The Low Tide S1.E13 - Nick Saban has retired.

[00:00:00] Speaker A: W vua FM, Tuscaloosa. [00:00:14] Speaker B: Ladies and gentlemen, welcome into an emergency episode of the Low Tide here on 90.7, the Capstone. Myself, Nicholas Persley, Joe Schottz, Adam Hambright joining you tonight. The date is January 10, 2024. We have just learned as of, what, about 45 ish minutes an hour somewhere. Yeah, somewhere in that timeline, sources have told ESPN's Chris Lowe that Nick Saban, the head coach of the Alabama Crimson Tide, is retiring. It's certainly a shocking night for everybody involved. I don't think anyone saw this coming. There were no hints, there was no signs, but nonetheless, it has happened. It should be noted that there is no official word from the school as of this moment. If during our show tonight, official word does come out, I will let you know immediately. But I would not bet the farm on us getting a press release tonight. So let's just hop straight into it. Gentlemen, immediate reactions. Where were you to Nick Saban's retirement? [00:01:48] Speaker C: Yeah, well, I was walking back from a class, actually just got out of a little late class and listen to music, and I look at my phone, I'm like, got something from Twitter. Normally I don't get a lot of Twitter notifications to my phone. Kind of lighten up. And then all of a sudden, like ESPN and Fox and all know every sports site I was getting some notification from and saw know, it kind of been confirmed that Saban was, was a very, it was a very weird period, I'll say that. Just getting from 1 second, I was like, going to be a cool semester, going to be fun. I like this class to like, oh, my God, what happened? [00:02:31] Speaker A: Yeah, so kind of similar. I was already done with class. I had actually went out to a store, was picking up some stuff, and then I get that first notification and I didn't really believe it at first. It was just like, I was hoping it was going to be one of those fake accounts. They got them like we used to see with fake, like, Adam Schefter accounts and stuff, always putting out false information. And then once I looked into it, I was like, okay, this is actually real. Any conversation that I've had with anybody in the past week about traveling to playoff games next year, I might need to hold off until I see who Greg Byrne decides to bring in. Know coach, the next iteration of Alabama football. [00:03:23] Speaker B: Oh, man. Okay, so obviously I should clarify just for anybody joining us for the first time. We are all students here at the University of Alabama. Just to clarify that, but I was sitting in an honors college class with Robert Witt who is the former president of the University of Alabama and who was the man that hired Nick Saban to come to the university? We all collectively found out in that room, there was about 14 of us in the room about 30 minutes after it had actually happened, when somebody just stood up at the end of class and informed everyone that, hey, guys, Nick Saban retired. And obviously, just like you, Adam, it was an immediate. That has to be a troll, right? Like, no way. And literally nobody moved in that room for about ten minutes. Wild times. We are in. One thing I will say, I'm sure we're going to get into this. I think that looking at it right, this feels like a fitting time for Nick Saban to retire. And here's why I say it right. It feels like college football as a whole is about to enter a new era. And I don't just mean that in the playoff is changing. We're going to twelve teams nil. Obviously, all the stuff that's happening with the NCAA and schools directly paying players, lots of movement in college football. There are big, massive changes coming to the college football landscape as we know it. So in my mind, it's fitting that as we start to move in this new direction of college football, that the definitive, greatest college football coach of all time would also go with that era. Yeah, obviously an incredible legacy that Nick Saban left here as the coach of the Alabama Crimson Tide. Just, I think his impact can't be understated. [00:06:07] Speaker C: No, I mean, especially when you look at when he took the job in 2007, it was kind of like a poison chalice type of mentality with the Alabama job of the kind of the previous guys essentially in between for the better part, or generally it was between Barrett Bryan and Nick Saban, where you only really had Gene Stallings win a title. And it always had kind of been like this, really. Alabama was kind of seen as this weird place to go and you'd get all these very obviously animated and passionate fan base, and it was a pressure cooker and a lot of coaches that they hired failed under that. And then Nick Saban, after being in Miami and saying, as the Dolphins head coach in the NFL, saying he's not going to take it, and then he took it and he took a job that many people saw as kind of that toxic place to go, and he turned it around and turned it into the greatest run the sport has ever seen. And I think that that has been kind of a testament. And I will agree with you, Nick. I thought it was interesting looking around college football, even this past season in general and looking at the style of coach and the mentality of a lot of the coaches, and there aren't that many or there aren't any that have obviously had the success of Nick Saban. And there aren't really any Nick Sabans out there, but just the mentality and the way that college football was. Or I really agree with you, Nick, in the sense that it's seemingly a very fitting way or fitting time at least to go, because it never seemed like Nick Saban was all too fond of the nil to the degree where it's at, at least in transfer portal and stuff like that. Nick Saban was a very kind of control oriented person, and I think he lost some of that. And it makes some