Former Alabama head coach Nick Saban remains bitter about the Crimson Tide’s 27-20 loss to Michigan in the Rose Bowl.
The Wolverines won in overtime with an exciting walk-off, stuffing Alabama quarterback Jalen Milroe on fourth-and-goal. The sudden end of Alabama’s season at that point sparked an emotional scene on the Alabama sideline. Heartbreak and frustration. Tears and adrenaline. Saban was also dissatisfied with how Alabama players handled the aftermath, both on the field and in the locker room.
Saban maintains the Rose Bowl loss was not the reason he retired, but it appears that some of the events surrounding the loss played a role.
“I want to be clear that wasn’t the reason, but some of those circumstances definitely helped,” Saban told ESPN. “I was quite upset in how the players performed after the game.” You must win with class. You must lose with class. We had opportunities to win the game, but we didn’t take them, and then showing your ass, getting frustrated, tossing helmets, and doing that is not who we are or what we’ve pushed in our program.”
There’s nothing wrong with becoming irritated and throwing a helmet in the heat of the moment. After all, this wasn’t a typical game. The Rose game is dubbed “the granddaddy of them all,” and this was a playoff edition of the famous game. A loss in the College Football Playoff is bad enough, but Alabama blew a 20-13 lead in the closing minute of the fourth quarter and then lost in overtime. That is a tough pill to accept. Saban, who has been known to yell at players and show them up on the sideline, should understand why players flung their helmets and how their rage spread to the locker room. However, it appears that this is an indirect approach for Saban to assign blame.
Saban went on to say that following the loss, players were anxious about their playing time next season and how much money they may make through NIL. This dynamic, Saban argues, also influenced his retirement.
“Maybe 70 or 80 percent of the players you speak with want to know two things: what assurances I have that I’ll play because they’re thinking about transferring, and how much you’re going to pay me.” Saban said. “Our curriculum has always been based on how much value we can add to your future and personal development, academic achievement in graduating, and developing an NFL career on the field.”
Saban is once again blaming players for his retirement decision. Although Saban is attempting to sound holier than thou and as if money has never been a factor in attracting elite players to Alabama, this is just not the case. Whether or not Saban wants to acknowledge it, things in Alabama have always been transactional. For example, last month, former Heisman-winning quarterback Johnny Manziel, who attended Texas A&M, stated that many teams made offers for his services. Manziel singled out Alabama as one of the teams who engaged in questionable behavior.
“That’s how the business operated back then. There was a bag man. There was a bagman at LSU. “There was a bagman at Alabama,” Manziel explained. “There was a bagman at every school in the country if you were competing for a national championship.”
Saban will be remembered as one of the best coaches of all time, but college football will continue to thrive even without him. He retired just as the playing field was getting more even thanks to NIL and the addition of the College Football Playoff to 12 teams. The writing was on the wall; Saban understands that routinely winning championships will be much more difficult than it ever was. That is why he retired, not because several players threw their helmets after the Rose Bowl loss.
