Nick Saban Retiring After 17 Seasons at Alabama, Six National Championships With Crimson Tide

Nick Saban is hanging up his headset.

Saban, who just wrapped up his 17th season as the head coach at Alabama, is retiring, the university announced on Wednesday.

"The University of Alabama has been a very special place to Terry and me," Saban said. "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."

His wife, Terry, also reflected on her husband's retirement on the couple's Nick's Kids Foundation Facebook page.

"It has been an incredible run these last 17 years at the University of Alabama and we take with us many amazing memories," she said. "We hope that the Saban legacy will be about helping others and making a positive difference in people's lives as well as the winning tradition on the field."

Saban, 72, led the Crimson Tide to six national championships and nine SEC titles. He also won a national title at LSU in 2003, and led the Tigers to a pair of SEC titles.

Alabama closed out its season with a 27-20 loss to Michigan in the Rose Bowl on New Year's Day in a College Football Playoff Semifinal.

The Crimson Tide, despite a Week 2 loss to Texas, rattled off 11 straight wins — including an SEC Championship Game victory over then-No. 1 Georgia — to reach their eighth College Football Playoff in the format's 10-year existence.

Hired by Alabama in January of 2007, after two seasons with the Miami Dolphins, Saban took over a tradition-laden program, but one with just two 10-win seasons since the turn of the century.

After a 7-6 debut, Saban put his stamp on the Crimson Tide — and on college football as a whole. Buoyed by a stellar 2008 recruiting class, Alabama went 12-2 in Saban's second year at the helm, reaching the program's first SEC title game since 1999.

In 2009, Alabama returned to the top of the sport, beating Texas in the BCS National Championship Game.

From there, a dynasty was born, with the Crimson Tide winning the national title in 2011, 2012, 2015, 2017 and 2020 and reaching the final game in 2016 and 2018.

"Simply put, Nick Saban is one of the greatest coaches of all time, in any sport, and The University of Alabama is fortunate to have had him leading our football program for the past 17 seasons," Alabama athletic director Greg Byrne said in the university's release. "... He is the consummate coach, mentor and leader, and his impact is felt far beyond the football field."

Byrne, the school's athletic director since 2017, also addressed the Crimson Tide's coaching search on X (formerly Twitter). The 52-year-old said the university's "goal is to be thorough, but expedient" in its quest to identify Saban's successor.

"Our ideal candidate will be strong in recruiting and relationship building, player development, excel in Xs and Os and have the overall ability to lead this historic program," Byrne added. "There will be plenty of rumors out there during this process. Next time I talk publicly will be to announce our new coach. If you don't hear it from me, don't believe it."

Saban, whose first head-coaching gig came at Toledo in 1990, finishes his career with a 292-71-1 record at the collegiate level — including a 201-29 mark at Alabama. In addition to Alabama, LSU, Toledo and the Dolphins, the West Virginia native also coached at Michigan State from 1995-99.