Nick Saban retired on Wednesday.
Saban won seven national championships, six at Alabama and one at LSU (2003).
No other coach has won more national championships in the history of college football.
The longtime Alabama head coach told his team on Wednesday afternoon that he was retiring, according to multiple reports.
Chris Lowe of ESPN originally broke the story on X, formerly known as Twitter.
In total, Saban compiled a 297-71-1 record in his career. He’ll finish at No. 5 on the all-time win list, 112 wins behind all-time leader Joe Paterno.
Saban, 72, spent 17 seasons at Alabama and built one of the best programs in the sport’s history. He won six national championships there, three of which came in the College Football Playoff era. He most recently led the Crimson Tide back to the playoff this year, though they fell to Michigan in the Rose Bowl.
Saban spent about a half century in the coaching profession. He started as a grad assistant at Kent State, his alma mater. He worked as a position coach at Kent State, Syracuse, West Virginia and Navy before he became defensive coordinator for Michigan State in the late 1980s. After coaching defensive backs for the Houston Oilers for two seasons, Saban got his first head coaching opportunity with Toledo in 1990. Outside of three years as the Cleveland Browns defensive coordinator, the rest of Saban’s career was spent as a head coach. He went from Michigan State (1995-99) to LSU (2000-04) and the Miami Dolphins (2005-06) before his 17 seasons at Alabama.
The story is told that when Nick Saban left LSU to coach the Miami Dolphins for the 2006 season, it didn’t take long for him to realize what he had gotten himself into in the NFL. During August preseason workouts in the clammy South Florida weather, Saban had the Dolphins running laps. He looked to the sideline and saw a large defensive lineman standing there. When Saban asked him why he wasn’t running laps with the team, the lineman replied, “Because my contract says that I don’t have to.”
I wonder if Saban is leaving Alabama abruptly before his contract runs out because NIL and the Transfer Portal have made college football just like pro football. The players can fly the coop any time they want to. 18 Alabama players have entered the transfer portal and a number of others have declared for the NFL after three years instead of playing the four years allowed by their recruitment.