The BamaCentral staff reacts to the breaking news that Nick Saban is retiring after 17 seasons with the Crimson Tide and six national titles.
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00 From BamaCentral.com, I'm Blake Beiler here with Katie Windham and we're here reacting
00:05 to the recent news of Alabama head coach Nick Saban announcing his retirement at the end
00:11 of this season.
00:12 Katie, just honestly, let's get into it.
00:14 First reactions, what does this mean for Alabama?
00:17 What does this mean for Nick Saban and what kind of legacy do you think he's leaving here
00:21 at Alabama?
00:22 Yeah, I mean, my instant reaction, honestly, was shock.
00:25 I'd heard rumblings all year long from some people that are well connected that if Nick
00:30 Saban won a championship this year that he would retire and kind of go out on that note.
00:36 And obviously there were some reports at the Rose Bowl that Nick Saban might retire, but
00:40 since Alabama lost, I just wasn't necessarily expecting this to happen at this point, but
00:45 also respect the way Saban did it of meeting with his team before any of it got out to
00:50 the media.
00:51 But, you know, the legacy he leaves is he's the greatest college football coach of all
00:55 time, one of the greatest team sport coaches of all time.
01:00 Seven national titles overall, six at Alabama, all the SEC championships, all the first round
01:04 draft picks, bringing Alabama their first Heisman winner, not only just one, but four.
01:10 You know, the guys he sent off to the NFL that have done some great things.
01:14 And yeah, it's going to be big shoes to fill for sure for whoever has that job.
01:22 It's also, you know, part of the instant reaction is this is not the this is this is what I
01:27 expected in the sense from Saban retiring and that he wasn't going to do a grand retirement
01:32 tour.
01:33 He was never going to do a Coach K announced before the season.
01:35 Everyone look at me.
01:36 This is about how I expected it would happen.
01:38 I just wasn't necessarily expecting it to happen today.
01:42 I agree with that.
01:44 But honestly, I think if there was ever a time for him to walk away this season really
01:50 makes a lot of sense.
01:51 Because when you look at the way the college football landscape is changing going forward
01:55 into 2024, you have all this insane, crazy realignment, you have teams joining conferences
02:02 that are nowhere near geographically where they're supposed to be.
02:07 You have the 12 team playoff, transfer portal, NIL, all of these things adding up and 2024
02:12 is really like the start point of an entirely new era of college football.
02:17 And so whenever you look at it that way, I think for him to be stepping away at this
02:22 time, it makes a little bit of sense for in terms of what the college football landscape
02:27 looks like.
02:28 But obviously, it's a massive, massive shock, but you hit everything.
02:32 I mean, the legacy that he's leaving the greatest coach of all time.
02:35 I mean, there's there's not much else to say with all the accomplishments that he had the
02:39 national championship at LSU, six national championships at Alabama, probably the greatest
02:43 dynasty, definitely the greatest dynasty in college football history, one of the greatest
02:48 in all of team sports, all American sports that we've seen.
02:53 So unless you do you have anything else that you wanted to add about this, this retirement?
02:58 Anything else about Saban?
02:59 Yeah, I was just saying timing wise, as far as yeah, we're college football, it's his
03:02 age.
03:03 He is in his early 70s.
03:05 Yeah, the average person doesn't work until they're in their early 70s.
03:08 And he's continued to do it at a high level.
03:10 He has grandkids, he has kids that he wants to spend time with.
03:14 And then just also, yeah, the way college football is changing.
03:17 Next year team could play I believe with the 12 team playoff playoff up to 17 games a year.
03:22 Nick Saban is so regiment oriented.
03:25 He has ways he likes to do things.
03:27 We've obviously all seen him adapt.
03:29 He's adapted with the playoff, he's adapted with pro style offenses, he's adapted with
03:32 no huddle, that kind of stuff.
03:34 But this would just be even more of that.
03:35 And so as far as timing of the college football landscape, it makes sense.
03:40 But famous people have you covered all this, the inevitable press conference is probably
03:44 going to come in the next couple hours on the coaching search.
03:47 Greg Burns, Alabama's 80s kind of notorious, famous or infamous, however you want to look
03:53 at it for being the ninja and not letting things get out.
03:56 There's already obviously names floating around, but we will keep you posted with all of that.
04:00 But that will wrap up kind of our instant reaction to Nick Saban retiring in Alabama
04:04 after 17 seasons as the Crimson Tides head coach.
04:07 [BLANK_AUDIO]