sense. And you kind of have to give some stuff up now to be a college coach. The players have a lot of power. And not to say Nick Saban couldn't handle it. He just didn't like it. I think it makes a lot of sense that one of the last old school college football coaches is now kind of leaving as they go into this new era for the sport. [00:08:42] Speaker A: Yeah, and like you were saying, after Stallings had won that one championship back in the. They had Dubose right after that. He won one SEC championship. He had Sean Alexander and stuff. It's funny that year that they won the SEC championship, they also lost to Michigan in the Orange bowl in overtime, back when Tom Brady was the quarterback. And then after they win that, the next year it was bad. And Debose is out. They get Franchoni. Franchoni does okay, and then he leaves middle of the night, Texas A. M. And then they hire Mike Price. Mike Price never coaches a know stuff that caused him to be know within a couple of months. They needed somebody to come in. Mike Schula comes in and he has an okay first couple of years. I mean, it's not great. He gets us through a time when we were not eligible to go to a bowl game. And he has four. Gets back to back to a bowl, 2005. They have the really good year and it's like, okay, maybe Alabama is back. And then the next year they go six and seven. He's fired. Joe kinds, defense coordinator, steps up, interim head coach for one game. And then here comes Nick Saban. And he had already won a national championship at LSU. And I wasn't one of the people at the airport, but everybody just being there. I was one of the guys that showed up to the eight a game where the whole stadium is filled out and I've talked to a bunch of people over the years and if you actually do remember, like if you were a fan and actually remember the time before Nick Saban, you know, it's not going to last forever. But I didn't think it was going to end today. I thought maybe one more championship. Hoping that would have happened this year. We talked about on this show many times, Nick specifically, he said it would be a storybook ending for him to win the championship this year and then go out with his best coaching performance. And it's still his best coaching performance. I wish we still had a little bit more time with him. I wish it wasn't as abrupt of an ending. But he did everything you want to, coach. He came in, he won a championship. He won a championship six times. He kept us. There's only been one season where he didn't win ten games. After the bowl games and everything, it's like this is the greatest coach of all time, my favorite coach of all time, and I'm not ready for the next iteration. Without him on the sideline, I don't know what to do. [00:11:41] Speaker B: It's going to be wild. [00:11:44] Speaker A: Truly. [00:11:49] Speaker B: I hesitate to. And we will obviously get into this, right? I hesitate to sit here and say a word like rebuilding because that has been unheard of here at Alabama. Obviously the famous thing is reload, not rebuild. And you could very well be looking at a very similar situation with Alabama in the next season. We will get more into that as we get along. On a less somber note, to kind of try to cheer people up, I saw a great tweet, yahoo. Sports saying who says no? And it's Nick Saban on the COVID of NCAA college football 25. This absolutely has to happen now, correct? [00:12:33] Speaker A: If that happens, I'm buying the physical copy. [00:12:36] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, it's got to happen. And also, okay, if you are no for yet, if you are an executive at unnamed sports game maker, aren't you so glad that you did not air a commercial for the game during the national championship? Because now you've got your, I mean, there's your golden ticket. Anyway, I'll kind of give a bit of a layout of our show so everybody can kind of know what to expect. I'm thinking that we're going to be on for about 2 hours, probably end it off at eight. Obviously that's assuming that we do not get a press release or something else wild at the buzzer, which would be, you know, Adam, you kind of touched on it earlier in the year. I did say that on this show. I talked about how it would truly be the storybook ending to the season if Alabama had gone on to win the national championship. And then Nick Saban, like, there would be no more perfect of a time for him to call it quits. But in my mind, I still see it as a good time to go out. Right. Because like we said, like I wrote right after the Rose bowl, this was the best coaching job of Nick Saban's career. To take this team, to take what he had to the semifinal and go to overtime against the number one team in the country and now national champion Michigan is unbelievable from where that team was when they lost to Texas here in Tuscaloosa and then when they went on the road at USF and it was a tie game at halftime. So just truly wild. But I think that in my mind, and I obviously have not had time to process it right. Like anybody has. I think we're all kind of operating off shock because this news is only a couple of hours old at this point. In my mind, I think that this is probably the right time. It seems like a nice story to end your career with that kind of coaching performance, even though you did not achieve the pinnacle. Right. You came oh so close. But a great story. Took a team that should not have even been in the playoff to the semifinal, get within an overtime of a national championship game against the national champions. Just a great story. [00:15:46] Speaker A: And to have your last game at the Rose bowl. I'm glad all of us got to be there. [00:15:54] Speaker B: Well, I mean, it's that much more. Right. And this is things that we will continue to unpack over the next 2 hours and over the next coming days. Right. Is it is even