Nick Saban, the only coach in college football to pass Paul “Bear” Bryant in national championship wins, took the sports world in the palm of his hand one last time on Wednesday, announcing his retirement from the University of Alabama.
It was speculated that Saban, 72, might retire had he guided the Crimson Tide to another national title, but Alabama lost in the College Football Playoff semifinal to Michigan, 27-20, in the Rose Bowl. When the days following that game came and went, and Saban didn’t retire in spite of the loss, many – The Football Beat included – assumed that he would be back for his 18th season in Tuscaloosa.
But that won’t happen. Instead, Saban told his players and coaches at a team meeting in advance of his statement, and then released this:
“The University of Alabama has been a very special place to Terry and me,” Saban said, through the release. “We have enjoyed every minute of our 17 years being the head coach at Alabama as well as becoming a part of the Tuscaloosa community. It is not just about how many games we won and lost, but it’s about the legacy and how we went about it. We always tried to do it the right way. The goal was always to help players create more value for their future, be the best player they could be and be more successful in life because they were part of the program. Hopefully, we have done that, and we will always consider Alabama our home.”
Saban’s most recent season might have been, in a way, one of his most rewarding.
Not only was Alabama able to get “revenge” wins (over narrow losses in 2022) to rivals LSU and Tennessee, but they also defeated what would turn out to be the best Ole Miss team, win-loss wise, in the program’s history; got an unbelievable come-from-behind win on an incredible fourth-and-31 to beat Auburn in Auburn; and set the Crimson Tide world right again with a 27-24 win over Georgia in the Southeastern Conference Championship Game, sealing Saban’s 11th SEC Championship – and ending a 29-game Georgia win streak, dealing the Bulldogs a loss that prevented them from entering the CFP and possibly winning a third straight national championship.
Alabama went 11-2 in 2023, losing only to Texas in the regular season, and to Michigan in the CFP semis. Texas, though, was also in the playoff – so Alabama’s two losses were to teams that both finished in the top four.
Reporters on Wednesday around the college football landscape said Saban seemed to savor his interactions with media members and fans more this season, and that might have been one of the few signs of the retirement that he and his family might have known was coming.
But the return to the top of the SEC after Georgia had beaten them in 2022 might have been the most obvious sign: Saban likely wanted to go out after getting Alabama past Georgia one last time, and this one the most meaningful: denying former longtime assistant Kirby Smart the ability to say he beat his mentor on Saban’s way out the coaching door.
Just a few of Saban’s accolades:
- Seven national championships – one of them at LSU in 2003 and six of them guiding the Crimson Tide. That number is unequaled and his last one came in the 2020 season, one that moved him past Bryant as the overall leader in national titles as a coach.
- A 297-71-1 overall record as a college head coach at Toledo, Michigan State, LSU and ‘Bama.
- Coaching four Heisman Trophy-winners at Alabama (Mark Ingram, Derrick Henry, Devonta Smith and Bryce Young), a program that incredibly, with all of its history under Bryant and others, had never had a Heisman winner before Saban’s arrival.
- A 206-29 record at Alabama, 87 percent of his games.
- As mentioned earlier, 11 SEC Championships, nine of them at Alabama.
- He led Alabama to appearances in eight of 10 College Football Playoff seasons, and already had four national titles (with LSU, then with Alabama to cap the 2009, 2011 and 2012 seasons) before the CFP was even in existence.
- He leaves a coaching tree that includes Jimbo Fisher (winner of a national title at Florida State); Kirby Smart (winners of two at Georgia); Steve Sarkisian (now the head coach at Texas, who competed in the CFP this year); Ole Miss’ Lane Kiffin (a reclamation “project” of sorts when he got to Alabama, who guided the Rebels to 11 wins in 2023; current Florida coach Billy Napier; Oregon head coach Dan Lanning, once a graduate assistant of Saban’s in 2015 at ‘Bama; Maryland head coach Mike Locksley; and New York Giants head coach Brian Daboll, just to name a few.
- He brought Michigan State from a .500 program when he arrived to a 10-win season when he left (1999).
- He revitalized LSU, whom ESPN points out only had one top five finish between 1962 and 1999, and then took the Tigers to a national championship.
- His best coaching job was no doubt his last. After a forgettable two-season stint as head coach for the Miami Dolphins, Saban returned to college and rejuvenated the Alabama Crimson Tide. Prior to Saban’s arrival, Alabama had only won one national championship since Bryant (the 1992 season, its 100th, led by Bryant assistant Gene Stallings). Alabama went through four head coaches after Stallings’ retirement – Mike DuBose, Dennis Franchione, Mike Price and Mike Shula – and one of them (Price) didn’t even coach a game, fired after a night club tryst in the offseason before he was set to coach there. Saban arrived at Tuscaloosa on Jan. 3, 2007, lost a game to Louisiana Monroe that season, and then proceeded to win just about every non-conference game after – and he didn’t lose much in-conference, either, or anywhere else.
- His 201 wins at Alabama tied him with Vince Dooley for the second-most wins at a SEC school in the history of the conference. Only Bryant, who won 232 at Alabama, has more.
- Saban never had a losing season at any of his college coaching stops.
