Alabama football coach Nick Saban has told ESPN that he is retirng.
The 72-year-old Saban, who has a career record as a college head coach of 292–71-1, just led the Crimson Tide to the College Football Playoff semifinals, a 27-20 loss to Michigan.
Saban has been at Alabama for 17 years and has a record of 206-29. His teams at Alabama won nine SEC Championships.
He coached five years at LSU, winning two more SEC titles and a national championship and five years at Michigan State and one at Toledo.
He has won seven national titles as a head coach, the most in college football history. Saban led LSU to the BCS National Championship in 2003 and Alabama to the BCS and AP national championships in 2009, 2011, and 2012, and College Football Playoff championships in 2015, 2017, and 2020.
In 2013, Saban was inducted into the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame. He has coached four Heisman Trophy winners at Alabama: Mark Ingram II (2009), Derrick Henry (2015), DeVonta Smith (2020), and Bryce Young (2021).
Related: Best college football teams ever
Nick Saban led his teams to success in bowl games
Saban is a five-time SEC Coach of the Year (2003, 2008, 2009, 2016, 2020). He has a bowl record of 19-12, taking his teams to pretty much every major bowl that exists.
Related: College Football Playoff picture, history
He has a 6-2 record in the College Football Playoff semifinals and a 3-3 record in the championship game, all at Alabama.
Saban won his first championship at Alabama against Texas, for the 2009 BCS Championship. That team and the 2020 team were his only two undefeated champions.
Nick Saban coaching tree has several branches
The Saban coaching tree is pretty deep, especially after the past few seasons of hiring coaches that had been fired and giving them a chance to rehab their image.
Some of the most successful active coaches spent time under Saban: Georgia’s Kirby Smart, Ole Miss’ Lane Kiffin, Texas’ Steve Sarkisian, New York Giants’ Brian Daboll, Oregon’s Dan Lanning, Maryland’s Mike Locksley and Miami’s Mario Cristobal.
Other current head coaches Butch Jones, Billy Napier and Jim McElwain were all part of national championship coaching staffs.
Jimbo Fisher, Mel Tucker, Will Muschamp, Jeremy Pruitt, Mark Dantonio, Derek Dooley, Jason Garrett, Josh McDaniels, Dan Quinn and Joe Judge were also former coaches on Saban’s staff.