more wild having been at the Rose bowl, not knowing that it was saban's last game. [00:16:12] Speaker A: I might go on the website right now and go buy. I don't know if y'all saw it on the Rose bowl website. They have the know shot of the. [00:16:23] Speaker B: What is the plane called? Is it the one with the plane? [00:16:26] Speaker A: I don't know if it had the plane in it. I just know I went because I bought my souvenir ticket because I do that for the bowl games that I go to and I see the big photo and I'm like, it looks so nice, but I already have live my scarf and my souvenir ticket for a game that alabama lost. And then it's like, do I really want the picture? And now I'm like, okay, I might need to go buy that thing. [00:16:51] Speaker B: Yeah. So the image that I'm talking about is like it's from the flyover right before the game. It's like the blimp shot above the flyover is so sick. One thing I also will say, obviously all of this coming in, any news that we get, I'll let you know, but there is a very large crowd gathering over at the Nick Saban statue at the walk of champions. So I just thought I would let everybody know that I'm sure that the strip is interesting. [00:17:31] Speaker A: At one establishment. They're having $3 sabinades all night long. [00:17:40] Speaker C: A good toast to coach. [00:17:46] Speaker B: I think everybody needs to not be so. I mean, it feels like a time of a mourning in Tuscaloosa and understandably so, right. But it's truly wild. Honestly, don't even have the words to. [00:18:06] Speaker C: Yeah, well, it's weird because it is like a time of mourning. Like you were saying, nick, and it should be, especially for Alabama fans. You're losing the best coach at your school. You should be upset and sad about it. And that makes sense. But I will say that I think a lot of people can use this time to not kind of sit and wallow in the sadness of Nick Saban leaving, but to look and say, okay, go back and look at the best moments from his time. I mean, and, you know, the guy has, you know, I don't even know what, I don't even know what you could say to it that that can make a lot of people feel better, but you can go around and say, well, you know, Nick Saban won over 200 games at Alabama. One had sent all these guys to the NFL. I mean, Nick Saban's impact is not forgotten. Even if he's not going to be the coach anymore, there are still going to be players. And I would imagine, like you're looking around, we might get into this ourselves, but there might be some players leaving, might be some recruits that are going to drop up, but there is going to be a Nick Saban handprint on the team for at least the next couple of years with this recruiting class he has coming in. But the impact of Nick Saban on just Alabama and the mindset that he had will probably never be forgotten, especially to the people that were here and up close to it. [00:20:01] Speaker B: So we do have semi official word and there is no better person for this to come from than Miss Terry herself. On the Nick's Kids foundation Facebook page, a quote from her it has been an incredible run these last 17 years at the University of Alabama and we take with us many amazing memories. We hope that the Saban legacy will be about helping others and making a positive difference in people's lives, as well as the winning tradition on the field. Our Knicks Kids foundation will continue to help children, students and teachers and their causes in the state of Alabama. The rules for the game of football may change, but the process will never go out of style, hard work, discipline and the relentless pursuit of a worthy goal. Not cutting corners and doing things the right way for the sake of constant personal improvement, not for the scoreboard. Alabama will always feel like sweet home to our family and will be cheering roll tide. Ms Terry Saban that's a wonderful statement from Ms. Terry, and truly no better person to say that than the matriarch of Alabama football who is so respected here. Adam is showing me a picture of the Nick Saban statue at the foot of it. Many boxes of oatmeal, cream pies and roses and cokes have been placed there. Also a single can of Dr. Pepper. Whoever put that there, I mean, come on. But truly a wild time. That quote was posted about eleven minutes ago, again on the next kids foundation Facebook page. It's interesting that she specifically talked about how the rules of the game were changing. I don't know if you guys picked up on that, but I'm not going to do that. I will not speculate as to why we do not do that, but. [00:22:28] Speaker C: I. [00:22:29] Speaker B: Think that's a good time to take a break here for a second. When we come back on the low tide here in about, I'd say, 510 minutes, we're going to continue to break things down. We'll continue possibly have more news for you. And obviously eventually we're going to get into the conversation of who is Greg Byrne going to pick to succeed Nick Saban? I can't believe I just said that. Anyway, we'll be back here on 90.7 of WVU AFM 90.7, a division of student media at the University of Alabama. Support us by leaving a review rating or following us on x at WVUA FM Sports welcome back in, ladies and gentlemen, to the low tide here on 90.7, the capstone. Nicholas, Joe, Adam, obviously talking the shocking news of Nick Saban's retirement. I should mention we do not have official word from the school. We have a statement from Miss Terry, which is almost the same thing. [00:23:59] Speaker C: If anything, it's bigger because it's Miss Terry. [00:24:04] Speaker B: Can we get a statement from little Debbie? [00:24:08] Speaker A: Yeah, can we get the afflac? They're pretty close. [00:24:12] Speaker C: What's Alexander Shanar think of this? [00:24:18] Speaker B: Anyway? Yeah, just a truly, truly wild day. But I will say this right. You look