Shortly after the 2023 college football season came to a close, the shocking news broke that legendary head coach Nick Saban would be retiring from coaching. He is still staying around the game as an advocate for players and the sport, a media member (who would have guessed?) and an advisor to the Alabama football program.
Since retiring, he has been vocal about the state of college football and has recently been talking about what happened within the Crimson Tide program over the last year. Most notably he discussed the poor attitude Alabama players exhibited after losing to Michigan in the Rose Bowl College Football Playoff Semifinal.
He made clear that the attitude of the players was not the reason he retired, but it played a role. As Saban explained to ESPN’s Chris Low, building and maintaining relationships was one of his favorite parts of coaching, and he felt like his messages were no longer resonating with players, which, in turn, meant that the long-lasting relationships were getting harder to build.
With the recent mass changes college football has experienced, such as name, image, likeness policies and the transfer portal being more accessible, Saban felt like coaching, in general, took a hit.
“The thing I loved about coaching the most was the relationships that you had with players, and those things didn’t seem to have the same meaning as they once did,” said Saban.
After the 2023 season came to an end, Saban met with many Alabama players in a short period of time, and the topic of conversation revolved around things that the seven-time national champion did not appreciate: playing time demands and NIL deals.
“I thought we could have a hell of a team next year, and then maybe 70 or 80 percent of the players you talk to, all they want to know is two things: What assurances do I have that I’m going to play because they’re thinking about transferring, and how much are you going to pay me?” Saban recounted. “Our program here was always built on how much value can we create for your future and your personal development, academic success in graduating and developing an NFL career on the field.
As Saban stated, he looked to develop relationships and build value for the players, not just on the field, but in their lives, as well. A football career will end for everybody, whether it’s after their time in college or after a career in the NFL. Establishing value for oneself should be at the forefront.
On the minds of many of the players he met with after the season was personal gain, one way or another. While it’s not necessarily an inherently bad thing, it is not what Saban was looking to focus on as a head coach, and he felt like it inhibited the values he held dear over decades of coaching.
“So I’m saying to myself, ‘Maybe this doesn’t work anymore, that the goals and aspirations are just different and that it’s all about how much money can I make as a college player?’ I’m not saying that’s bad. I’m not saying it’s wrong, I’m just saying that’s never been what we were all about, and it’s not why we had success through the years.”
The realm of college football is an ever-changing landscape that ought to evolve with the rest of society. The speed at which that change comes and the coinciding protocols must run on a parallel timeline. In today’s game, many have compared it to the Wild West.
College football as we know it will never look the same, as is the case with other periods of transformation in the game. The goal should always be to advance everyone’s best interests, using the past as a guide. There will be always new aspects of the sport that fans, players, coaches and others will champion, and there will be changes that are looked down upon. It’s all rather arbitrary.
For Saban, it had long been clear what his stance was on instituting such drastic alterations to college football, which is why many have argued that perhaps he would be an appropriate candidate to serve as the commissioner for college football. However, that is a role he has openly expressed no interest in.
Saban will continue to find his footing in a post-coaching reality, and we should all expect to hear more from him as the game continues to evolve.
As for the man who looks to fill the mighty shoes left behind by Saban, Kalen DeBoer must navigate the challenge of coaching a historical powerhouse while handling these changes in stride. The expectation is that the newcomer will lean on the veteran heavily for guidance throughout the 2024 offseason.
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