Not every retirement is easy to cope with. In college football, Nick Saban’s retirement has indeed been a historical event. Known as the GOAT of the sport, Lane Kiffin gave the former Alabama head coach the highest praise. “Coach Saban did it in an era where there were reduced scholarship numbers. He also did it in an era where you’re losing coaches left and right. He lost so many assistant coaches and just kept winning,” Kiffin said on Theo Von’s podcast.
Saban would have continued raging on the sidelines, calling plays, had NIL not entered the scene. Even before him, the ‘pay for play’ culture did not sit well with his wife, Terry Saban. She kind of put down the blinders from Saban’s eyes as he took the exit. And the retirement was bound to have side effects. Josh Pate could not stop regretting it.
On August 19, Bussin’ With The Boys podcast shared a clip on X with the caption, “Nick Saban retiring completely changed college football forever.” It was a clip from Pate’s analysis about Saban calling it wraps with college football coaching. The whole point the analyst tried to establish is that the SEC didn’t dominate college football just because of money or NIL deals. It was mostly because of Saban and his program. He stated, “The proof of the SEC paying the players is that the SEC was paying their players. People look at this like a one-track sort of scenario. Yeah, NIL came along. Here’s what else happened. Nick Saban retired from Alabama.”
Nick Saban retiring completely changed college football forever pic.twitter.com/2lmanLMhSr
— Bussin’ With The Boys (@BussinWTB) August 19, 2025
Pate continued, “Like Saban, retiring in any era was going to fundamentally impact the death grip that the SEC had on college football.” After all, who else, other than Alabama and Georgia, ruled the conference? Ten of the last 11 SEC championships went in either the Crimson Tide’s name or the Bulldogs’ name. Being the head coach of seven national championships, 23 bowl game appearances with 16 victories, and being part of the head coaching journey for almost three decades, Saban could already see what was coming with NIL.
To him, it was a big red flag. After all, it would have made it harder to maintain his old model of control and dominance. “You could come back at me and say, what if I told you he retired because of the way NIL was impacting the sport? You could have some validity there. I don’t doubt that,” Pate shared. But the analyst also states that even without NIL not entering the scene, Saban’s exit alone would have been a seismic shift. His presence was that important.
Pate shared, “If the NIL thing never changed and Saban retired, that would have fundamentally changed the SEC, it would have fundamentally changed college football. Nick Saban retiring was a bombshell. It was like an asteroid into the ocean of college football.” The ripple effects were evident. With Saban’s departure, there took place a mass exodus in the Tuscaloosa camp. Under Kalen DeBoer, Alabama became a lacklustre program, hitting a 9-4 overall record, a stark contrast to the consistent 10+ win seasons under Saban. Not only this, it marked the end of a 16-season streak of 10-win campaigns and a missed playoff ticket. While Pate is overprotective of Saban, the head coach broke the silence on the rumors of him hitting the ‘return’ button.
Nick Saban’s strong message for his former quarterback
The rumour of Saban giving head coaching another try picked up momentum last month. Courtesy? Has to be Saban’s former quarterback, Greg McElroy. Around the SEC Media Days in July, McElroy stirred up some suspense for the fans, disclosing some scoop he got from a notable source about Saban. “A very much in the know person that I have a lot of respect for and have spent a lot of time around, and just really, really admire — they seem to think Nick Saban is not done coaching,” McElroy said at the time.
However, it did not take him long to realize that he might have gone too far with Saban’s prediction. After all, he knows his former head coach too well. McElroy played under Saban for four years and won a national championship with him in 2010. So on the On3 podcast, the quarterback-turned-analyst said to J.D.PicKell, “No, first of all, I don’t think he’s coming back. So, we’ll start with that. Like, I don’t see that as a likely possibility at all. I think he’s fully content doing what he’s doing.” We have seen how the former head coach savored his sweet leisure time in retirement, playing golf or focusing more on the Nick Saban Foundation.
For so long, Saban had been tight-lipped, adding to more intrigue among the fans. On August 18, Saban took the stage for the Nick Saban Legacy Awards. That’s when he finally let the cat out of the bag. Putting his signature calm and sweet smile, the GOAT said, “I don’t know where that came from.” It was obvious for him to drag his former quarterback into the conversation. Saban playfully scorned McElroy, stating, “Greg McElroy played quarterback for us, and if he had done something like that as a player, he would have got his a** kicked.” And just like that, the Saban comeback chatter can be put to bed for now.
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