UNEXPECTED ANNOUNCEMENT: THE ALABAMA’S COACH IS ON LEAVE BECAUSE OF…
Nick Saban, who is widely considered the greatest college football coach because of his run guiding storied programs against the fiercest possible competition, is retiring after a 17-year stint at Alabama in which he delivered six national championships, he announced Wednesday night.
Saban called the university “a very special place” to him and his wife in a school-issued statement, adding that his legacy and the team’s process of sustained success is what was most important to him, not the number of wins or losses.
“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,” he said. “Hopefully, we have done that, and we will always consider Alabama our home.”
His final championship in 2020 gave Saban seven national titles — he won one previously at LSU — and boosted him past another Alabama great, Bear Bryant, as the coach with the most championships, stamping a legacy defined by reaching the sport’s highest pinnacles.
Saban, 72, leaves his post with 292 career wins, fifth all time and the most among any active coach. He won 12 conference championships, more than 80 percent of his games and earned 17 total coach of the year honors nationally and in conference.
He led the Crimson Tide to winning seasons every year since 2008 and delivered something to Alabama that no other coach before him did: the Heisman Trophy, with four winners during his run, most recently Bryce Young in 2021.
Saban’s latest Alabama team went 12-2 and finished the 2023 season with a 27-20 overtime loss to Michigan — the eventual national champion — in the College Football Playoff semifinal at the Rose Bowl.
Before joining Alabama in 2007, Saban had college stints with LSU (2000-04), Michigan State (1995-99) and Toledo (1990), and he coached the Miami Dolphins in the NFL (2005-06). He has a 292-71-1 record at the collegiate level, with five wins vacated by the NCAA as punishment for players wrongly getting free textbooks for other students. Saban won 11 SEC titles — two at LSU and nine at Alabama — and made bowl appearances every year with the programs. His bowl record at Alabama was 16-7.
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