Chris Low explains role Nick Saban will have in Alabama's head coaching search

Chris Low shocked the world when he hit send on a tweet that will forever change college football. Alabama head coach Nick Saban is retiring.

According to Low, Saban isn’t just up and leaving Tuscaloosa. He’s expecting the now former Crimson Tide head coach to play a bit of a helping hand in choosing his successor before riding off into the sunset.

“Nick Saban will do anything and everything he can to help them move forward,” Low told Finebaum. “In no way, shape or form — but it’s not in his DNA to try to force somebody on [Alabama] and tell them that this is who you should go hire.

“He will be a resource for him. You can bet your last dollar on that and I think they’ll sort of look around and see who they feel like the fit. There are a lot of good young coaches out there.”

According to Low, college football is a “young man’s game,” and the workload of being a coach in college football in this day and age is more than it used to be. Staying on top of NIL and the transfer portal while also maintaining dominance in the high school recruiting ranks is a lot for any coach to handle.

“All that goes into being a head coach now, especially at that at that level,” Low continued. “And so I think all these things he considered. I just right now — I’m very hesitant to start throwing out names because you know, and I know, over the next 24 hours.

“Basically everybody who’s ever won a title in the NFL or in college, anybody who’s ever been construed as being somebody who’s been a part of his coaching tree is going to be mentioned at some point.”

Saban, 72, has been the head coach at Alabama since 2007, leading the Crimson Tide to six national championships during that time. He also won a title at LSU, giving him seven championships as part of his legendary career. He was 16-7 in bowl games throughout his career and led Alabama to a winning record in every season since 2008.

Most recently, he led his team to a 12-2 record. As SEC Champions, the Crimson Tide fell to eventual national champion Michigan in the College Football Playoff semifinal.

His record of 201-28 since taking over the program since 2007 is the best of any coach during that time period. It will certainly be hard to top.