at a lot of the biggest coaches, the biggest names in sports, and I never saw Nick Saban as the type of person to want the last run. Right. Like the retirement run of where he said, after the season, I'm retiring. This is it. I always thought that it was going to be something like this where we would not know until it happened. So does that part of it shock you all at all? [00:25:05] Speaker C: No, not really. Essentially what, greek 100%. With what you said, I never really thought it was going to happen. I thought in a big grand way because I just never thought that's who Nick Saban was as like a, like, it was kind of the same to, to go across sports a little bit. When coach K at Duke, the legendary basketball know, announced he was going to retire, he kind of went on this whole season long retirement tour and it. [00:25:37] Speaker B: Was a. I'm sorry to cut you off. We have an official statement from Nick Saban on his retirement. Allow me to. [00:25:49] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:25:49] Speaker B: Alabama has also put stuff from. I'm first seeing it from Nick Kelly from Tuscaloosa News. Are you seeing it on. [00:25:59] Speaker C: I'm seeing it on like the University of Alabama website. [00:26:01] Speaker B: Okay, so who's reading first the statement? I will read. I think it's the same thing from Nick Saban. The University of Alabama has been a very special place to Terry and me. We have enjoyed every minute of our 17 years being the head coach at Alabama as well as becoming a part of the Tuscaloosa community. It's not just about how many games we won and lost, but it's about the legacy and how we went about it. We always tried to do it the right way. The goal was always to help players create more value for their future, be the best player they could be and more successful in life because they were a part of the program. Hopefully we have done that and we will always consider Alabama our home. Official statement from Nick Saban and I am just getting the official press release so I can report as of 642, we do have official word from the University of Alabama that Nick Saban is retiring. I'm just going to read this. I will skip over the Nick Saban quote that I just read off as that is part of it. But we do have an official statement. Alabama's Nick Saban, who has won more college football national championships than any coach in the modern era, announced his retirement on Wednesday. Saban spent 28 years as a head coach at Toledo, Michigan State, LSU and Alabama. He won seven national titles in those 28 years, his first at LSU in 2003 before capturing six championships at Alabama. He also coached the Miami Dolphins for two seasons. Simply put, Nick Saban is one of the greatest coaches of all time in any sport, and the University of Alabama is fortunate to have had him leading our football program for the past 17 seasons, said Alabama director of athletics Greg Byrne. Throughout his career as a head coach, his teams have won seven national championships, eleven conference championships and 312 games, and he's developed an NCAA record 49 NFL first round draft picks and most importantly, hundreds of college graduates. He is the consummate coach, mentor and leader, and his impact is felt far beyond the football field. Coach Saban and Miss Terry have touched countless lives in our community and the state of Alabama with the work they've done through the Knicks Kids foundation. While his time as our coach may have come to an end, his legacy will live on forever. What an honor it has been to have a front row seat to one of the best to ever do it. A truly remarkable career for Nick Saban. That is directly from Greg Byrne, the athletic director at the University of Alabama. I will not continue on with that, but if you're just joining us, we do now have official word from the University of Alabama that head coach Nick Saban is retiring after 17 seasons. So we got the word a little bit quicker than I thought we were going to. Yeah, does surprise me. And I will put in there there is nothing about a successor. There's nothing about any press conference or anything that we have learned about. [00:29:34] Speaker C: Yeah, I always thought we talked about it a little bit over our break, but I was kind of waiting to see if they were going to announce it when they announced a new coach. Like nothing really official. Nothing really official until there is that name successor. And from what it sounds like, I mean, names are getting thrown out there all over the place. So maybe they just thought it would be better to bite the bullet like this and not try to dance around the topic of who's going to be the head coach for a couple of days. But yeah, maybe not. Super. I'm not really surprised at all that they did this. I never thought that it would be with that new head coach, but yeah. [00:30:35] Speaker B: Sorry, I was getting the tweet out. I did say that I was holding off on tweeting the actual Nick Saban has retired until we got official word from the university, but now we have that truly shocking. Pretty crazy. [00:30:54] Speaker C: I also wonder. I mean, obviously we're going to get into a lot of different angles of what this means for Alabama, but I also mean, we haven't really touched on this, just how important of a decision this is about to. Like, the reason that a lot of people like Alabama know who Malmore is, is because of this. Know ads and schools can come and go, but these kind of very impactful decisions and huge moments kind of almost create and sometimes maybe break down your job as an very. It'll be very interesting to see how Alabama's structure looks like the university structure and the athletic department structure looks in all of this, because that was kind of Nick Saban's critique coming into Alabama was there were a lot of voices in the room that didn't really know