Rece Davis shares Alabama fans' emotions after Nick Saban retirement

Emotions were high in Tuscaloosa on Wednesday as legendary Alabama coach Nick Saban announced his retirement. Even though there had been rumors that this could be Saban’s final season, it didn’t make it any less shocking for the Crimson Tide fans who watched him the past 17 years.

Those fans have been through many highs and lows throughout Saban’s tenure, though they typically contended for national championships on a yearly basis. Saban delivered six national title trophies and nine SEC Championships, including going out with a win in this year’s conference title game.

Many argued that this season was perhaps Saban’s best coaching job yet as the Crimson Tide won 11 straight games to reach the College Football Playoff. Alabama alumnus and ESPN analyst Rece Davis revealed on the College Gameday Podcast just what the pulse of the fan base is a couple days removed from the coach’s retirement.

“You step back from it and one thing that happens is to use two of the championship games, it’s one of the things that’s part and parcel about business,” Davis explained. “You don’t feel the devastation when Deshaun Watson hits Hunter Renfrow. You don’t feel the same exhilaration when Tua hits DeVonta Smith. So your spectrum is narrowed very much.

“I’ve gotten a ton of response from people outside of our industry who are very saddened by it. A little shocked by it. Worried that something’s wrong because I think they thought he was going to coach there forever. So there have been a number of things like that. The overwhelming sense is appreciation because of what you said.”

Alabama was coming off of a 6-7 season when Nick Saban took over in 2007. He led them to a 7-6 finish in his inaugural season and victory in the Independence Bowl, a sign of things to come. Saban never had a losing season in 17 years with the Crimson Tide and led them to a national championship by 2009.

That allowed Alabama fans to quickly warm up to Saban as he dug them out of the doldrums and built one of college football’s biggest dynasties. For that reason it will take a bit of getting used to seeing someone else besides him on the sidelines.

“There was no guarantee that it was going to get right when they hired him in 2007,” Davis said. “Because of NCAA scandals and incompetent hires and the notion for a long time that you had to be an Alabama man to be able to guide that program, you know, held him back in a lot of ways. There were a lot of things that went wrong whether it was getting left by Dennis Franchione, the Mike Shula era prior to the Franchione era was a debacle for them and left them with a lot of black eyes. He was able to fix all of that.”

Not only did Saban fix it, but he lifted Alabama to the top of the college football world. He proved himself among the greatest coaches in the history of the game and also set up several others for success in their careers.

In a way, Davis argued, Saban created the blueprint for what it takes to build a successful college football program. To those who followed along in Tuscaloosa and throughout the country, it’s a period of time that they’ll never forget.

“So you combine that with fixing LSU and fixing Alabama, he was, in addition to being a great on-field coach, a great psychological perspective and motivational guy,” Davis said. “He would be — and is with the Ferrari dealerships and Mercedes dealerships and all those things — he’s a very astute organization builder from a business standpoint.

“I think he really set the standard for what modern, elite college football programs. We used to call them programs and we still do but now they’re basically organizations. Nick often referred to it sort of in that NFL vernacular. He was a master at doing that as well.”