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Nicholas Lou Saban Jr. ( / ˈseɪbən / SAY-bən; born October 31, 1951) [14] is an American sportscaster and former professional and college football coach. He serves as an analyst for ESPN 's College GameDay, a television program covering college football.
- Kirby Smart
In the National Championship game, Georgia defeated TCU...
- Matt Eberflus
Playing career. Eberflus was born on May 17, 1970, and...
- Lou Saban
Lou Saban stated he is a cousin of Nick Saban. Like Lou...
- Jason Garrett
Jason Calvin Garrett (born March 28, 1966) is an American...
- LSU Tigers
The LSU Tigers football program, also known as the Fighting...
- Kirby Smart
Nick Saban. Not a day goes by that I don’t miss and think about my dad. His passing at forty-six years of age seemed unreal and was devastating to our family; yet, he is always with me in spirit, in my heart, and in my mind. We had a unique relationship because he was my dad, my boss, and my coach.
- 6.2B
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Jun 19, 2022 · The origins of the nickname can be traced back to a story a lot of kids are familiar with: a Pop Warner football team coached by his dad. When Saban was 11, his father, Nick Saban Sr., started the team with his friend Willie Criado. The elder Saban bought and fixed up a school bus to drive the team to practice and games.
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- Early life
- MSU, LSU, and the Miami Dolphins
- University of Alabama
Nick Saban (born October 31, 1951, Fairmont, West Virginia, U.S.) is considered one of the greatest college gridiron football coaches of all time. He led his teams to a record-setting seven National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) top-division football national championships: one with Louisiana State University (LSU) and six with the Univers...
Saban played defensive back at Kent State University. Upon his graduation in 1973, he had intended to pursue a career in automotive sales until the Kent State head coach, Don James, hired him as a graduate assistant. Saban worked his way up the coaching ladder through various collegiate and professional assistant roles before landing his first head-coaching job with the University of Toledo. He spent just one season there before moving on in 1991 to become the defensive coordinator of the Cleveland Browns of the National Football League (NFL) under head coach Bill Belichick.
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Saban returned to the college game in 1995 as the head coach at Michigan State University, where he rebuilt the team over the course of five seasons. Following the 1999–2000 season, when Michigan State finished with a 9–2 record, he resigned and became the head coach at Louisiana State University (LSU). Saban had even more success during his five y...
Saban quickly rebuilt Alabama into a powerhouse with his sharp recruiting and defensive-strategy acumen. In his third season he led the Crimson Tide to a perfect 14–0 record, ending with a victory over the University of Texas in the national championship game. He followed that with consecutive national titles in the 2011–12 and 2012–13 seasons. Alabama was the top seed in the inaugural College Football Playoff (CFP) after the 2014–15 regular season, but the team was upset in the Sugar Bowl semifinal by the Ohio State University. In 2015–16 Saban coached Alabama to a 14–1 record, capping off another successful season with an overwhelming 38–0 victory over his former school Michigan State in the CFP semifinal and a win over Clemson University in the national championship game.
Although his five total top-division college football championships still trailed the six national titles won by his Alabama predecessor Paul (“Bear”) Bryant, Saban’s success came after college football was established as a big business with millions of dollars spent at schools, making the sport more competitive (and with higher stakes) than ever before, leading some observers to start referring to Saban as the best college coach ever. In 2016 he guided Alabama to an undefeated regular season in which the dominant Crimson Tide topped the Associated Press college football poll from the first week of the season until the CFP championship game. There, Alabama lost a thrilling title-game rematch to Clemson.
Despite having suffered a regular-season loss and not appearing in the SEC championship game, Alabama was controversially selected to be one of the four CFP semifinalists following the 2017 season. The team again proved that it was the premier program of the early 21st century by easily defeating Clemson in the national semifinals and then beating the University of Georgia in the first CFP championship game to be decided in overtime. Saban’s coaching in the title game was especially bold, as he benched his season-long starting quarterback at halftime in favour of true freshman Tua Tagovailoa, who rallied Alabama from a 13–0 deficit to its overtime victory. Alabama returned to the CFP final following another undefeated regular season in 2018, but the Crimson Tide lost to Clemson by 28 points, the team’s worst loss of the Saban era. In 2019 Alabama lost two regular-season games and was left out of the CFP field for the first time in that event’s six-year existence. Alabama rebounded the following season, despite various challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. The team went undefeated in the regular season and advanced to the CFP final, where it easily defeated Ohio State. The victory gave Saban his seventh national title, and he surpassed Bryant as the NCAA football coach with the most championships in the top division.
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In the 2021 season Saban again led Alabama to the CFP final, but the team was defeated by Georgia. After finishing the 2022 regular season with a record of 11–2, the Crimson Tide failed to make the CFP field. Alabama returned to the college playoffs the following year but lost in the semifinals to the University of Michigan. Shortly thereafter, Saban announced his retirement. In his statement, the legendary coach stated:
- Adam Augustyn
Jan 12, 2024 · 01-12-2024 • 4 min read. (Getty Images) Personal health has always been something Nick Saban took seriously. Nick Saban Sr., the Alabama legend's father, died unexpectedly from a heart...
May 1, 2023 · Nick Saban Nick Saban (1951- ), the current head football coach of the University of Alabama (UA) football team, has been one of the most successful coaches in the history of the Crimson Tide football program.
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