BATON ROUGE, La. — When current University of Alabama coach and former LSU coach, Nick Saban announced he was retiring, it sent ripples through the sports world.
Saban dominated college football, winning seven national championships, the most of any college football coach, six with Alabama and one with LSU in 2003. The 72-year-old retired with 292 career wins.
The news of Saban’s retirement has many in the sports community reminiscing about his impressive career, including current LSU Athletic Director Scott Woodward.
“I first met Nick Saban in 1999 when he arrived in Baton Rouge, and it did not take long for him to make his mark on our university – and on me. While I was sad to see him leave LSU in 2004, I was not surprised at all by his unprecedented run at Alabama,” Woodward said. "Coach Saban set a new standard for excellence in college football and steps away with seven national championships, record-setting wins, rankings, and draft picks, and the admiration of his peers and the thousands of young men whose lives he helped transform. Simply, there is no greater coach in the history of the game of college football than Nick Saban. Whether he was coaching on your sideline or the opposite, he brought out the very best in all of us who love this sport, because the best is what he demanded of his teams, his peers, and himself. I congratulate him and Miss Terry and wish them all the best in retirement.”
Saban’s career briefly went beyond college football when he left Baton Rouge for the NFL in 2005. After a two-year stint with the Miami Dolphins, he returned to the college ranks, coaching Alabama for 17 seasons.
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