Alabama football fans and moving on from Nick Saban

A big celebration will happen in Tuscaloosa on Saturday afternoon and Saturday night. The Alabama Football game venue will be formally introduced as 'Saban Field At Bryant Denny Stadium'. In July I wrote that naming the Bryant-Denny field for Nick Saban was not enough.

My opinion has not changed, but I can say that the new entry sign on University Boulevard is well done, with the Saban name equal in size to Bryant and Denny. Another important distinction is 'Saban Field' and not 'Nick Saban Field'. If that decision was made to include the outstanding contribution Terry Saban has made, it was due. Alabama football insiders have often stated that Alabama's best recruiter was not Nick. It was Miss Terry.

Simply put, Nick and Terry Saban have meant more to the University of Alabama and the city of Tuscaloosa than anyone before them. And I can say that from the perspective of someone who lived through the entire Paul 'Bear' Bryant era when many Bama fans were unsure if the joke of Bear Bryant walking on water didn't have some truth to it.

Nick Saban is college football's greatest-ever coach. Perhaps also somewhat true is the joke Terry Saban tells that had Nick not married her, he would have never made it out of his small hometown in West Virginia.

Are we Alabama Crimson Tide fans ready to move on from Nick Saban? To some extent we already have. Kalen DeBoer has been quickly embraced and is respected. In other ways, we have not moved and never fully will. The Saban legacy will live on forever, as will Bryant's and the legacies of Gene Stallings, Frank Thomas, and Wallace Wade.

Will the statues of championship coaches one day include Kalen DeBoer? None of us knows the answer, but many of us like his chances.

Saturday's Saban Field Celebrations

 At the Walk of Champions area entrance around 2:30 PM Saturday, the new signage will be unveiled. The unveiling will include "remarks from University President Dr. Stuart R. Bell, Director of Athletics Greg Byrne, and former head football coach Nick Saban."

At halftime of the USF game, another celebration will take place in the center of Saban Field. The ovation that will follow should be the loudest and the longest in Alabama Crimson Tide history.