Nick Saban decided to step down from his role as head football coach at Alabama after 209 wins in 17 years. The 72-year-old knew it was time to move on because of one specific question that constantly impacted his ability to recruit both players and assistant coaches.
Name, Image and Likeness was not the primary reason for retirement despite his previous comments about the current state of the sport.
Saban joined The Paul Finebaum Show to explain what happened. It was difficult to commit himself to others when even he did not know how much longer he had left.
We just adapted to (NIL). We actually won when he wad to deal with Name, Image and Likeness!
I wish we’d have won the Playoff game this year. Lost it in overtime. We had a really good team coming back, but I didn’t want to ride the program down.
I tried to hire three coaches and every one of them wanted to know how long I was gonna be there at the end of the season. Every recruit wanted to know how long you’re going to be here. When you’re 72 years old, it’s hard to say, “I’m gonna be here for the next four years.”
But the question I had for a lot of people is, “How long you gonna be here?”
— Nick Saban
Although Saban was unwilling to commit himself to the future, there were other factors at play. A number of his players and coaches were leaving him after short periods of time to seek better opportunities.
He believes that Kalen DeBoer’s management of the changeover that took place after his departure will be crucial to Alabama’s ability to win right away without him. 34 players left the Crimson Tide after Saban.
A lot of coaches left for good reason. They got better opportunities because we won. And a lot of players left because they thought they had better opportunities for themselves. So that became more difficult, but we managed it. We got good players out of the portal. We lost some good players in the portal.
I think for Alabama, they’ve got a lot to overcome in the short term because of the number of players that left this year.
— Nick Saban
As for how Saban is handling retirement, the biggest difference is the pace of life. Being a college football coach, especially today, is exhausting.
What feels different is, I spent my whole life for 50 years being in a hurry. Gotta do this. Gotta go see this guy. Gotta do a home visit. Whatever it takes during the season day in and day out to try to get prepared for a game and get the team prepared. When I retired, I wasn’t in a hurry anymore.
— Nick Saban
Saban’s wife, Miss Terry, helped him settle in to his new reality.
I really didn’t even know what that was like. It’s been pretty good. The first thing I got when I retired the next day, I had a 12 commandments of being retired from Miss Terry. I’ve had to live up to those standards.
— Nick Saban
Although NIL and the transfer portal played a role in the greatest head coach of all-time’s retirement, it is interesting to hear his perspective. It was not necessarily that the game forced him out like many people have speculated.
Rather, he forced himself out of the game. Nick Saban decided to step away before the constant speculation about his future brought the program down around him. The legendary coach did not want to overstay his welcome and got out in time for others to keep building the momentum around him.
It was a rather admirable move!
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