Nick Saban addresses changes, challenges in college football throughout career

During his 17 seasons at Alabama, Nick Saban saw the college football landscape drastically change multiple times. None more so than the past five seasons with the introduction of NIL and the NCAA transfer portal. New challenges were brought to the college games, things Saban even struggled with at times.

“The last five years, we’ve passed a lot of legislation relative to college football that has really made it more difficult to spend time with your current team,” Saban said. “Even though it’s necessary right now to spend time with your current team because you got to recruit all the players on your team because basically, they’re free agents twice a year.”

For a period of time, players were allowed to enter the portal whenever they pleased. Windows were then introduced, meaning the market was opening following the regular season and spring practice. Roster retention became just as, if not more, important than recruiting outside players.

But the most “dramatic change” Saban saw in his last few years was the recruiting calendar. Rule changes allowed recruits to visit during spring practice and even the summertime. This took even more time away from spending time with the actual team and working the recruiting world.

“I think the biggest change was when they changed the recruiting calendar to allow spring and summer visits,” Saban said. “Those were almost sacred times. We had spring recruiting but when spring recruiting was over, you had a lot of time to spend with your team. Especially throughout the summer. Even though you weren’t allowed to go out there and coach them, you could spend a lot of time with them.”

Saban says a lot more trust in strength coaches for summer workouts. Coaches did not have a ton of access to players during the offseason but even more so when recruiting. Making sure the culture level was high was suddenly out of Saban’s hands and in a strength coach’s.

Nick Saban sees on-field philosophies come full circle throughout decade

On the field, Saban feels like he saw the product come full circle in just over a decade. He references when Alabama was struggling with no huddles offense. Auburn and Gus Malzhan gave them fits, moving quickly before earning a famous win in 2013. Hugh Freeze then got back-to-back victories at Ole Miss in 2014 and 2015.

Flash forward to Saban’s last-ever college football game against Michigan, a slow ground-and-pound style. He says the Alabama defense had no idea how to adapt, something unimaginable at the beginning of his tenure.

“I always sort of mention the fact that in 2013, 2014, we were having a hard time playing against Ole Miss,” Saban said. “They beat us a couple times because they were going so fast on offense, no huddle was kind of the new thing.

“We played Michigan this year, they got in a huddle, and our players didn’t know how to adjust to that. So, in a 10-year period, we went from not being able to play against no huddle to struggling to play against a team that did get in a huddle. That kind of reinforces how things change on and off the field.”