Every since Nick Saban arrived in Alabama in 2007, rumors have always circulated that Saban would be leaving for another job. 13 years, a 157-23 (.872%) record, five national championships, 6 SEC titles, and 29 first round NFL Draft picks later, Saban made it clear, he isn’t going anywhere else anytime soon.
In a recent appearance on The Sean Pittman Show, Saban shared that he loved Tuscaloosa, and has for a long time now:
“I think I’m in it now because I have no circumstance that would interest me in leaving in any way, shape or form, which it’s been that way for a long time. This will be my 14th season, so we enjoy it here. The people are very committed to having the best program in the country and doing everything they can to help the players be successful, and that’s the ultimate goal that we have. We enjoy the success and the quality of people and players that we’ve been able to attract here. It’s been a lot of fun.”
Saban was also asked why he enjoys coaching college football more than coaching in the NFL:
“I spent eight years total in the NFL, and I really enjoyed coaching in the NFL. There’s a lot of positive things about competing at the highest level with the best players, and probably the most parity that the league has, which the league’s built on parity — all the rules try to make the teams as equal as positive, and I think that makes for a lot of great competition, lots of close games. So, there’s a lot of good things about it. I’ve always really loved college football, and every time I went to the NFL, I always came back to college. I was a secondary coach at the Houston Oilers. I came back to be the head coach at Toledo. I went to the Cleveland Browns the defensive coordinator for (Bill) Belichick and ended up going back to Michigan State as the head coach. I always thought that the ultimate goal was to be a head coach in the NFL, but all the time that I coached in the NFL, we didn’t have free agency. You had the same players on your team for a long time. It was a little bit different.
“When I went to the Miami Dolphins, we had free agency, we had a salary cap. I know you’ve heard the story about Drew Brees, and we were going to sign him in Miami and we didn’t pass him on the physical, so we couldn’t sign him and he went to New Orleans and had a great career, won a Super Bowl, been in the Pro Bowl lots of times. I just thought that when we missed the window of getting the quarterback that we were going to have a hard time being successful there. We didn’t have a quarterback. When I went to the Dolphins, we were the oldest team. We were $17 million over the salary cap. We didn’t have any draft picks because they’d given them away to get Ricky Williams. So, it was an uphill struggle, and we turned it around the first year and won nine games. The second year, we traded for Daunte Culpepper when the Drew Brees deal went south on the medical. He was injured and on IR and we really didn’t have a quarterback, and we actually had a better team.
I just felt like we could control our own destiny in college a lot better, and I love college football because I thought you could have a greater impact on young people at the 18- to 22-year-old timeframe, aight. And I love the NFL and I love the players … but your leadership and your influence and the kind of program that you can have to try to get players to do things that are going to help them be more successful in life, probably you can have a greater impact in college than you can in the NFL. I’ve always enjoyed that. My family always enjoyed it. My wife’s always been really involved with it. We’ve been very happy being in college football. But sometimes you learn about yourself when you do things like go to the NFL and you learn about yourself — ‘Oh, this is not exactly what I thought it was going to be. Look what I left. I left something that I loved.’ And I loved it at LSU, when I left LSU to go to the Miami Dolphins. You live and learn, I guess.”
Saban, who led Alabama to an 11-2 season last year is hoping to have a season this fall.
Nick Saban took to social media in late March to encourage fans to stay home and follow the guidelines regarding the coronavirus that has taken the world by storm cancelling NCAA and professional sports this spring.
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