Marty Smith discusses 'Nick Saban effect' at Alabama

Alabama head coach Nick Saban, a few weeks from his 70th birthday, has every accolade a college coach can dream of and more.

Saban holds a 175-23 record at Alabama, he’s won eight SEC West titles (and seven SEC championships), he’s claimed seven national championships with the Crimson Tide (and one more with LSU), he’s produced three Alabama Heisman Trophy winners, he’s produced 41 consensus All-Americans in Tuscaloosa and has turned Alabama into a titan of the college football world, having been ranked No. 1 in national polls for all or part of every season since 2008.

With all that Saban has accomplished, his legacy — the “Saban effect” — simply cannot be overstated, according to ESPN reporter Marty Smith.

“What Coach Saban has built in Tuscaloosa, Alabama with the sustained excellence, despite all of the coaching turnover constantly,” Smith said Friday morning. “They’ve never had coaching continuity during his tenure there. Guys go onto bigger jobs, they get head coaching jobs and they’re gone. But yet, they continue to sustain the standard by which every other country in the program is measured. As a result, what happens to other SEC programs is you win in a couple of years or you’re gone.”

With Saban’s sustained success, Smith implied that other SEC coaches simply don’t get enough time to build their programs to their liking. Instead, athletic directors expect immediate success against the likes of Saban. Smith turned to Kentucky head coach Mark Stoops as an example of what can happen when an SEC coach receives enough time to build.

“Let’s bring it to Kentucky for a second: what Mark Stoops has done here at Kentucky. What did the administration give Mark Stoops that most other SEC coaches do not get? Our most precious resource: time,” Smith said. “They gave him time. And he’s built a great program, and he’s built it in his own image. They are very tough, they play hard and they play fast, and it’s taken time. Most of the time in this conference, you don’t get any time.”

Saban discusses retirement, why he’s not ready to call it a career

Despite all he’s accomplished, Saban, who turns 70 on Halloween, is still under contract through the 2028 season after the Crimson Tide finalized a recent contract extension.

The reasoning for coaching well into the fourth quarter of his life, according to Saban, is simple.

“I enjoy what I do. I like the challenge,” Saban told the New York Times. “I’m not a sit around, do-nothing kind of guy. I like to be involved in things, I like challenges, and this provides tremendous challenges. I love the relationship that I have with the people in the organization, the players. I love to see the program help players be successful personally, academically and athletically so they have a better opportunity to be successful in life.”

Saban loves coaching and has yet to give any indication on when he might retire. However, he did note that there will come a time when he might “ride the program down” as head coach; that’s when he’ll know it’s time to move on.

“I don’t want to stay here beyond my years and ride the program down,” Saban said to the New York Times. “So as long as I feel like I can make a contribution in a positive way, to continue to have a great program for the players and that that’s helping them be successful and we have an opportunity to be successful because of that, I don’t think of age as an issue. I mean, how old’s Nancy Pelosi?”