In his first public comments since announcing his retirement, former Alabama coach Nick Saban said Wednesday he wrestled with his decision up until minutes before a team meeting where he told his players and cited the toll of this past season as a deciding factor.
The Crimson Tide finished 12-2 but struggled early, losing to Texas in Week 2 and surviving a scare against USF the following week before winning the SEC and reaching the College Football Playoff, where they fell in overtime to Michigan.
“To be honest, this last season was grueling,” the 72-year-old Saban told ESPN’s Rece Davis. “It was a real grind for us to come from where we started to where we got to. It took a little more out of me than usual. When people mentioned the health issue, it was really just the grind.”
Saban, who spent 17 seasons at Alabama, said he became more directly involved with his team’s defense, which took his attention away from other aspects of the job.
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“It put a little more stress on me, made me feel like maybe I wasn’t doing as good a job as I needed to in other parts of our team,” he said. “I just have a high standard for how I do things. If I don’t feel like I’m living up to that standard, I’m really disappointed. … I felt like I could have done a better job if I was younger.”
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Asked by Davis why he felt he didn’t live up to that standard, given Alabama nearly reached the national championship game, Saban replied, “Yeah, but we didn’t get in the national championship game, and I felt like if I’d done a better job, Michigan wouldn’t have scored to tie it up 20-20, (or) we would have had a better play to run on 4th and 3 at the (3-yard line) to keep the overtime going.”
Even so, the seven-time national championship coach said he did not make up his mind to retire until Wednesday afternoon, and in fact was still interviewing potential assistant coaches not long before his announcement, as The Athletic reported.
“It was 3:55. I was sitting in my chair looking at the clock saying you’ve got five minutes to decide which speech you’re gonna give (to the team),” he said. “And I was actually talking to (his wife) Miss Terry right up until that time. So, it was a difficult decision, because it impacts the lives of so many people.”
Saban, as many have speculated, expressed interest in a post-coaching broadcasting career. Davis jokingly said, “I can think of one opportunity,” presumably at ESPN.
“I’m going to keep working,” he said. “I don’t want to get up in the morning and watch Netflix. I want to do something … I’d probably like to do (broadcasting), but someone told me once you can’t start a broadcasting career at 80.
Saban told Davis he’s being given in an office at Bryant-Denny Stadium and will remain close to the program. He said recent changes to college football, like NIL and the transfer portal, had “no impact” on his decision, but that, “I will be dedicated to the future of college football … and I’m going to remain an advocate for making the game as good as it can be.”
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During that same meeting, Alabama athletic director Greg Byrne told the players he hoped to have a new coach in place within 72 hours, a team source told The Athletic’s Bruce Feldman. Commonly mentioned candidates to replace Saban include Texas’ Steve Sarkisian, Washington’s Kalen DeBoer and Florida State’s Mike Norvell. Oregon’s Dan Lanning posted a video on social media early Thursday declaring his intent to stay in Eugene.
Required reading
- How did Auburn fans take Nick Saban’s retirement? Relief, disbelief and respect
- An ode to Nick Saban, the godfather of college football recruiting
- Mandel: Alabama’s Nick Saban, college football’s greatest coach, is going out on his own terms
(Photo: Todd Kirkland / Getty Images)