Seven national championships. 297 total career wins. A 206–29 record at Alabama. Forty-nine first-round NFL Draft picks. From 2007 to 2023, Nick Saban turned the Alabama Crimson Tide program into the gold standard of college football. Alabama never lost more than two SEC games in a season under him, redefining what long-term dominance looks like in the modern era.
Add to that an unmatched coaching tree, adaptability through NIL and transfer portal chaos, schematic innovations that shaped both college and pro defenses, and we can’t help but place Saban as the greatest college football coach of all time.
Under normal circumstances, many would assume that a genius like Saban must have been obsessed with football from an early age. But in reality, he was juggling both a pigskin and a baseball in his senior year. And believe it or not, becoming a coach never even crossed his mind at the time.
“I never grew up wanting to be a coach. I never wanted to be a coach when I was in college,” Saban admitted in his recent appearance on the Pure Athlete podcast.
This remark feels almost surreal, coming from a man who would spend more than four decades molding programs, mentoring legends, and building dynasties. However, a look at his formative years and this point starts making sense.
As a college athlete at Kent State, Saban planned to focus on baseball full-time after his senior football season. Then came an unexpected detour. Shortly after the Tangerine Bowl, Kent State head coach Don James called Saban into his office with an offer.
“He said, ‘I want you to be a graduate assistant next year’. And I said, ‘Coach, why would I do that? I don’t want to go to grad school, and I don’t want to be a coach’,” recalled Saban.
At the time, Saban was newly married. His wife, Miss Terry, still had a year left in school, and Coach James knew that too. “He said, ‘Boy, your wife’s got to finish school. You can’t go anywhere. You might as well just get your master’s — it’ll help you long term’.”
After some persuasion, Saban agreed. So he quit baseball, dove into coaching, and quickly found that the competitive grind and player development lit something inside him. Hence, after a year as a grad assistant, he took a part-time role and kept climbing. By 27, he was Ohio State’s secondary coach. But still, he wasn’t sold.
“One of these days I’m going to get a real job,” Saban recalled thinking at the time. The real shift in the Alabama legend’s attitude towards coaching came in 1987, when he served as defensive coordinator for Michigan State’s Rose Bowl-winning team.
That season — the best defense in the country, a major bowl win, and national recognition — planted the seed. “I thought, maybe I’ll be a head coach someday,” Saban said.
So he applied for the Kent State job, but as luck would have it, he didn’t get it. “Came in second. And I said, ‘Well, I’ll never be a head coach’.”
Saban then jumped to the NFL with the Houston Oilers. And as we all know, that job didn’t last forever [1988-1989], but the move reminded Saban of a truth he now credits as part of his legacy: “Sometimes the best deals you make are the ones you don’t,” because had he taken that Kent State job, he’d have “probably got fired there like every other coach.”
And while he went on to become the face of college football from then on, Saban’s original career ambition was far from the sidelines.
“I worked at my dad’s service station growing up… I really wanted to go to General Motors school and manage a car dealership. That’s what I had planned,” revealed Saban.
And naturally, he laughs now, knowing how it all turned out. “So after 40 years of coaching… I finally got a car dealership,” said Saban, flexing his investment in nine car dealerships across five states.
All said and done, what started as a reluctant compromise turned into the most decorated coaching career the sport has ever seen. So even if Saban may not have chased the sport, football — and history — chased him.
