Nick Saban shares hopes for the story of his career

Nick Saban decided to step away from coaching at the end of the 2023 season and enter his retirement as one of the greatest coaches of all time.

Now, as he shared while at the 2024 Nick’s Kids Foundation Giveaway Luncheon at Bryant-Denny Stadium, his hopes for the story of his career come down to being remembered for helping players be more successful.

“I just hope that my story is about helping players be more successful,” Nick Saban said. “The importance of the lessons that can be learned in athletics for all competitors, whether it’s hard work, perseverance, overcoming adversity, pride in performance, being the best that you can be at whatever you choose to do, having the kind of discipline to make the kind of choices and decisions that allow you to do that.”

Nick Saban began his coaching career as a GA at Kent State, the same school he played his college football, back in 1973. Since then, he’s been a coach every season since then. For the most part, that’s been at the college level, though he has also made several NFL stops along the way.

“Those are the things that I hope we were able to impact the people that we were involved with so that they could be more successful by using some of those principles and values to be successful in whatever they choose to do,” Saban concluded.

Nick Saban earned his first head coaching job in 1990 with the Toledo Rockets. He spent a season there before jumping to the NFL to be a coordinator. Later, he’d return to the college game to lead Michigan State and LSU, winning his first national championship in the process.

After a difficult tenure as the Miami Dolphins head coach, Saban returned to college and took the Alabama job. That was back in 2007 and it’s the job where he’d cement his on-the-field legacy by winning six national championships with the Crimson Tide.

By the time his career, came to an end, Nick Saban had a college coaching record of 292–71–1 with seven national championships. That success has mattered to him. Still, as he says himself, his hope is that the story of that legendary career will come down to how he impacted individual people around him.

Nick Saban details his day-to-day life since retirement

Now in retirement, Nick Saban shared what his day-to-day life looks like.

“I’m still involved in football. Having the opportunity at ESPN whether it was doing the draft, doing SEC Network, doing GameDay coming up here next weekend really in Ireland, in Dublin for the Georgia Tech–Florida State game. It keeps me involved in football,” Saban said.

“I do a lot of speaking and hopefully try to impact the game in a positive way based on the experience and the knowledge that we’ve accumulated through the years from great mentors. Maybe we can help college football continue to be all that it is and more.”