Paul Finebaum: Retirement timeline accelerating for visibly frustrated Nick Saban

The Alabama Crimson Tide’s loss to Tennessee for the first time in 15 years has SEC Network host Paul Finebaum ringing the alarm bells on Nick Saban’s future. After claiming Saban is at a “very dangerous point” of his career over the weekend, Finebaum expanded his claim on Monday with Greg McElroy and Cole Cubelic.

“I’ve never believed that he was going to be there for a long time, I felt like the window was shorter (than his contract),” Finebaum said. “I think it’s possible. You just have to measure these things. I don’t want to get into Nick Saban’s personal health records but that explosion the other day, is not good for anyone’s health… I think he has to figure this thing out when the season moves on. The future is narrowing for Nick Saban and I don’t think anyone should be surprised by that.”

The Alabama head coach has his contract secure through 2030 but with frustrations mounting regarding NIL and, as Finebaum speculates, less committed players, the 70-year-old could be considering retirement more now than ever.

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Retirement is a ‘scary thought’

“That was Nick Saban saying out loud what a lot of us have speculated. That he is struggling with where we are right now, that he is not getting through like he used to,” Finebaum said. “Before anyone says that he’s lost a step, which I don’t think he has. He may have lost a connection with a team that he used to have, where he was intimidating, where he was feared. Now, players could very well be saying, ‘screw it, I’ll go play somewhere else.’

“This is not a guy who likes to deal with players who are making money, who don’t have the same commitment, perhaps, and whose minds have been affected by so many outside things.”

This summer, as Saban entered his 27th season as a head coach, he told reporters that he hasn’t considered retirement so far.

“I don’t really think about retiring,” Saban said. “I always think about what the heck am I going to do if I do retire? That is a scary thought… I mean, how are you going to get any kind of positive self-gratification or feeling of accomplishment when you’ve done something for so long that you like so much and then all of a sudden it’s not there?”

Saban breaks down numerous Alabama mistakes

Nick Saban opened his press conference on Saturday night with the laundry list of issues that led to the final result.

“I’ll kind of tell you what I told the team,” Saban said after the loss, “very disappointing loss, we didn’t answer the bell today. Obviously, there is a lot of work to be done. Way too many penalties did too many things to help them, gave up explosive plays, had a major error on special teams that was totally unnecessary that led to a score on their part.

“We didn’t execute well enough. Have to give our players credit for fighting back and having an opportunity to win at the end. Wish we could have done things a little different in the end. Play a little better, we played way too soft to let them go down the field 50 yards to get in field goal range.”

Alabama ultimately finished with more total yards than Tennessee (569 to 567 yards). However, Saban’s squad gave up 130 yards on 17 penalties. The penalty total was the most ever for a Crimson Tide team.