A college football legend is walking away from the sport. Although Nick Saban’s coaching reign has come to an end, his dominance over college football will linger forever.
Saban, who won seven national championships, more than any major college football coach, and turned Alabama back into a national powerhouse that shattered an AP poll record for most consecutive seasons at number one, announced his retirement. Saban said in a statement, “The University of Alabama has been a very special place to Terry and me. 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.”
He continued, “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.” The 72-year-old restored a Crimson Tide program once ruled by Paul “Bear” Bryant to the top of college football after taking over in 2007. As he stacked his wins, Saban’s celebrity status reached royalty levels in Alabama.
For some time, he was the sports overlord, and there was little that could be done to stop him. Saban won six of his titles during his 17 seasons at Alabama. He won his first in 2003 with LSU. His Tide teams were ranked number one in the AP poll in a remarkable 15 straight seasons, breaking the old record of seven held by Miami. Saban’s wife, Terry, posted about their “incredible run” at Alabama on the Facebook page for Nick’s Kids Foundation. She wrote, “We hope that the Saban legacy will be about helping others and making a positive difference in people’s lives as well as the winning tradition on the field.”
Saban’s tutelage helped launch the head coaching careers of Georgia’s Kirby Smart, Texas’s Steve Sarkisian, and Mississippi’s Lane Kiffin, among others. He finished just shy of the top in his final season, leading the Tide from a shaky start to a Southeastern Conference championship and back into the College Football Playoff before losing in overtime to Michigan in a semifinal game at the Rose Bowl. Alabama athletic director Greg Byrne called him “one of the greatest coaches of all time, in any sport.”
Saban led the Tide to nine SEC championships and won his first national title at Alabama with a 14-0 season in 2009. Titles came again in 2011, 2012, 2015, 2017 and 2020. He also won the SEC with LSU in 2001 and 2003. After a 7-6 debut in 2007, Saban won at least 10 games in his final 16 seasons. It wasn’t until the rise of Dabo Swinney’s Clemson teams in the late 2010s and later Smart’s Georgia Bulldogs that any school could be considered a consistent threat to the Tide.
Saban has stepped away as the fabric of college football undergoes dramatic change. Colorado’s Deion Sanders, a coach who has sought to capitalize on the intervention of players profiting financially from their play on the field, said on social media, “College Football just lost the GOAT.” Brett McMurphy of Action Network reported Oregon’s Dan Lanning is expected to be the “top candidate” to replace Saban, while ESPN’s Pete Thamel noted there are a number of high-profile candidates.
While Saban’s time as the head coach of Alabama ended with a loss to Michigan in the CFP, he will forever be remembered as one of the sport’s greatest winners.