Paul Finebaum discusses Nick Saban's age, gives timetable for retirement

Paul Finebaum believes the end is near when it comes to the future of Nick Saban.

After an uncharacteristic week for the Alabama legend, Finebaum discussed Saban’s age, giving a timetable for the seven-time national champion’s possible retirement from the sidelines on ESPN’s First Take.

“We’re not assuming, but I’m just predicting — the key number, 70. Nick Saban is 70 years old, and he is going to be 71 in October, and no coach has won a title at that age,” began Finebaum. “He’s in great health, he looks great, but I’m seeing some little cracks, like this week. This was an unforced error. This is something that Nick Saban has not done. He stepped in it. It’s the talk of the sports world right now.

“So, we can’t say that Nick Saban planned this. You don’t plan to get dumped on by one of your former assistants, and have him accuse you of all the things that we were saying. Until this year, he had not lost to a former assistant. He lost to Jimbo Fisher, he lost to Kirby Smart.

“I covered Bear Bryant’s final two years. I mean, I’ve been around a long time, and I’m not going anywhere after this week. I’ve seen people at this age start running into trouble. It happened to Bobby Bowden. I think ultimately, Nick Saban is going to get fed up with the current state of college football. If he wins a title, whether it’s this year, next or some year, he’s going to say you know what, I’m out of here, I’ll go make ten million dollars a year from ESPN.”

Time runs out on every coach eventually when it comes to their time on the sidelines. Enjoy Nick Saban while we can, because Paul Finebaum is wearing the sign and waving the handbell when it comes to the Alabama coach’s future.

Paul Finebaum: Nick Saban’s championship window is closing

Continuing, Finebaum explained why he believes Saban’s championship window is closing.

“The easy answer is to say no, that Nick Saban can adapt,” started Finebaum. “But my answer is yes. It’s closing slightly. I think he’ll win this year. He’s the favorite, and I think he has the best team. He has the two best players. But I think it gets more difficult after he holds up the trophy this year, because he has so much more competition, and the topic of the day — NIL — is the reason.

“You have Jimbo Fisher, who came close a couple of years ago to the Playoff, now moving up in the rankings. Kirby Smart, who had more draft choices a couple of months ago, a couple of weeks ago I should say in Vegas than Alabama. So, I think it’s going to get more difficult. You have competition from out West in Lincoln Riley, who I think is going to start dominating the Pac-12. So, I don’t want to say that it’s over for Nick Saban, but I think it’s going to get far more difficult to win championships. Right now, he’s been winning them at a pace of about every other year.”

While Finebaum believes another championship could be added to the Alabama leader’s trophy case this season, he added that if Saban doesn’t win this season, it could be all she wrote for the seven-time champion. While you can never count out Nick Saban, Paul Finebaum sees the writing on the wall when it comes to the situation.