UPDATED on Saturday, 1/13/24, at 7:55 a.m. Eastern.
All great things come to an end at some point. Fortunately for the University of Alabama, Nick Saban’s retirement didn’t come until he bagged six national titles, 10 SEC championships and 206 wins in a dynastic 17-year tenure that started in 2007 and ended today.
ESPN’s Chris Lowe first reported the news earlier.
Saban won national championships in 2009, 2011, 2012, 2015, 2017 and 2020. He also won a national title at LSU back in 2003.
The 72-year-old Saban leaves Alabama with an incredible 206-29 overall record and a 117-18 ledger in SEC play. He guided the Crimson Tide to 11 top-five finishes in his last 13 years on the job, including runner-up finishes in 2016, 2018 and 2021.
In addition to his time at Alabama, Saban spent one season as head coach at Toledo, five years at Michigan St. and five seasons at LSU. In between his tenures at LSU and Alabama, he was the head coach of the Miami Dolphins for two years, going 9-7 in Year 1 and 6-10 in Year 2.
Before getting his first Power Five job after his one year at Toledo, Saban spent four seasons as Bill Belichick’s defensive coordinator with the Cleveland Browns.
Saban’s overall record as a college head coach is 292-71-1.
“The University of Alabama has been a very special place to Terry and me,” Saban said in a statement. “We have enjoyed every minute of our 17 years being the head coach at Alabama as well as becoming a part of the Tuscaloosa community. It is not just about how many games we won and lost, but it’s about the legacy and how we went about it. We always tried to do it the right way. The goal was always to help players create more value for their future, be the best player they could be and be more successful in life because they were part of the program.
“Hopefully, we have done that, and we will always consider Alabama our home.”
During Saban’s tenure, four players – Mark Ingram, Derrick Henry, DeVonta Smith and Bryce Young – won the Heisman Trophy, becoming the first players in program history to win the honor. He also produced 44 first-round picks in the NFL Draft.
FanDuel had Alabama with +550 odds to win the 2024-25 College Football Playoff this morning. That number has now been adjusted to +1000 (or 10/1).
UPDATE: Alabama AD Greg Byrne took less than 48 hours to hire Saban’s replacement when he plucked Kalen DeBoer away from Washington.
DeBoer won three national titles at the NAIA level during a five-year run at Sioux Falls. He also had a runner-up finish and a loss in the semifinals during his first season.
In his nine years as a head coach (two at Fresno St. and two at Washington), DeBoer went 72-1 in home games. He has a 3-0 record vs. Dan Lanning, a 2-0 record vs. Steve Sarkisian and a 2-0 record vs. Lincoln Riley.
The below text references the odds to replace Saban in the 15 or so hours after Saban’s retirement.
BetOnline has posted odds on who will become the Tide’s next HC. Oregon’s Dan Lanning is the +200 ‘chalk,’ followed by Lane Kiffin (+400) at Ole Miss.
UPDATE: Those odds in the above paragraph were from Wednesday night at 8:44 p.m. Eastern.
As of Thursday morning, Lanning had moved from +200 to the -300 ‘chalk.’ Kiffin’s odds were moved to +700.
The next-shortest odds belong to Clemson’s Dabo Swinney (+500), Washington’s Kalen DeBoer (+800), Colorado’s Deion Sanders (10/1), Texas’ Steve Sarkisian (11/1), FSU’s Mike Norvell (12/1), Urban Meyer (14/1), Derek Dooley (16/1), Florida’s Billy Napier (18/1), Houston Texans’ HC DeMeco Ryans (22/1), Penn St.’s James Franklin (25/1) and UGA’s Kirby Smart (25/1).
UPDATE: The odds in the above paragraph were from Wednesday night.
As of Thursday morning, the next-shortest odds behind Kiffin belonged to Sark (+800), Norvell (10/1), DeBoer (14/1), Curt Cignetti (14/1), Swinney (16/1), Bob Stoops (16/1) Pat Shurmur (20/1), Meyer (20/1), Napier (25/1), Dooley (25/1) and Ryans (25/1).