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Former Alabama head coach Nick Saban broke his silence after his surprising retirement announcement on Wednesday (January 10).
The seven-time national champion said he intends to help the Crimson Tide players during the team's transitional period in an exclusive interview with ESPN published on Thursday (January 11).
"I want to be there for the players, for the coaches, anything I can do to support them during this transition," Saban said. "There are a lot of things to clean up, to help as we move forward. I'm still going to have a presence here at the university in some form and trying to figure out all that and how it works. This is a place that will never be too far away from [my wife] Miss Terry's and my hearts."
Saban, 72, confirmed that he informed his staff and players of his retirement decision during a meeting held in the team room at 4:00 p.m. ET on Wednesday, which he said took less than 10 minutes.
"I wanted them to know how much they meant to me," Saban said. The last few days have been hard. But look, it's kind of like I told the players. I was going to go in there and ask them to get 100 percent committed to coming back and trying to win a championship, but I've always said that I didn't want to ride the program down, and I felt whether it was recruiting or hiring coaches, now that we have people leaving, the same old issue always sort of came up -- how long are you going to do this for?"
Saban is just one week removed from guiding the Crimson Tide to a record eighth College Football Playoff appearance, having lost his final game to the eventual national champion Michigan Wolverines, 27-20, in the Rose Bowl College Football Semifinal in Pasadena, California. The 72-year-old had previously downplayed retirement speculation during his weekly appearance on 'the Pat McAfee Show' last Thursday (December 4), three days after his team's loss.
“Look, I ask everybody who asks me that question, ‘Are you going to be here for four years?” he said. “Some players ask me when I’m going to retire. I look at them and say, ‘Can you guarantee me that you’re going to be here for four years? They look at me like, ‘Hell, no.’ ...
“I just think it’s the way of the world now."
Saban, who also coached the NFL's Miami Dolphins for two seasons prior to being hired by the Crimson Tide in 2007, won six national championships and nine SEC championships during his 17 seasons at Alabama, having previously led SEC West rival LSU to a BCS national championship in 2003 and two SEC titles in 2001 and 2003. The West Virginia native concludes his collegiate coaching career with a 292-71-1 overall record, which includes one season at Toledo, five seasons at Michigan State and five seasons at LSU.