a lot of football and it might be interesting to see. Sorry. It should have one voice and it should be his voice reference to Saban. So it'd be interesting to see now how that leadership has changed. And what's Greg Byrne going to do? I mean, this is kind of his defining moment as an athletic director, is hiring the football coach for the University of mean. Do not envy him at tough. [00:32:30] Speaker B: It's been a tough couple years for Byrne. [00:32:33] Speaker C: Yeah. And all he ever hears about now is building a basketball arena. [00:32:38] Speaker B: Yeah, that's true. I don't think anybody, no one's going. [00:32:41] Speaker C: To talk about that now. [00:32:42] Speaker B: But texting him about building the basketball. [00:32:45] Speaker C: Could you imagine that guy? So, any updates? [00:32:49] Speaker A: But, yeah, I can't remember who exactly said it. I think it was actually on a late kick. Josh paid had said that he had talked to Greg Byrne and he had always said that he has. I think it was like five names, like in his drawer. That's going to be like his first call for all sports. [00:33:13] Speaker C: How long ago did you say that. [00:33:14] Speaker A: It was this season? [00:33:16] Speaker C: I was going to say. [00:33:21] Speaker A: I don't think he's made a bad hire yet in any of the know sports around. You need Oates still yet to see with the new baseball coach, but he did pull in the number eight portal class in the nation, so things are looking up, but I don't know how fast it's going to be. We were joking earlier how they're probably already on the plane and they're going to get announced, like tonight. But it's not just the coach. You got to get somebody in here that can keep recruits, keep people from transferring out. Obviously, you still need to hire a defensive coordinator. This is a big time and they need to get a guy fast before. It's not just worrying if somebody's good enough to be next avenue. It's like, are we going to have the same team next year. [00:34:19] Speaker B: So here's what I'll say about that. And I am sure that we are going to get in. There's so many angles that we can take here and we will be with you until 08:00 p.m. Central time here in Tuscaloosa. But I do not think that Nick Saban and I do not know this. This is pure speculation. I do not think that Nick Saban would retire without Alabama having a pretty good idea of who the next head coach was going to be. I would not be surprised at all if Alabama's next head coach was either here or en route to Tuscaloosa. [00:34:58] Speaker C: I wouldn't be shocked if when Nick Saban told whoever that he was planning to retire, if he didn't have a voice on who replaced him or at. [00:35:11] Speaker A: Least was asked about mean, even not everybody in the know. He probably talked to Greg Byrne and let him know. Probably not like earlier in the season, but at least within the last week or so, he probably had a conversation. He probably gave a recommendation or if he didn't want to be the heard, you know, Bear Bryant gave his recommendation when he retired and it was Gene Stalings and then they didn't go with it. And then Gene Stalings comes back in and then wins a championship. So I don't know if Nick Saban's the guy to just be like, you better hire this guy, but Greg Byrne's going to listen to any recommendation. [00:35:59] Speaker C: Yeah. If there's one thing Nick Saban knows, it's probably football. [00:36:03] Speaker A: I mean, I guess he only has won six national championships and everybody he hires becomes a head coach somewhere. [00:36:11] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:36:14] Speaker B: Truly wild times. I think I've said that about 100 times tonight, but it'll never be enough. It'll never be enough. And I'll still be saying it in a week. It's kind of funny. Obviously, our show was going to come back on this coming Sunday and I was like, oh, we're going to have a nice, we've got some retrospective. It's been a little bit since the national championship, since the Rose bowl. We could talk about it with some perspective and then, yes, no, goodbye. I'm sure that we will get to that at some point. [00:36:46] Speaker C: Didn't even know we played that. [00:36:47] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah, the Rose ball happened. That seems like yesterday's news. [00:36:54] Speaker C: Yeah. Someone was hearing about Michigan, was getting a little too much good press, so. [00:36:59] Speaker A: Had to get the media, literally. I'd already talked about with some people on campus and some people in my family and stuff, and I was literally looking up the sites for the playoff next year. And it's like, if Alabama were to make it, I was looking up like, could I make the travel? Because now with the twelve team, if you don't get the first round by, hopefully you get that home game and then after that you still have to travel to three different places. I just made that trip out to Los Angeles and I was like, this is rough. I don't know if I could do this three times. And I was like looking at we, if it works out, I won't have to travel a whole lot. I can go to these games and now I'm just like, I need to see who the next coach is going to. [00:37:49] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:37:50] Speaker A: Should I even plan? I will go to whatever bowl game Alabama makes it as long as I have the ability to. I went to the Sugar bowl and everybody else was like, oh, it's not the playoff. I'm not going. But yeah, I want to hurry up and find out who the next coach is. [00:38:07] Speaker B: Speaking of next head coach, we found out. No, I will not do that to everyone. Yeah, pump fake breaking news. Sources say yeah, no, not message boards are reporting. Okay. I don't know if you guys saw this tweet on the Auburn message board. Somebody said that Saban had called a