Has Nick Saban offered his last starting quarterback?

Has Nick Saban offered a recruit the opportunity to become the GOAT’s last starting quarterback? There are multiple appropriate responses to the question. An immediate retort is using ‘Saban’ and ‘last’ in the same sentence is Crimson Tide heresy. While nothing or no one lasts forever, many Alabama fans are unwilling to contemplate an end to Nick Saban’s reign in Tuscaloosa.

I get it. We can all hope the eventual post-Saban transition will go better for the Alabama program than did the post-Bryant transition.

Another response is since Nick Saban’s final season is expected to be far in the future, of what value are hypotheticals now. Disdain for hypotheticals is part of Saban’s obsessive focus to be “where your feet are” in every moment.

Current Nick Saban Contract through 2028 season

What is concrete is Nick Saban has a contract to be Alabama’s football coach through the 2028 season. During that season he will turn 77. It may or may not be his last season as the Tide’s head coach.

For years, opposing programs have been using two Saban-based arguments to discourage recruits to sign with the Crimson Tide. One has been he will leave the Tide to coach another team. The other is his age will either diminish his skills or cause him to retire sooner than he avows.

The moving to another team claim has lost effectiveness. Nick Saban will never leave Tuscaloosa to coach another football team. The age argument, however, gains more traction with each passing year. Though he appears to be the most healthy and vibrant 70-year old human in the world, the effects of age are inexorable.

This leads back to the original question for this post. Is it possible Nick Saban has offered a scholarship to a young man who will become his last quarterback starter? An honest answer is probably not, because it cannot be known how well any recruit will perform as a college player.

But if one or more of the four QBs Saban has offered in the 2024 class chooses the Crimson Tide, he could be, in Nick Saban’s last contract season in 2028, the Tide’s starting QB.

The four young men are 5-Stars, Jadyn Davis and Dylan Ralola, plus currently unrated prospects DJ Lagway and from the state of Alabama, Josh Flowers. Some Alabama football followers, with insight into the talents of Flowers, predict he will become a 5-Star as well.

If Flowers proves to be starter material, he could redshirt in 2024, take a backup role in 2025 and 2026 and finish his Tide career as a starter in 2027 and 2028. Big ifs to be sure, and driven by rightfully cursed hypotheticals, but – Nick Saban will, some year, have a last QB starter. And it could be in 2028 and one of the four offered in the 2024 class.

Note: Player offers and ratings, compliments of 247Sports.

To be clear, Saban will be a young 77 in the 2028 season and will surprise no one if he continues a few more years after that.