Give the man credit. He never misses an angle. He’s 66 and knows the inevitability of the “how long is he gonna coach?” negativity on the recruiting trail.
So he gets out ahead of it with lengthy interviews like this one, with ESPN’s Chris Low. And it’s augmented with quotes from others:
“Nick ain’t thinking about retiring, not even close,” Spurrier said. “He can go into his 70s easy, and I think he will.
“I told him he won’t retire until he loses three games in a season. He told me, ‘If I ever lose three games around here again, they might kill me.’ I think he was joking, but I’m not sure.”
Surprisingly, Low didn’t think to ask Bill Snyder for his impression of Saban’s career longevity. Maybe that’ll come in a couple of years.
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Wish the man great health; but coaching at the level and intensity that he does will take a toll on anyone; even someone wired like Saban. The league is getting better; UGA is bearing down on him and I expect A*M to get ‘good quick’ in the West. Recruiting will not get any easier. He basically recruits in 3 year cycles – 70 years old feels about right – tops…
He has a nice place on Burton… At some point those fish will be calling his name…
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I think Saban’s life will end about like the Bear’s. He is a workaholic and better keep coaching.
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Bryant drank heavily for years and smoked leading to his departure at 69. Saban doesn’t drink he just works. He might have a decade in him.
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Those Little Debbie oatmeal creme pies keep him going!
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I have thought the same thing except he doesn’t have all of the health issues Bryant had when he finally retired. Eventually it doesn’t matter what he or his surrogates say in public. The negative recruiting framed up as “How can you be sure Coach Saban will be there 4 or 5 years from now?” will catch up to him. It caught up to Bryant, Spurrier, Paterno, Bowden, Beamer, and Dooley to name a few. Old Father Time makes no exceptions for anyone, and recruiting is a cut-throat business.
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I’ve always been thankful my Illini didn’t beat Bama in his last game, they would ave blamed us for that too!
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I don’t think he was joking. Didn’t they put a brick through Bill Curry’s window when he went 9-3?
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It wasn’t the 3, it was losing to Auburn….every single time he tried.
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The brick was a home loss to Ole Miss.
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Rumor was that it was Mrs Curry who threw the brick.
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If he stops recruiting top 3 classes, he’s done. You can’t play football the way they want to play football with just better than average football players. Not having stability on that staff along with Kirby recruiting lights out is going to make it hard for them to stay on their perch.
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He went with a young DC, it will be interesting to see how Saban rebuilds his staff.
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I hope he stays on top of his game long enough for us to be the program to knock him off. I want to say we toppled ala-damn-bama when they were at their best. Not because Saban retired
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+100 My feelings exactly.
I think Saban eats this stuff up. He looks like he’s mid-50’s at most. He’d go crazy if he wasn’t coaching.
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Coach Saban can leverage the media about his age all he wants but Kirby sits down with the athletes and families, too. Kirby doesn’t have to bring up age, he’s twenty-four years younger and it shows–Kirby just has to sell his program and the age thing takes care of itself. Losers like auburn and florida have to try and play the age card.
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“If Georgia hangs 50 and an ACC castoff hangs an all-time NCAA passing record on me, I’m done.”
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