Nick Saban got one of the annual ‘what about’ questions this week. His answer to two versions of the questions is always no; to the NFL and to retirement.
Working hard at his 15th Alabama football season, Nick Saban got the annual question this week. Technically the repetitive ‘what about’ inquiry is actually two questions. What about retirement? What about a return to the NFL?
Rich Eisen asked the NFL question in a 15-minute interview with Nick Saban. The entire interview is available for viewing below.
Nick Saban’s answer to the NFL question was basically the same he has been giving for years.
"I just feel like at this stage in my career, we’ve invested a lot in this program and don’t feel like going anyplace else and starting over … I feel like it’s a new challenge every year here. I feel like I took a new job this year… It’s almost like starting over and rebuilding a program every year … I don’t really think of, ‘Well, I need to go someplace else to have a challenge.’I’ve got a challenge here all the time."
A few days earlier, fielding the retirement question again for the umpteenth time, Nick Saban gave a concise response “No time soon.” Not soon, with no future date in mind, is the response Saban must tire of having to provide.
Nick Saban has so slam-dunked college football, there is no end in sight. Eight of the Crimson Tide’s 11 offensive starters (before injuries to Waddle and Dickerson) must be replaced for 2021. The most experienced new starting quarterback has thrown a total of 22 passes in his college career. Most programs – make that every other program – would wobble under the weight of such a rebuild.
Not in Tuscaloosa as the college football world almost universally tabs the Alabama Crimson Tide the favorite to repeat as National Champion. Nick Saban, to correctly apply the overused term, is simply reloading.
A couple of recruiting cycles back, (2018 to be exact) Nick Saban failed to fill some holes in key position groups. Saban adjusted staff and re-focused recruiting efforts. The result was two No. 1 classes and one No. 2 class in 2019, 2020 and 2021. The 2021, No. 1 was the greatest recruiting class in the history of college football.
Nick Saban and his staff are working on the 2022 and beyond classes. They are not filling holes but rather cycling in elite players to build the 2023, 2024 and 2025 rosters. As absurd as the following claim may sound – the Alabama Crimson Tide is already set for the 2022 season. Younger players will have opportunities to win jobs over older players. But a few players from the 2018 class, plus the 2019, 2020 and 2021 classes already have the 2022 roster staffed for another national championship run that season.
Of course Nick Saban is not thinking of retirement or the NFL. He has built the biggest, badest monster in the history of college football.
Even so, the Alabama Crimson Tide is not invulnerable. The future offers no guaranteed outcomes. But the greatest threats to the Alabama Football future are not on the gridiron. Instead, it is the whiners determined to orchestrate parity in college football.
Note to the rest of college football: Nick Saban is not going anywhere anytime soon. Deal with it.