Did Lack of Effort Contribute to Nick Saban’s Retirement?

Nick Saban is undoubtedly the greatest college football coach of all time. In his mind, he might find that title cringeworthy because it seems like we’re putting him in a box. But that’s not the point. One of the things we know about Saban is that he has zero tolerance for lack of effort. When you play for Nick Saban, there are very high expectations. Recently, we learned that the way Alabama performed against Michigan in the Rose Bowl might’ve contributed to his retirement.

At some point, all coaches have to hang it up and head for the exit door. We knew that Saban was going to retire someday but we were not expecting it to happen after losing the Rose Bowl to Michigan. When you’re a great coach like Nick Saban, people are going to want to see a farewell tour. His retirement shocked the sports world. We don’t know how much truth there’s to it about him not being happy with the way his players performed against Michigan. Yes, they had chances of winning that game, but those are things you learn from it. We do live in a time where players avoid playing Bowl games or do not give their full effort because their team won’t be able to play for the national title and they don’t want to get injured before the draft. 

I’m old school, I like seeing players compete no matter what. I like seeing student-athletes stay in school for four years. There might be some Alabama players who didn’t give their maximum effort against Michigan in the Rose Bowl game. Who knows? Whatever contributed to Nick Saban’s retirement, one thing is for sure he loved coaching for that group of men. He will show them tough love but he wants everyone to succeed and become better men and get a great education. 

Saban’s teams have dominated college football for years. He finished his college football career with seven national championships. He won six with Alabama and one with LSU.