Alabama coach Nick Saban addresses possibility of retirement

Nick Saban didn’t hesitate when addressing the possibility of his retirement. The Alabama coach isn’t planning on hanging up the headset any time soon, scoffing at the notion in a recently leaked video.

“Everybody asks me when I wanna retire. Retire from what?” Saban said to a crowd of coaches in Montgomery, Ala., last month. “I’m gonna jump into an empty abyss, aight, of what am I going to do? Because the very challenges that I talk about and the things in our profession that concern me – for you and for me both, in your game and our game – that’s what keeps me going. That’s why I get up every day. That’s why I can’t sleep at night sometimes.

“So why would you quit doing that? I haven’t figured that one out yet.”

Set to turn 71 in October, Saban has earned a reputation as one of the greatest coaches ever. He has compiled a record of 274-67 throughout 26 seasons as a college head coach, a number that ranks him 18th all-time. Nowhere is the coach more beloved than Tuscaloosa, where he has led the Crimson Tide for the past 15 seasons.

Of Saban’s record-setting seven national title victories, six have come with Alabama. He has appeared in six of the past seven College Football Playoff Championships, including this past season against the Georgia Bulldogs, though they lost.

This isn’t the first time that Nick Saban has spoken on his retirement. After his 70th birthday this past season, the coach said in an interview with AL.com that he has no timetable for making that decision.

“I just kind of keep on keeping on,” he said. “I don’t have a timetable for anything. The only thing that I’ve ever said is that if I felt like I was riding the program down or I wasn’t able to make a positive contribution to the program, then that would probably be time to let somebody else carry the torch.”

Based on the sustained success over the past few years, Saban isn’t showing any signs of reaching that point even as he ages. The Crimson Tide reloaded this offseason with the No. 2 recruiting class according to On3’s Team Consensus Rankings, so expect them to once again be in the national conversation next season.

Alabama will kick off 2022 on Sept. 3 against the Utah State Aggies.