BIOGRAPHY

Nick Saban Retirement: Has Nick Saban Retired?

Published

6 months ago

January 11, 2024

Nick Saban is a well-known college football coach who has been a part of the NFL for over two decades. Born to Mary and Nick Lou Saban Sr., Saban grew up in the small community of Monongah, West Virginia, and graduated from Monongah High School in 1973. He is of Croatian ancestry and played quarterback on the 1968 West Virginia state championship team.

Saban married Terry Constable in 1971 and earned his master's degree in sports administration from Kent State University in 1975. He is widely considered one of the greatest college football coaches of all time and served as head coach of the National Football League's Miami Dolphins and at three other universities: Louisiana State University (LSU), Michigan State University, and the University of Toledo.

Saban led the LSU Tigers to the BCS National Championship in 2003 and the Alabama Crimson Tide to BCS and AP national championships in 2009, 2011, and 2012, and College Football Playoff championships in 2015, 2017, and 2020. He won seven national titles as a head coach, the most in college football history. He became the first coach in college football history to win a national championship with two different Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) schools since the inception of the AP Poll in 1936.

Saban's career record as a college head coach is 292–71–1. In his 17th season, Alabama started the year ranked #4 in the preseason AP poll and #3 in the coaches poll. The Tide defeated Middle Tennessee 56–7 in the season opener, followed by a loss against #11 Texas in the Allstate Crossbar Classic. Alabama then traveled to Tampa, FL to play South Florida, where they won 17–3.

In the SEC Championship, Alabama defeated #1 Georgia 27–24, snapping Georgia's 29-game win streak. This win secured Alabama's 30th SEC Championship and Saban's eleventh SEC title and ninth with Alabama. The Tide finished the season 12–2, and Saban announced his retirement from coaching on January 10, 2024.

In 2013, Saban was inducted into the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame. He coached four Heisman Trophy winners at Alabama, including Mark Ingram II (2009), Derrick Henry (2015), DeVonta Smith (2020), and Bryce Young (2021).