Is Alabama ready for a change in its culture around the athletic department? The guy who replaces Nick Saban will need time, and not just a year or two. But the one thing they must do to succeed at Alabama is not run the program like Saban, or they will never make it to year three.
The pieces are in place for the next football coach in Tuscaloosa, with Nick Saban leaving the program in great shape for the future. But this will not be just any other transition that we’ve seen around the sport recently, especially for a program that has done things only one way for seventeen straight years.
Before news broke that Nick Saban would be retiring and shockwaves would be sent across the college football world, the Alabama head coach was handling business as usual. The day started off just like any other offseason Wednesday, with the head coach working on future stability within the football program.
A morning that consisted of interviewing potential candidates for an open position on his staff, along with an SEC teleconference around lunchtime with other coaches in the conference, there was nothing that signaled Nick Saban was about to retire, according to sources.
Nick Saban Handled Business On Wednesday, Then Shocked College Football
This is how Nick Saban decided to spend his last day as the head football coach at Alabama, and he wouldn’t have had it any other way. A meeting with his team and coaching staff late in the afternoon changed the landscape around the football program, with one tweet from Chris Low shocking fans and coaches around the country.
If there was a perfect way for Nick Saban to finish his time at Alabama, this was what he had in mind. Never the one to draw unnecessary attention, Saban waited until Michigan won the national championship and the Wolverines could hold onto the spotlight on Tuesday. But around 4pm central time, everything about the Alabama football program changed in one meeting.
A room filled with faces of shock brought about the same feelings from the folks who were tuning into the local news when the announcement was made. The season had only ended just a week ago in heartbreaking fashion to Michigan, with an overtime loss in the hallowed grounds of the Rose Bowl. Sure, there was speculation throughout the season that this could be Saban’s final year, but even the man himself laughed off those thoughts in interviews with Pat McAfee.
While Nick Saban was thinking about hanging up the whistle, the rest of college football was putting Alabama in their early preseason polls for 2024. It almost seems fitting that this is how everything would play-out in the end for a coach that will go down as one of the greatest to ever roam the sidelines.
Nick Saban was never going to have a celebratory final season, posing for photos at the 50-yard line of every stadium he visited in 2024. He wasn’t going to allow folks to present him with gifts like a Derek Jeter or Kevin Harvick, just to name a few. Simply put, there was never going to be a farewell tour for Nick Saban.
In reality, what he did with this Alabama team in 2023 was his farewell, in what should go down as one of his best coaching jobs in his storied career. After being written-off following the loss to Texas and the underwhelming performance against South Florida, the ‘Tide went on to win the SEC Championship, snapping Georgia’s 29-game winning streak in the process.
At the end of the day, going out with an SEC title and one final appearance in the College Football Playoffs, behind the beautiful backdrop of the Rose Bowl, was the way Nick Saban chose to end his career.
What’s Next For Alabama? A Change In The Culture
The best advice Nick Saban could give the next guy who takes over his office in the next week would be to not run the program like he would. If the new head coach tries to come into Tuscaloosa and run things the ‘Saban Way’, he will fail.
An old-school way of dealing with the day-to-day operations will not work for the new regime, especially with a conference ready to pounce on Alabama. For the first time in seventeen years, there’s an uncertainty surrounding the program, but it’s the job of athletic director Greg Byrne to find his guy, knowing the shoes he’s trying to fill.
If the new head coach comes in and starts tweeting like crazy, don’t start freaking out. A press conference that doesn’t come with a few quirks about a question? It’s going to be different, and that’s the point of a change in culture. It starts with the secretary who greets a player when they enter the head coach’s office.
Nick Saban of the Alabama Crimson Tide celebrates after defeating the Georgia Bulldogs 27-24 in the SEC Championship at Mercedes-Benz Stadium on December 2, 2023 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Todd Kirkland/Getty Images)
The new guy will want to run things his way, not how Nick Saban would do it, and this should be embraced. Every time the defense gives up a touchdown in 2024, somebody will send out a tweet questioning the call and comparing it to Saban, so prepare for this now.
“They’ve ran things a certain way for so darn long, it will take time for folks to wrap their brains around who’s calling the shots,” one Power-5 head coach told OutKick. “When you work for someone that long and have a daily schedule that probably hasn’t changed since the transfer portal was first introduced, it has to be a nervous feeling for the administration folks. The new guy will bring his own staff, personnel managers, an operations guy and people he’s comfortable around.
“If they’re going to continue being the dominant team they are, the new coach better get familiar with the high school coaches in that state, because it’s a tricky dynamic with Auburn. And while all of this is going on, you’ll have teams trying to tell recruits that the Alabama brand will never be the same. This is not like other coaching jobs where you can walk-in and just feel comfortable enough to get things rolling. Whomever it is, they better have some thick skin because Saban set a standard when it came to winning and recruiting.”
It’s one thing to coach at Alabama, but it’s another thing to follow one of the greatest college football coaches of all-time. The new guy will think he knows what he’s walking into, but this will turnout to be one of the most interesting changes in command we’ve seen in modern sports history.
I’m already looking forward to the introductory press conference and the old-school boosters looking to get a few minutes with the new head coach. It’s different in Tuscaloosa, and one lucky guy is about to find out what running a football program and having more power than the governor feels like.
No pressure.