Reggie Bush on Nick Saban retirement: 'NIL ran him away'

College football legend Reggie Bush had some fascinating thoughts on Nick Saban’s retirement that he shared to Instagram following the news.

The former USC star made no bones about it, he believes Saban is retiring because he couldn’t handle an even playing field, as NIL has brought his opponents closer to his level. Even though Saban has still found success if college football’s new era, Bush believes the former Alabama leader was fed up.

“NIL ran him away, he has no more control over 5 star recruits,” Bush said, via a comment on Instagram. “The playing field is level and he can’t handle that (laughing-face emoji).”

SHOTS FIRED: Reggie Bush claims Nick Saban can’t recruit with NIL in place now 👀. pic.twitter.com/oNkWcrRzeG

— uSTADIUM (@uSTADIUM) January 13, 2024

Evidently, Bush believes Saban has some ulterior motives for retiring, even if the Crimson Tide legend cited age and health concerns. The former Heisman-winning running back believes the grind was simply too much for Saban at the moment, as he lost some of his control with NIL and the transfer portal.

Who knows, maybe Reggie Bush has a point. Nevertheless, college football lost one of their biggest stars to retirement when Nick Saban call it a career on Wednesday, and it’ll be tough to replace him in Tuscaloosa, as hard as Alabama tries.

More on Nick Saban’s retirement, Alabama Crimson Tide

Moreover, Nick Saban’s storied coaching career started in 1973 when he was a graduate assistant at his alma mater, Kent State. From there, he had assistant coaching stints at Syracuse, West Virginia, Ohio State, Navy and Michigan State before he got his first head coaching opportunity at Toledo in 1990.

After just one season, though, Saban headed to the NFL with the Cleveland Browns under the legendary Bill Belichick. He worked as Belichick’s defensive coordinator from 1991-94 before becoming a head coach once again at Michigan State from 1995-99, amassing a 34-24-1 record before he took over at LSU in 2000 — where he won a national title three years later.

All told, Saban had a 292-72-1 record as a college football head coach, including a 201-29 mark in Tuscaloosa. He also had a stint with the Miami Dolphins from 2005-06 where he went 15-17 before taking over at Alabama.

Saban is a breathing embodiment of college football. In his final words to his team as head coach, Saban informed them how to carry the Alabama torch forward.

“I encouraged them to continue to do the things that they’ve always done to be successful,” Saban said. “One of the things I encouraged the team to do was – ‘You guys all need to play for each other. They’ll hire a really good coach here. You’ll have good coaches. 

“You’ll learn more things from more different people that can enhance your development. And you guys got to trust in that and believe in that and play for each other.’”

On3’s Grant Grubbs contributed to this article.