meeting. It's a true message board genius before it's truly. He called it. Are the message worth back? [00:38:43] Speaker A: I mean, maybe so. [00:38:46] Speaker B: Now we got another statement from Dr. Stuart Bell, the president of the University of Alabama. Dear students, faculty and staff, this afternoon coach Saban met with the football team and informed them of his decisions to retire. Words cannot adequately express our appreciation for his exemplary leadership and service to the University of Alabama for the past 17 years. We are grateful for the lasting impact he has made on the lives of our student athletes and the incredible memories his teams have created for our students, alumni, fans and supporters. Coach Saban and Miss Terry are tremendous ambassadors for the University of Alabama and our community and we celebrate their many contributions and indelible legacy. As we would all expect, the university and its leadership will work tirelessly to ensure our proud tradition and the standard of excellence continues in football and every endeavor that supports the mission of the University of Alabama. Stuart Arbell, the president of the University of Alabama. His statement following Nick Saban's retirement after 17 years as the head coach of the University of Alabama I'm reading so many statements today, it's wild. [00:39:54] Speaker A: Can we keep Nick Saban as like an analyst or something? Just keep him on the analyst. [00:39:59] Speaker B: He's like Tim Duncan with the spurs. He just keeps coming to practice. I mean, could go crazy. Nick Saban to the NFL. No, not again. [00:40:10] Speaker C: The Patriots just had apparently might have a job opened up. [00:40:13] Speaker B: So we wanted to talk about what's next for Alabama. We're going to take a break at the top of the hour. But before we go, I will leave you with this ominous the ods to be the next Alabama head coach per bet online ag. I probably should not have said their name. Unnamed sports book. Dan Lanning leading the way. Three to one. Dabo four to one. Lane five to one. Dion at six to one, tied with Kalyn. Deborah, we've got some interesting names in here. Urban Meyer at ten to one. Ryan Day 20 to one. Demiko Ryan's 22 to one. Many Alabama fans will be excited to hear that Bill O'Brien is at 80 to one. And even further down, Jimbo Fisher at 100 to one. [00:41:11] Speaker C: What are the ods that it's like us? What are those ods? If Jimbo is 100 to 01:00 a.m.. [00:41:18] Speaker B: I, like 5000, it's low enough that. [00:41:22] Speaker A: You need to at least put like a $5 feeling just in case they. [00:41:27] Speaker C: Decide to pull the trigger on one of us. [00:41:29] Speaker A: You know those guys that have been in our press conferences asking those smart questions? We should get them. [00:41:34] Speaker C: Also, hilarious, outstanding members of journalism. [00:41:37] Speaker B: Jason Garrett is on this list, so we're truly putting anyone maybe you can't get away from. Please. No. Mike McCarthy. [00:41:50] Speaker A: I have a very short list of who I want to be the next coach and none of those guys are on. [00:41:56] Speaker C: Yeah. No. [00:41:57] Speaker B: Also worth noting that Kirby Smart is also down there at 100 to one. That's not happening. [00:42:03] Speaker A: I'm not saying, but yeah. Does coaching at your alma mater, where you've won two national championships, that important. [00:42:16] Speaker C: To you, Kirby, or you want to do it at another school? [00:42:21] Speaker A: You coach there? [00:42:23] Speaker B: Yeah. Crazy times. There's so many names and I'm sure that those ods are going to switch rapidly. I'm surprised that the Twitter accounts tracking the planes have not been active. I have not seen that online. So that's crazy. [00:42:48] Speaker A: They were probably like, we're going to just bust them in, keep a low profile. Great. [00:42:55] Speaker C: Or it's an in house hire. [00:42:58] Speaker A: I would doubt that. [00:43:01] Speaker B: Tommy Reese, when we come back after this little break at the top of the hour, we got one more hour of coverage for you here on 90.7 and the low tide. This emergency episode, we're going to be talking how this impacts Alabama as a whole. Next coach, who we'd want to see who we think we'll see transfers, recruiting, all kinds of things. There's a million different windows that Nick Saban leaving Alabama have opened and we're not going to be able to close any of them. But we will try our best. [00:43:42] Speaker A: I think Nick actually wants to read. [00:43:44] Speaker B: One more statement before going to want one more statement. Another. Oh, okay. We have Greg Byrne statement on the coaching search money. All right, another statement. This is the third one, fourth or losing count over. You know, it's crazy. Greg Byrne, the athletic director at the University of Alabama on Twitter. As with any coaching search, our goal is to be thorough but expedient. Our ideal candidate will be strong in recruiting and relationship building, player development, excel in X's and O's and have the overall ability to lead this historic program. There will be plenty of rumors out there during this process. Next time I talk publicly will be to announce our new coach. If you don't hear it from me, don't believe it. Roll tide from Greg Byrne on Twitter. Man. [00:44:39] Speaker C: To be fair though, I think the statement that he put out before that, the top comment on it was go get. I feel bad for Greg Byrne and his Twitter, whoever runs his Twitter. [00:44:53] Speaker B: Two things before we get a break. A I just want to mention how wonderful it is that in all of the stuff that is being talked about and even in coach Shaden's personal statement, how it was we, him and Miss Terry, that is truly should be, that should be commended. I think that she means almost as much to the university as