Nick Saban first warned Alabama athletic director Greg Bryne of his potential retirement back in 2022, according to a report.
That report comes from ESPN’s Chris Low, who broke the initial story back in January that Saban was planning to step down from his post.
“Greg, this is getting more and more difficult on me,” Saban told Byrne after the 2022 season, per Low. “I’m not ready to do it now, but we’re going to have to start evaluating this more on a year-to-year basis.”
The decision to inform Byrne that his career was winding down proved to be a wise one, as it allowed Byrne and his team a head start on finding Alabama’s next head coach. Bryne told Low that he had his staff study head-coaching hires from other elite programs over the past quarter-century.
“Part of what I was trying to understand is what were the analytics, and our studies showed that 75% of the time you’re basically hiring a Group of 5 head coach, Power 5 coordinator or NFL coordinator,” Byrne told ESPN. “That’s not necessarily a negative, but when it comes to the theory that you’re going to hire just whoever you want, the percentages don’t support that.”
Of course, Alabama did not hire a coach from that 75% — nor were any coaches from those groups seriously linked to the Alabama job while it was open. Instead, Byrne appeared to focus on a group of sitting Power 5 head coaches that reportedly included the likes of Texas’ Steve Sarkisian, Oregon’s Dan Lanning and Florida State’s Mike Norvell.
In just a span of just 49 hours after Saban made his retirement official, Bryne was able to lure Kalen DeBoer away from a Washington program that had just competed for the national championship. DeBoer will now be tasked with replacing a man who won 6 national championships and 9 SEC titles during his time at Alabama.
“I couldn’t say no to that challenge,” DeBoer told ESPN.
We’ll never know for sure, but it’s possible Alabama’s coaching search would have taken a much different path if not for Saban’s warning back in 2022. That’s just another thing for Alabama fans to be thankful for as they reflect on Saban’s tenure in Tuscaloosa — and prepare for the future under DeBoer.
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