Nick Saban reflects on 'difficult' last season at Alabama: 'I knew it was time'
Alabama head coach Nick Saban confirmed in an interview with ESPN that his health was a reason he chose to retire on Wednesday after 17 seasons with the Crimson Tide program.
“Last season was difficult for me from just a health standpoint, not necessarily having anything major wrong, but just being able to sustain and do things the way I want to do them, the way I’ve always done them,” Saban told ESPN’s Chris Low. “It just got a little bit harder. So you have to decide, ‘OK, this is sort of inevitable when you get to my age.’”
BamaOnLine has confirmed that when Saban informed the team on Wednesday, he cited his age and health concerns as a factor in his decision to retire from coaching. He told the team in a routine meeting, and both coaches and players did not expect his announcement.
Saban, 72, was still interviewing coaches to round out his 2024 staff on Wednesday before revealing his retirement plans. Now, Alabama is looking to replace its legendary coach.
“It’s the way I’ve always done things,” Saban said. “You keep working right up until it’s time to walk away. I think when you get away from doing what you’ve always done, you’re never going to be as effective. And that’s just sort of it. I knew it was time.”
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But rather than take a vacation or hit the links, he was at the Mal M. Moore Athletic Facility on Thursday morning, just like he has every day for the last 17 years, to help the program.
“I want to be there for the players, for the coaches, anything I can do to support them during this transition,” Saban said. “There are a lot of things to clean up, to help as we move forward. I’m still going to have a presence here at the university in some form and trying to figure out all that and how it works. This is a place that will never be too far away from Miss Terry’s and my hearts.”
Saban is under contract through the 2029 season but told ESPN it was unfair to everybody in the organization to “keep saying that he was going to be at Alabam for 4-5 more years.”
“Which I would have been happy to try to do, but I just didn’t feel like I could do that and didn’t want to get into a year-to-year deal that doesn’t help anybody and doesn’t help you continue to build and be at the standard that I want to be at and want this program to be at,” Saban said.
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