Nick Saban's Old Friend, Who Revealed Retirement Likelihood In September To OutKick, Shares How It All Went Down

BATON ROUGE, La. - It appeared as if Nick Saban went to the five-minute drill on Wednesday just before deciding he would retire as Alabama's coach, according to his interview with ESPN's Rece Davis on Thursday.

But, in truth, retirement reigned prominent in his game plan going into the 2023 season. He just got the shakes as the clock moved toward zero this week, as he often did when making critical decisions throughout his illustrious career.

Nick Saban's Old Friend Explains Retirement Decision

"He had been considering this for several months as anybody would, not just suddenly this week," Saban's old friend Leonard "Lenny" Lemoine told OutKick on Thursday. "Still interviewing (prospective) new coaches and recruiting players on his last day, that's Nick's commitment to what he does, and to the program. Until he turns the switch off, it's wide open. That's just his nature. I've known that he was thinking about this for months."

Lemoine is the CEO of a huge construction conglomerate based in Baton Rouge with offices throughout Louisiana, and in Birmingham, Alabama, Houston, Alexandria, Virginia, and Guaynabo, Puerto Rico. He has been one of Saban's closest friends since Saban came to LSU from Michigan State before the 2000 season. He has remained such through Saban stops with the Miami Dolphins (2005-06) and Alabama (2007-23).

Alabama coach Nick Saban with old friend Leonard Lemoine of Baton Rouge on vacation in Rome, Italy, last May 23 with their wives and other friends. (Photo Courtesy Of Leonard Lemoine)

It was Lemoine who pulled Saban out of a lake in Georgia in July of 2023 when he slipped and fell in.

Alabama's Nick Saban Considered Retirement For Months

"I was on the boat cleaning up, and he was mouthing off about something and walking off the back," Lemoine said. "I heard a noise. I said something. He didn't answer, and when I walked to the back of the boat, I saw bubbles coming up from the bottom of the lake."

It was also Lemoine who told OutKick anonymously last September that 2023 would likely be Saban's last season.

"I would put it to you this way. I wouldn’t be surprised if this is his last season," Lemoine said on Sept. 15, not long after he and his wife vacationed with the Sabans and other friends in Europe last summer.

NICK SABAN'S EUROPEAN VACATION

Lemoine was with the Sabans in Atlanta over the weekend of Dec. 2 when Saban won his last game - a 27-24 upset of No. 1, back-to-back, 29-0 national champion and 5-point favorite Georgia in the Southeastern Conference championship game. That put Saban and Alabama into his eighth College Football Playoff out of a possible 10. He lost the CFP national semifinal on Jan. 1 at the Rose Bowl to No. 1 and eventual champion Michigan, 27-20, in overtime.

The Lemoines have often stayed at the Saban's home in Tuscaloosa for LSU at Alabama games over the years.

"I talked to him during the Christmas holidays a number of times," Lemoine said. "We spoke Christmas Eve. My daughter got married on New Year's Eve, and we spoke around then, too. And then I spoke to him on Friday of last week."

Saban Kept His Future Plans Largely Quiet

Saban, 72, did not tell Lemoine or many people at all exactly what he was going to do.

"But I knew retiring was a consideration, yes," Lemoine said. "He had been talking about that in general. And he took three or four days off last weekend - Friday through Sunday and Monday. It was really to wrap his brain around what's the right decision."

On Wednesday, it happened.

"We had a meeting at 4 p.m. It was 3:55 p.m.," Saban told Davis. "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."

Saban chose goodbye at the last minute, but in reality he was executing his game plan. He just started second guessing himself, which he has done more in life than in four- or two-minute drills.

When Miami Dolphins owner Wayne Huizenga offered Saban the Dolphins head coaching job late in the 2004 season, Saban changed his mind multiple times.

"He kept going back and forth," then-LSU athletic director Skip Bertman remembers. "He didn't know what he wanted to do. I think he changed his mind three times."

Finally, he chose the Dolphins, and quickly regretted even though he went 9-7 in his first season in 2005. After a 6-10 season in 2006, he was back in college football at Alabama.

Nick Saban's wife Terry Saban congratulates him after beating Georgia on Jan. 8, 2018, for the national championship in Atlanta. (Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images)

When Saban accepted the LSU job and left Michigan State after the 1999 season, he kept changing his mind back and forth until the introductory press conference at LSU. Even then, many reporters warned of him pulling a Bobby Cremins. As Georgia Tech's coach in 1993, Cremins agreed to return to his alma mater South Caroling to coach. Then he changed his mind three days later and stayed in Atlanta.

