Wednesday, Jan. 10, 2024, will be a day forever etched in the college football history books after Alabama head coach Nick Saban announced his retirement.
After spending 28 years as a college head coach and winning seven national titles, the 72-year-old Saban is hanging up his coaching hat, Alabama announced on Wednesday.
“The University of Alabama has been a very special place to Terry and me,” Saban said in a statement. “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.”
With Saban’s announcement, fans and media members on social media immediately began discussing replacement candidates, one of whom is Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney, who graduated from and played at Alabama.
Swinney’s contract with Clemson, which runs through 2031, has an “Alabama Clause” that would force Swinney to pay Clemson $7.5 million if he took the Alabama job this year. If Swinney left for any other coaching job, his buyout would only be $5 million.
Here’s how fans and media members reacted to Saban’s retirement: