Alabama Football: 3 reasons 2019 will be Nick Saban’s last season

2. Finishing on top of his game

There’s a very short list of college coaches that can be put in the same category as Nick Saban, but the majority of these Hall of Famers are either retired or moved onto other jobs outside of the sport by the time they reached the Alabama coach’s current age of 67.

That said, one notable exception to this trend was Bobby Bowden who retired at 80, but he didn’t have much success after his second and final national championship in 1999 at the age of 70.

Clearly, it wouldn’t be impossible for Saban to continue making playoff appearances and even win a few more titles well into his 70s, but it would be unprecedented. To get an idea of how unprecedented that level of success would be, take a look at the charts below.

Now take a look at how many wins per year Bobby Bowden had at FSU and as impressive as his numbers are, he clearly saw a significant decrease in wins after his 70th birthday in 1999.

So, if Saban decides to continue coaching college football into his 70s he wouldn’t be the first to do it, but if a Hall of Fame coach like Bobby Bowden was unable to maintain the same level of success he’d become accustomed to over the years then it’s not far-fetched to suspect he could run into the same type of issues.

If Saban were to stay in Tuscaloosa and only manage to win eight games a year, it would be regrettable, to say the least. Nick deserves to have his last game be a playoff game. Win or lose, at least he’d be taking his final bow at the end a season where he was a legitimately contending for another national title.

It’s also worth noting out that it’s unlikely he’ll ever have another quarterback as good as Tua Tagovailoa, so stepping away from the game just as he enters the draft might be a smart plan.

If Tua stays healthy, Saban might be able to win his seventh title in 2019, which would break his tie with Bear Bryant for the record of most national championships. There’s no greater record for a coach to break and he’d be able to finally check off that one last thing on his to-do list before stepping away from college ball.

And speaking of things he’d like to do before retiring, you have to assume that Saban would love to beat a Trevor Lawrence-led Clemson team in next years playoff, not just to win his seventh and beat a team that beat him last year, but to exact revenge on the only quarterback to ever truly blow him out on such a big stage.

If he can do that then he’d have the perfect opportunity to end his college career the undisputed collegiate king.