Nick Saban opens up on his retirement: 'I didn't want to ride the program down'

Nick Saban announced his retirement this offseason after a historic career, ushering in a new era for Alabama football. It came after years of speculation that the coach could hang up the headset, but still came as a surprise to many who watched him on the Crimson Tide sidelines since 2007.

Now a few months into retirement, Saban joined The Paul Finebaum Show on Monday for an interview. He opened up on why he made the decision, citing his age as well as the changing landscape of college sports with NIL and the transfer portal.

“We just adapted to (NIL),” Saban said. “We actually won when we had to deal with name, image and likeness. I wish we’d have won the Playoff game this year. Lost it in overtime. We had a good team coming back, but I didn’t want to ride the program down. I tried to hire three coaches and every one of them wanted to know how long I was gonna be there at the end of the season. Every recruit wanted to know how long you’re gonna be here.

“When you’re 72 years old, it’s hard to say, ‘I’m gonna be here for the next four years.’ But the question I had for a lot of people is, ‘How long are you gonna be here?'”

Saban explained that he saw a number of coaches and players were leaving after short periods of time with the team. The Crimson Tide saw 39 players enter the transfer portal in the 2022 and 2023 offseasons.

This year after Saban left, 34 Alabama players followed suit. He cited that as a growing frustration that he dealt with, as well as something he believes will be key for new coach Kalen DeBoer to manage heading into this season.

“A lot of coaches left for good reason,” Saban said. “They got better opportunities because we won. And a lot of players left because they thought they had better opportunities for themselves. So that became more difficult, but we managed it. We got good players out of the portal. We lost some good players in the portal. I think for Alabama, they’ve got a lot to overcome in the short term because of the number of players that left this year.”

Having had a few months to adjust to his retirement, Nick Saban noted the biggest difference is the change of pace. He was constantly on the go while working at Alabama and only grew busier with the additions of the transfer portal and NIL.

He’ll now enter a new chapter of his career as an analyst for ESPN, and get to finally enjoy some time taking a bit of a break and focusing on other aspects of his life.

“What feels different is, I spent my whole life for 50 years being in a hurry,” Saban said. “Gotta do this. Gotta go see this guy. Gotta do a home visit. Whatever it takes during the season day in and day out to try to get prepared for a game and get the team prepared. When I retired, I wasn’t in a hurry anymore.

“I really didn’t even know what that was like. It’s been pretty good. The first thing I got when I retired the next day, I had a 12 commandments of being retired from Miss Terry. I’ve had to live up to those standards.”