he. [00:45:17] Speaker C: Mean. [00:45:17] Speaker B: She's probably why he stayed around for legitimately. When they build the next statue might be two people in the just. I think it could be. [00:45:29] Speaker A: When do they add Nick Saban's name to the stadium? [00:45:33] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. When is it going to be the. [00:45:36] Speaker A: Nick Bryant Terry Saban? [00:45:38] Speaker B: Yeah. Anyway, there's one more thing. What? [00:45:43] Speaker C: Was it going to be another statement? [00:45:45] Speaker B: No, not another. I can't say that. I will not read another statement tonight because the ods of that are like almost zero. I will say from that Greg Byrne comments. This is pure speculation. Okay. I am not reporting anything. That statement makes it seem like it is coming fast. [00:46:09] Speaker A: Probably within the week. [00:46:11] Speaker B: Okay. Hot take. I would not be surprised if we didn't know by tomorrow morning. [00:46:18] Speaker A: I don't know about officially. No. But you're. [00:46:20] Speaker B: Well, I don't know. I guess it's going to be a late night. [00:46:26] Speaker A: If this happens when I'm on a bus ride out to Texas tomorrow, I'm not going to be happy. [00:46:31] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:46:32] Speaker B: Truly crazy. Anyway, when we come back, all the fallout from Nick Saban's decision to retire from the University of Alabama here on 90.7 the capstone, an emergency episode, obviously talking about Alabama head coach Nick Saban retiring after 17 seasons at Alabama. If you were not with us in the last hour or you've been living under a rock, we have official word now from the university that Nick Saban has decided to retire. We also have a statement from Greg Byrne on the coaching search. He says that the next time you hear from him publicly, he will have the next head coach of the Alabama Crimson Tide. So there is so much fallout from Nick Saban's decision to retire and more than we will be able to get to tonight. I'm sure there will be many more hours spent discussing this from us in the near future, but let's just get straight into it. Obviously, the big question on everybody's mind, who's next? Who's going to be the next Alabama head coach? I talked about some of the ods in the last hour. I will pull them up again very quickly, once again leading, it seems like the consensus favorite at the moment, Dan Lanning, the Oregon head coach, Dabo close behind, Lane Kiffin. Dion is up there, Kayla, Deborah, just a few of those names that are circulating around. So I will ask would you, if you could have hypothetical world where there are no buyouts, there are no contracts, you get to pick the next head coach of the Alabama Crimson Tide. Who are you picking and why? [00:49:11] Speaker A: Well, I think you could have kind of guessed from the end of the last segment. Mine would be, you know, if we're just talking about want, who I think is the best coach for the smart, you know, used to coach at Alabama. After leaving Alabama to be the head coach at Georgia. I know people talk about his record against Nick Saban, but consistently one of the best teams in the nation, two national championships, one of the best defenses every year, and with what Greg Burns said, recruiting and development of players, Georgia has done a tremendous job of that and then obviously had the 29 game winning streak that was bookended by losses to Alabama. He's only beat Alabama once. It wasn't a national championship game, but the old saying, if you can't beat them, join them, so just bring him over. Obviously, I don't think that is a realistic possibility with him playing at Georgia. I've heard some people mention online that the Falcons were even going to offer him the job. I don't see Kirby leaving for the Falcons, but I definitely don't see him leaving Georgia for another college job. Dan Lanning I don't have a problem with like if he's the hire. After being a grad assistant at Alabama in 2015, he went to Memphis for two seasons and then went to Georgia to be the outside linebackers coach in 2018 and then the Georgia defensive coordinator from 2019 to 2021. And then he's been the Oregon head coach and almost had Oregon in the playoff. Had him win the PaC twelve championship game this year, obviously two losses to Washington, who ended up in the national championship game. I know some people you know, used to play at Alabama head coach. It's his first year as the head coach in the NFL and he's got his team to the playoffs. He's not coming to Alabama unless he just really wants to get back to college. I don't even know if he's had any coaching at college. I know he was defense coordinator at San Francisco and before getting the head coaching job at Houston. That's not going to happen. I think Dabo is the worst option. Just because. [00:51:32] Speaker C: Well, okay, hold on. We're the worst option. [00:51:36] Speaker A: Speak for yourself. Okay. But I'm just talking about with how he has viewed nil and transfer portal and basically not using it, we see the drop off that Clemson has gone through. Maybe he gets it back up over there. I just don't see that being an option that Greg Byrne really pursues. My number one realistic would probably be Dan Lanning and I can't really think of anybody else that I would really offer out of those people. [00:52:12] Speaker B: Let me get ahead of this real quick. Definitively. I don't know if can we agree on this? Alabama is the number one job in the country as far as college football. [00:52:25] Speaker C: Yeah, I would say so. [00:52:29] Speaker B: But Adam, you seem a little apprehensive. [00:52:32] Speaker A: Obviously I think it's the best job, but who wants to be the guy? To be the guy after Saban? And I will say that the one guy I think who is arrogant enough to take that responsibility