Nick Saban admits he went back and forth on decision to retire

Was Nick Saban going back and forth on his decision to retire from Alabama this week?

“Yeah, I was,” said Saban in a sitdown with ESPN’s Rece Davis. “It was a hard decision. Look, I love coaching. I love the relationships with the players. The thing that made it more difficult for me is I felt like it might be the right time for me but how it impacted the players, the coaches, all the people who work here in the building and contributed to the success of the team, now how would it affect them? That was the hard part.

“And that was the part that I kept vacillating on back and forth till I was on the phone – we had a meeting at four o’clock. It was 3:55. I was sitting in my chair, looking at the clock, saying, ‘You’ve got five minutes to decide which speech you’re gonna give.’ And I was actually talking to Miss Terry right up until that time. So it was a difficult decision because it impacts and influences the lives of so many people.”

Saban ultimately decided to announce he was retiring during a team meeting on Wednesday afternoon after 17 seasons of leading the Alabama football program. Davis asked Saban what that moment was like to address his football team as the head coach for a final time.

“Difficult, very difficult,” Saban said. “Because I love those guys sitting in that room. I love those players. There’s nothing more that I respect than great competitors, and these guys all overcame tremendous resiliency. They committed to the program. They committed themselves to the team for next year. 

“And I wanted to go in and say, ‘Hey, I want everybody to make 100 percent commitment for the next 12 months.’ But I’ve got to be able to make that same kind of commitment if I’m going to be the leader and the coach, and that was a little bit of a dilemma.”

Saban has a relationship with all of his players, but he’s especially close to the defensive backs, who he worked with in practice and meetings. He said two players that were difficult to tell he was retiring were safeties Malachi Moore, a senior, and Caleb Downs, a freshman.

“Malachi is one of the captains on the team and Caleb is a young guy that has all the right stuff and does everything exactly like you’d want and is a tremendous competitor, both guys (are),” Saban said. “So those two guys were probably the most difficult.”

What did Saban say to them?

“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.’

Saban added that will still be around, albeit in a different office across campus.

“And I’m going to be here, so I’m going to be here for you,” Saban said. “I’m going to have a presence. I’m going to stay in Tuscaloosa. They’re giving me an office in the stadium. And I said, ‘I can get on your butt from there just like I can from on the field.’”

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