Saban Often Struggled To Make Critical Career Decisions

"To this day, I believe that had the Michigan State president called Nick at any time up until the moment he stepped up to the press conference, he could have had Nick back," said former LSU Board of Supervisors member Charlie Weems at the time. "Nick makes these decisions reluctantly."

Lemoine saw him toss and turn with the decision to leave LSU and believes he did the same thing briefly this week on his retirement play call.

"He struggled with that," he said. "When you're somewhere at the level of an Alabama and you rise to the level Nick did, you're going to have a fear of walking through that door and wondering what's on the other side?"

A lot of golf, possibly a TV broadcasting career at ESPN, and Saban owns several automobile dealerships and other properties.

"I'm going to work," Saban told ESPN. "I'm not just going to get up and watch Netflix."

He walks away from an empire like no other in college football history - seven national championships (1 at LSU, 6 at Alabama) for most ever, 10 national title game appearances, 11 SEC championships, one Mid-American Conference title (Toledo in 1990), 49 first round draft choices and four Heisman Trophy winners, matched only by Notre Dame's Frank Leahy in the 1940s and '50s.

"He was the architect of so much," Lemoine said. "Not many people get to be the best in the world at anything, even for a year, or two years. Let alone to be able to sustain it and repeat it again and again."

If the new Alabama coach indeed becomes the currently favored Kalen DeBoer of Washington, and he wins two national championships over the next eight seasons, he will only be halfway to Saban.

"I wouldn't want to be the man taking that job," Lemoine said. "You win 10 games, and you haven't done much."

Saban won 11 games or more in 15 of his 17 seasons at Alabama.

"I think he changed college football more than any single coach in history," Lemoine said. "I think the sport is going to miss him."

Saban did not win a national championship on his way out. The last play of his coaching career was an extremely anticlimactic quarterback keeper up the middle by Jalen Milroe on 4th-and-goal at the 3-yard line in overtime that gained one yard. Game and Legend Over. He just frowned and took off his headphones.

One of Nick Saban's greatest victories happened just last month as his Crimson Tide upset No. 1 Georgia in the SEC title game in Atlanta. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)

But this was an Alabama team that looked bad in September, losing 34-24 at home to Texas. Then it struggled to beat a South Florida team that would finish 7-6 by 17-3 after a 3-3 tie late in the third quarter. Milroe finished strong, but he was Saban's worst quarterback since his early years at Alabama. Often, first-year offensive coordinator Tommy Rees had to build the game plan around what Milroe couldn't do, not what he could do. And Saban's overall staff was not one of his better ones.

"I think one of his best coaching jobs was certainly this year," Lemoine said. "I was at the Texas game. When that ended, I was like, 'Holy crap, man.' He had some work to do. And South Florida was even worse. They brought that team a long way to 12-2. He did some serious coaching."

And it weighed on him.

"This year took a lot out of him," Lemoine said. "He said that."

But Saban visibly enjoyed perhaps more than any other season.

"He was great all season," Lemoine said. "I found him this season to be very happy, really gratified with the commitment by the players to the process or the buy-in, the oneness of them. He was really excited about that. He's been in a really good place, in my opinion."

Nick Saban could have done what other older coaches have done as the end nears - delegate more, do less.

"When you are that committed to excellence, you only do it one way," Lemoine, 67, said. "Nick could've probably figured a way to not spend as much time at the office and not as much in the air recruiting. But it would not fit his standards. So, your life pays a price for that. What's amazing about him to me is the amount of time he gave to academics, counseling and concern for the university."

Saban did help design the deluxe LSU football facility that opened after he was with Miami.

"How the buildings look, what should go there," Lemoine said. "His concern for the overall success of the enterprise is just exhausting."

Saban said it took him longer to recover after this season.

"I hope he takes some time off and just enjoys himself," Lemoine said. "I would think I'll see him more. I'm happy for he and Terry that they'll be able to enjoy more quality time together. He's still young enough where he can do a lot of things now."

And que up the Rolling Stones' "Gimme Shelter."

That's what Nick and his wife Terry Saban jack up on the car radio for every drive home from Bryant-Denny or the airport after a win:

If I don't get some shelter,

Oh, I'm gonna fade away