Nick Saban reveals when he’ll know it’s time retire from coaching

Nick Saban turns 72 years old in a few weeks. His coaching career is closer to its finale than it is the start having began as a graduate assistant at Kent State in the 1970s, but isn’t looking slow down anytime soon.

He’s as involved and hands-on with his program as he was when he took over the head coaching job for the Alabama 17 seasons ago. Still, he’s knows his coaching career can’t last forever and has a rough idea out what it would take for him to consider retirement in the coming years.

“When you don’t have the same amount of enjoyment and I think probably there’s always a time where it might be better if someone else did it. I don’t know for sure exactly how you know when that is,” Saban told Tom Rinaldi during an interview on Fox’s Big Noon Kickoff. “I love it.”

The feature story shown on Big Noon Kickoff depicted Saban running up and down the practice field, grabbing players to show which position they’re supposed to be in and more — which all the things he’s been doing for decades as a coach. There’s still a bit of a pep in his step and as long as Alabama continues to win, Saban will be able to stick around as long as he wants.

Still, if Saban decided to retire today he would go down as one of, if not the greatest head coach in college football history. In 28 years as a head coach at the college football level, he’s compiled a 286-69-1 record and has won six national championships with the Crimson Tide.

Between 2015 and 2021, Saban’s squad missed the College Football Playoff once and won three CFP titles during that span. That’s also not to mention the countless first round draft picks and SEC Championships he’s brought to the program as well.

That success has bled over to the 2023 season, where the No. 3 Crimson Tide steamrolled past Middle Tennessee State 56-7 during Week 1. They face a stiff task in No. 11 Texas for their Week 2 battle at home, but rising to the occasion during games like that are what has made Saban such a great coach since taking over the Crimson Tide program in 2007.

Kickoff is set for 7 p.m. ET live at Bryant-Denny Stadium and the Crimson Tide head into the matchup as a seven-point betting favorite, per Vegas Insider.