Nick Saban provides humble approach to place in GOAT conversation

Even before trading his coaching whistle for a microphone on ESPN’s College GameDay, Nick Saban was already considered “the G.O.A.T.” — the greatest of all-time — by many college football fans, and not just those located in Tuscaloosa.

The former Alabama and LSU head coach formally retired following the 2023 season having been part of a NCAA-record seven national championship-winning teams after the Crimson Tide won the 2020 College Football Playoff national title to surpass fellow Alabama legend Paul “Bear” Bryant‘s six championships between 1961-79.

In a recent and extensive sitdown with The Pivot Podcast with former NFL players Ryan Clark, Channing Crowder and Fred Taylor, Saban opened up about how he personally approached the discussion surrounding his place in the “G.O.A.T” conversation.

“I never thought of it that way. You know, when I was coaching, it was almost like when you’re a player. The next season comes, and you know you’ve got to go perform and be the best you can be so you can keep your job. I never worried about keeping my job, but I did have this pride in performance that every year was like taking a new job,” Saban said. “Because you have a new team, new leaders, new issues, new problems you need to solve on the team. … So I never thought of it like you accomplished something. I was never thinking about the outcomes, I was always thinking about what I had to do to get the outcome. And that made it fun. Just like when you play, if think about ‘aw man, what if we lose this game?’ it’s really no fun. But if you’re out there being aggressive and playing to win, it’s fun.”

Nick Saban: ‘I never really ever stopped to think about’ being the GOAT

And Saban had plenty of fun, finishing his 28-year collegiate head coaching career with a 292-71-1 record, ranking ninth all-time with a .804 winning percentage among college football coaches with at least 200 career wins. Saban also went 15-17 in two years as the Miami Dolphins head coach between 2005-06.

“I never really ever thought about (being the GOAT), it was always like, ‘what’s happening next? What’s the next challenge?’ And there were always a bunch of challenges,” Saban continuned, pointing out within two hours of winning the 2003 National Championship at LSU he was already working toward the 2004 team. “I never really ever stopped to think about it. You know? It was always the next challenge, the next game, the next competition.”

As usual, just as he would do on the postgame podium whenever his teams would win a national championship, Saban deferred much of the credit to those that played a part in his wildly successful coaching career, including his many assistants and the litany of superstar players under his tutelage.

“Now that it’s all over, I don’t think of myself that way,” Saban concluded. “There’s a lot of good coaches. Look, we’d never have been able to do what we did if we didn’t have a whole bunch of good people in the organization, and I’m talking about coaches. And I never learned how to coach bad players to play good — never. So, I always recruited my ass off so that we’d always have good players.”

It was never just about Nick Saban, a humble perspective that might only go to further his case as the greatest of all time.