Nick Saban’s surprise decision to retire as Alabama’s head coach on Wednesday was done in part because he couldn’t do the job in the way that was required of him.
Speaking to ESPN’s Chris Low, Saban said the 2023 season was “difficult for me from just a health standpoint” even though there’s nothing “major” wrong with him.
“It just got a little bit harder,” he explained. “So you have to decide, ‘OK, this is sort of inevitable when you get to my age.”
Saban issued a statement on Wednesday announcing his retirement after 17 seasons with the Crimson Tide:
“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. 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.”
Saban, 72, was the second-oldest head coach in FBS last season. He’s only two months younger than North Carolina’s Mack Brown.
Even though Saban said he “would have been happy to try” giving Alabama all he had for the next few years, he ultimately “didn’t feel like I could do that” and didn’t want to be in a position where he was operating on a year-to-year basis.
One reason that Saban’s decision to walk away caught many people off guard is because he was conducting business as usual, even on Wednesday.
Per Nick Kelly of the Tuscaloosa News, Saban was interviewing candidates for openings on his staff Wednesday morning.
Low noted Saban told Alabama coaches and players at a 4 p.m. meeting in the team room he was retiring, and the whole thing didn’t last more than 10 minutes.
One thing Saban made clear to Low that his decision to walk away wasn’t about the changing landscape in college football, including the transfer portal and NIL rules:
“Don’t make it about that. It’s not about that. 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.”
Saban will be around the football program to help with the transition as the athletic department searches for a new head coach.
Whoever the person to replace Saban ends up being will have impossible shoes to fill. He led the Crimson Tide to nine SEC titles and six national championships over the past 17 seasons.
