'Five Minutes To Decide Which Speech You're Going To Give': Nick Saban Explains The Hard Decision To Step Aside As Alabama Head Coach

After seventeen years leading the Alabama football program, Nick Saban said it was time to step aside after a grueling 2023 season.

The circumstances surrounding the retirement of Nick Saban have been a hot topic around the college football world over the last 24 hours. It's fitting that the now former Alabama head coach was going about business as usual on Wednesday, before walking into Greg Byrne's office to inform him that it was time to step aside.

After a weekend trip to his new home in Florida, Saban told ESPN that he had come to the conclusion that it was probably time to let someone else takeover the program. The 2023 season had caught up with him. And at the age of 72, Saban felt he couldn't keep up with the grind of what was to come over the next season.

"This last season was grueling. It was a real grind for us to come from where we started to where we go to. It took a little more out of me than usual," Nick Saban told Reece Davis. "When people mention the health issue, it was really just the grind of can you do this the way you want to do it? Can you do it the way you've always done it, and be able to sustain it, and do it for the entire season?

"And if I couldn't make the commitment to do that in the future the way I have to do it, I thought maybe this was the right time based on those two sets of circumstances."

It makes the most sense in the world that this was the best time to step away.

Nick Saban Had A Hard Time Giving Into Retirement

A grind that has college football coaches in the office for 16-18 hours a day during the busy season can be taxing on a young coach. So imagine what is was like for Nick Saban, who wants to be hands-on with every aspect of his program. The thought process of whether or not to step down came down to the final five minutes for Saban, as he sat on the phone with his wife, discussing what speech he was about to give his team.

"I was on the phone, we had a meeting at 4pm, it was 3:55, I was sitting in my chair, looking at the clock, saying you've got five minutes to decide which speech you're going to give," Nick Saban recalled to ESPN. "I was actually talking to Miss Terry right up until that time. It was a difficult decision because it impacts and influences the lives of so many people."

So for him, the job started to become a little bit harder, along with having to keep explaining to potential recruits and new coaches how long he would be on the job. At the end of the day, Saban made sure not to leave the future uncertain, when he was already having thoughts of stepping aside.

"I don't think there's any good time, especially when your'e a coach. I actually thought in hiring coaches and recruiting players, that my age started to become a little bit of an issue. People wanted assurances that I would be here three years, five years, and whatever, and that got hard for me to be honest about."

In the grand scheme of things, maybe this was the best situation for Alabama moving forward. The game continues to change, along with a new playoff format in 2024, which will make the coaches calendar even tougher to navigate.

One of the best parts about Nick Saban stepping aside is that he sounds at peace with his decision and after seventeen years at Alabama, he deserved to go out his way, not at the recommendation of others.