Nick Saban Retires as Alabama HC; Won 6 National Titles with Crimson Tide

A college football titan is walking away from the sport.

Legendary Alabama head coach Nick Saban is retiring. The seven-time national champion became the face of the entire sport and built the Crimson Tide into the nation's dominant program throughout his tenure that included six national championships.

"The University of Alabama has been a very special place to Terry and me," Saban said in his retirement announcement.

"We have enjoyed every minute of our 17 years being the head coach at Alabama as well as becoming a part of the Tuscaloosa community. It is not just about how many games we won and lost, but it's about the legacy and how we went about it. We always tried to do it the right way. The goal was always to help players create more value for their future, be the best player they could be and be more successful in life because they were part of the program. Hopefully, we have done that, and we will always consider Alabama our home."

Terry Saban also released a statement addressing her husband's decision to retire:

Brett McMurphy of Action Network reported Oregon's Dan Lanning is expected to be the "top candidate" to replace Saban, while ESPN's Pete Thamel noted there are a number of high-profile candidates:

On the surface, a 72-year-old coach walking away from a sport where he has nothing left to prove is not particularly surprising.

Yet Saban has been so excellent for so long, it felt like he would always be there dominating college football and adding to an all-time legacy. Just this season alone he led an Alabama team with question marks after early inconsistency to an SEC title and College Football Playoff berth.

The Crimson Tide handed Georgia its first loss since the 2021 campaign to win that SEC championship.

Saban is a legend in every sense of the word.

He started his head coaching career in 1990 by leading Toledo to a 9-2 record before becoming the defensive coordinator of the Cleveland Browns for four years. He then returned to the college game as the head coach of Michigan State for five years before taking over at LSU in 2000.

Saban's five years with the Tigers included a national title, and he was also the head coach of the Miami Dolphins for two years in 2005 and 2006. However, he will be best remembered for his tenure with the Crimson Tide, which started in 2007 and continued for 17 years of some of the most consistent success in college football history.

In all, he went 206-29 at Alabama and won double-digit games in every one of his seasons except the very first.

It quickly reached a point where it would be shocking for Saban's Crimson Tide teams to not be in national title contention, as they took home BCS championships in the 2009, 2011 and 2012 seasons.

That formula didn't change in the College Football Playoff era, as Alabama won the national title to cap off the 2015, 2017 and 2020 campaigns. They also reached the national championship game in 2016, 2018 and 2021.

While Saban's time as the head coach of Alabama ended with a loss to Michigan in the CFP, he will forever be remembered as one of the sport's greatest winners.