Former Alabama Football Coach Nick Saban Reveals Reason for Retiring

Nick Saban is no longer the head coach of the Alabama Crimson Tide football team as he announced his retirement this week. It was a surprise by many as Saban led the Crimson Tide to an SEC Championship and an appearance in the College Football Playoff this past season. Saban recently spoke to ESPN about his decision and said his age made it more difficult to do his job the way he demanded of himself. 

“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, 72, said. “It just got a little bit harder. So you have to decide, ‘OK, this is sort of inevitable when you get to my age.’”

Saban went on to say it was not fair to keep telling everyone he was going to be at the school for another four or five 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.

The retirement decision was finalized when Saban returned from a trip to his home in Florida with his wife, Terry last weekend. On Tuesday and Wednesday, Saban was still interviewing potential assistant coaches. “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.”

Saban also made it clear that he’s not retiring due to the addition of name, image and likeness (NIL), which has led to players constantly transferring. “Don’t make it about that. It’s not about that,” Saban said. “To me, if you choose to coach, you don’t need to be complaining about all that stuff. You need to adjust to it and adapt to it and do the best you can under the circumstances and not complain about it. “

Saban finished his college head coaching career with a 292-71-1 record. He won one national title at LSU, six national titles at Alabama and 11 SEC titles at both schools combined.