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Sports Illustrated
Sports Illustrated
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Madison Williams

CFB Insider Explains Why Alabama’s Nick Saban Chose to Retire Now

Alabama coach Nick Saban shocked the college football world on Wednesday when it was announced that he would be retiring after 17 seasons with the Crimson Tide.

ESPN’s Chris Low broke the news on Wednesday evening on X, formerly known as Twitter. He later joined The Paul Finebaum Show and explained why now is the right time for Saban to retire.

“I think when you’re 72 years old, first of all, 14 hour days are a lot different than when you’re 60 or 62. That’s just the way it is,” Low said. “Nick’s one of those guys that he can only do it one way. He’s never going to scale back and bring somebody else in to help him. He knows one way to coach football, and I think he’d gotten to the point where he felt like he had given everything he could. He’d done everything he could as a head football coach to make Alabama a championship contender every year. And, this was the right time, the right place for him in his life and his family to walk away.”

Low added that Saban was never going to have some sort of retirement tour.

Saban ends his career with the Crimson Tide with six national titles and a 206-29 overall record. He additionally won a title in 2003 with LSU.

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