Nick Saban shoots down theory on why he retired as Alabama's head coach
When Nick Saban stunningly retired on Wednesday as Alabama's head coach, several theories about why he made the decision started making the rounds on social media. One popular theory, and it makes sense, is because of the changing landscape of college football. The NCAA transfer portal and the NIL era has made the job of […]
When Nick Saban stunningly retired on Wednesday as Alabama's head coach, several theories about why he made the decision started making the rounds on social media.
One popular theory, and it makes sense, is because of the changing landscape of college football.
The NCAA transfer portal and the NIL era has made the job of a college football head coach even more of a grind than it already was. Roster management is essentially a 24/7/365 job. And it would be easy to surmise that Saban, at 72 years old, is tired of that life.
But according to Saban, that's not the reason he decided to retire this week.
"Don't make it about that (portal and NIL). It's not about that," said Saban to ESPN on Thursday. "To me, if you choose to coach, you don't need to be complaining about all that stuff. You need to adjust to it and adapt to it and do the best you can under the circumstances and not complain about it. Now, I think everybody is frustrated about it. We had an SEC conference call, 14 coaches on there [Wednesday], and there's not one guy you can talk to who really understands what's happening in college football and thinks that it's not an issue."
"But [retirement] ain't about that," added Saban in his first public comments since the news broke on Wednesday. "We've been in this era for three years now, and we've adapted to it and won in this era, too. It's just that I've always known when it would be time to turn it over to somebody else, and this is that time."
According to Saban, his decision to retire came down to something simple — it was just harder to do the job at 72 than it was at 62.
"Last season was difficult for me from just a health standpoint, not necessarily having anything major wrong, but just being able to sustain and do things the way I want to do them, the way I've always done them," said Saban to ESPN. "It just got a little bit harder. So you have to decide, 'OK, this is sort of inevitable when you get to my age.'"
All good things eventually have to come to an end. The success that Saban sustained at Alabama for over 15 years is something we may never see again in college sports.
Big name ruled out for Alabama’s coaching search
There’s one name off the list
