Alabama head coach Nick Saban reacts after a second-half landing through the Rose Bowl CFP NCAA semifinal faculty soccer sport towards eventual nationwide champion Michigan on Monday, Jan. 1, 2024, in Pasadena, Calif.
Kyusung Gong/AP
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Kyusung Gong/AP
Nick Saban’s teaching reign has come to an finish. His dominance over faculty soccer, nonetheless, will eternally linger within the lore of the game.
Saban, who gained seven nationwide championships — greater than every other main faculty soccer coach — and turned Alabama again right into a nationwide powerhouse with six of these titles in simply 17 seasons, is retiring, in accordance with a number of retailers.
The 72-year-old Saban restored a Crimson Tide program as soon as dominated by Paul ”Bear” Bryant to the highest of faculty soccer after taking up in 2007. His choice to step away was reported Wednesday, first by ESPN after which by different retailers, ending a profession that has produced quite a few titles and helped launch or relaunch the pinnacle teaching careers of Georgia’s Kirby Smith, Texas’ Steve Sarkisian and Mississippi’s Lane Kiffin.
He completed simply shy of the highest in his ultimate season, main the Tide from a shaky begin to a Southeastern Convention championship and again into the School Soccer Playoff earlier than falling in extra time to Michigan in a semifinal sport on the Rose Bowl.
Saban led the Tide to 9 Southeastern Convention championships and gained his first nationwide title at Alabama with a 14-0 season in 2009. Titles got here once more in 2011, 2012, 2015, 2017 and 2020. He additionally gained the SEC with LSU in 2001 and 2003.
Colorado coach Deion Sanders, who has appeared with Saban in a collection of commercials, had a robust response to each the Alabama coach’s retirement and the state of faculty soccer.
WOW! School Soccer simply misplaced the GOAT to retirement. WOW! I knew it might occur 1 day quickly however not this quickly. The sport has change a lot that it chased the GOAT away. School soccer let’s maintain up our mirrors and say HONESTLY what u see. #CoachPrime @CUBuffsFootball
— COACH PRIME (@DeionSanders) January 10, 2024
”WOW! School Soccer simply misplaced the GOAT to retirement,” Sanders posted on X. ”WOW! I knew it might occur 1 day quickly however not this quickly. The sport has change a lot that it chased the GOAT away. School soccer let’s maintain up our mirrors and say HONESTLY what u see.”
Cementing his legacy at Alabama
Saban made a two-year foray into the NFL with the Miami Dolphins earlier than returning to varsity soccer to revive one in every of faculty soccer’s most storied applications, which hadn’t gained a nationwide title in 15 years. Saban is 297-71-1 as a school head coach, with stops at Toledo, Michigan State and LSU, the place he additionally gained a nationwide title. However Alabama is the place he cemented his standing as one in every of faculty soccer’s best coaches.
Saban coached Alabama’s first 4 Heisman Trophy winners and churned out quite a few NFL gamers, going 206-29, a profitable clip of 87.7%. His groups produced 44 first-round draft picks, together with final yr’s No. 1 quarterback Bryce Younger.
Throughout that span, he additionally tailored to the altering occasions of up-tempo offenses, churning out high-scoring groups after profitable with a number of the nation’s greatest defenses, together with the brand new NIL and switch guidelines.
He led Toledo to a Mid-American Convention championship in 1990, his lone season as that program’s head coach. Saban labored as Invoice Belichick’s defensive coordinator with the NFL’s Cleveland Browns for 4 seasons earlier than changing into the primary Michigan State coach to steer his first three groups to bowl video games after which taking LSU to the 2003 nationwide title.
His newest workforce handled loads of adversity early on, together with a loss to Texas, however rebounded with the emergence of quarterback Jalen Milroe to upset then-No. 1 Georgia within the SEC championship sport.
Saban did not sound like a coach trying to surrender the job any time quickly after the sport. Nevertheless it wasn’t a nasty strategy to go, even with out the title.
”This is likely one of the most superb seasons in Alabama soccer historical past by way of the place this workforce got here from, what they had been capable of accomplish and what they had been capable of do, profitable the SEC championship, and actually, actually pleased with this group,” he mentioned.
”I simply want that I may have finished extra as a coach to assist them achieve success and assist them end, and all we will do now’s be taught from the teachings that typically failings convey to us.”