show. He doesn’t know how to do anything halfway or recognize a cushy semi-retirement when he sees one.

But he’s technically in the media now, free to dispense “rat poison” as his whims see fit, and he seems to be enjoying it.

Yet his presence is no threat to the night’s football outcome. That will be up to new Bama head coach Kalen DeBoer, who’s thus far getting so-so reviews in the thankless job of replacing the GOAT. Not that he wasn’t well warned about it.

That’s Alabama’s problem.

Just be happy Saban is no longer LSU’s problem.

So, here’s a novel idea for the Tigers, mostly the fans: Why not bury the hatchet?

Instead they’ll probably have extra security on hand for the ever-popular “abundance of caution” to make sure the LSU audience participation doesn’t go beyond the booing and hissing stage.

And, if the fans want to have some good-natured fun at Saban’s expense, fine. Part of college football.

He tends to get the last laugh anyway so don’t try to get too clever.

A better greeting, however? Somebody needs to bring a peace offering.

This silly feud among LSU fans has gone on long enough. Other than beat the Tigers fairly regularly he’s done nothing to string it along. He’s been nothing but appreciative of his time in Louisiana, which was the final jump-start for the greatest college coaching career of all time. It was going to happen somewhere, of course. Why can’t LSU fans be happy they got to see it?

And you might as well get used to him being around. Someday, probably soon, he’ll be in the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame, and rightfully so.

A coach with no other state ties needs five years Louisiana residency to qualify and he slips in right at the minimum.

The rest is a no-brainer.

So it’s OK to appreciate what Saban meant to LSU football — not to stew about what he did to it in a later life.

I know I sound like a broken record but, if you recall, LSU fans didn’t get that mad at him for leaving LSU.

No. That wasn’t it at all. They showed rare restraint at the time, realizing his ultra-Type-A persona had to scratch that NFL itch (with the Miami Dolphins) and even seemed appreciative of the time they had him.

It was only a two-year truce.

What fans went ballistic over — and were forever bitter about — was because he came back to college coaching — to Alabama of all places.

Again, you’ve heard this argument before, but the sermon bears repeating.

When he came back to college football, what he was doing was admitting that he made a mistake when he left LSU in the first place.

At the time Alabama was no dumpster fire, but it wasn’t really Al-a-bama either. A cheap facsimile, to be honest, after a succession of mediocre coaches.

The LSU program was in far better shape and a far better career move. He’d have been better off if he’d stayed, but when he returned in 2007 the Tigers already had a coach in Les Miles, who’d win a national championship the very year Saban returned to the SEC. Mostly with players recruited by his predecessor, but never mind.

Miles didn’t have to apologize for that. He got LSU to another national championship game in 2012, with his own players, after winning the Game of the Century against Saban, only to lose to him in the title game rematch.

But the LSU culture change that begat three national championship under three coaches in a 16-year span was force-fed by Saban.

The LSU program Saban inherited had eight losing seasons in 11 previous years.

It’s OK to thank him for that. Maybe even roll out the red carpet.

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Scooter Hobbs covers LSU athletics. Email him at scooter.hobbs@americanpress.com