is Lane Kiffin. I think he would come in, he would want that challenge to be the next guy. We'll see. I know some people have him as their number one. I would probably give him the call. I would have an interview. I don't know if I would have him over Dan Lanning. I don't know. But he has coached in the SEC and had ten win seasons multiple times. [00:53:09] Speaker B: So here's what I'll say. Okay. My dream guy would be Demiko. Dude just walked into an awful situation in Houston and now they're in the playoffs. I mean, that's proven success right there. Young guy who could be here for a long time. The realistic option and the one that I want is Lane. I think that Lane makes a lot of sense. He's coming off his best season at mean. Now. Has Ole Miss won a big time game when they needed to? No. Definitively no. And I actually thought it was pretty funny that they got matched up against Penn State because literally, you want to talk about the perennial third place teams in both the SEC and the Big ten. It's Penn State and Ole Miss. [00:54:11] Speaker A: That's like a playoff game. [00:54:12] Speaker B: They might be the same team just in different conferences, but they almost did beat Penn State. Granted. Does it matter? Probably not. But also one thing we got to talk about Ole Miss. Quinshawn Judkins took off. [00:54:33] Speaker A: When it went up north a little bit, followed McLaughlin. [00:54:37] Speaker B: Yeah. Who will not be playing center for Ohio State anyway. I don't know. I don't mean Lane's a true Twitter troll. I haven't looked and seen if he's started trolling on Twitter yet, but he hasn't tweeted anything. [00:54:56] Speaker C: Actually. [00:54:57] Speaker A: Is the interview Greg? [00:55:00] Speaker B: Is the silence better? Also, I'm just going to put this out there. If the dog is not at the introductory press conference, we failed. Yes or no? [00:55:14] Speaker C: If the dog would be at that press conference, 100%. Got you. [00:55:21] Speaker A: Okay. [00:55:23] Speaker C: Yeah, no, go ahead. [00:55:25] Speaker A: Because I went to Lane's Twitter page and he hasn't really posted anything. But 4 hours ago, he did post a photo at an airport. [00:55:41] Speaker B: Oh, man. I can't imagine what the comments are like under that post. Okay, doe, who do you. [00:55:50] Speaker C: So I will say that I kind of agree with, like, I think if you told me you could get anybody into Alabama, it would be kirby smart. I mean, he's essentially building what Nick Saban built at Alabama at Georgia. In my opinion, that's who I would be. But I think my realistic mean, I like landing and I like Lane Kiffin a lot. I like landing, maybe a little more. But I'm going to just for the sake of difference, because mine probably would be landing. But I'll make the case for a guy who I'd have kind of right behind landing. And that's Steve Sarkeesian at Texas. Now, it would be interesting to see because I would imagine Alabama could outbid Ole Miss. And for if they wanted Lane Kiffin or Dane Lanning, I don't know if you could really outbid Texas. That's kind of how they've built their program is out by outbidding people for recruits and coaches and staffers. But I mean, Steve Sarkeesian, obviously he has the ties to Alabama. He's talked a lot about his time under Nick Saban and how Saban's very, quite literally changed his life as a coach and got him back on track to be a successful head. Mean, I think Sarkeesian would be a great fit. Right now. Texas is coming in as the number three rated recruiting class who he can obviously recruit. Alabama is going to be a place where really the only way to kind of keep up the momentum that you're going to have at Alabama off the back of Nick Saban is to keep recruiting and getting those transfers coming in. [00:57:47] Speaker A: And to stop transfers from going out. [00:57:51] Speaker C: Immediately after you get hired. And I think Sarkeesian can do that. And I wouldn't be shocked. I'll say this much, not that I don't want to say this as a fact, but if Alabama does hire, you know, I'm going to say we might see a couple mannings come to Tuscaloosa as well. [00:58:14] Speaker A: Alabama was one of the final options. [00:58:17] Speaker C: He was one of the finalists. And although I don't even know where Arch Manning would fit into a quarterback room that Alabama is going to have next. [00:58:28] Speaker B: Mean, if you want Stark like Greg Byrne get out your. [00:58:37] Speaker A: To you would definitively have to say goodbye to the new basketball ring. [00:58:42] Speaker B: What does the potential benefits package look like? Unbelievable. Free private jet anywhere. [00:58:49] Speaker C: And now I will say too, like Dan Landing's buyout right now at Oregon is like 20 mil, which is a hefty chunk of change. [00:58:56] Speaker B: Goodbye basketball. [00:58:58] Speaker A: What's the buyout of Sarkeesian? [00:58:59] Speaker C: That's the problem I'm trying to find. Haven't, I haven't looked. Now, economic hire, James Franklin's only six, Norvell's at 4 million is your buyout. But I don't know. I'm trying to find what Sarkeesian's bio would know. [00:59:15] Speaker A: I heard one guy was trying to. [00:59:17] Speaker B: Get out of Michigan, too. Oh, could you imagine? That would be the absolute villain move right there. Just completely circumvent. Like, hey, I know Michigan's going to be in the tank next year from the NCAA, but I'm just going know, hop on over. [00:59:34] Speaker C: So this is according to, I guess, a Texas SB nation website that I found this, but Steve Sarkeesian buyout would be just shy of 13 million. So it'd actually be cheaper than landing to buy him out of his contract. [00:59:57] Speaker A: But then the outbid. [00:59:59] Speaker C: But then you'd have to. Yeah, that's the problem. And Texas can match that bid. [01:00:05] Speaker A: There's somebody that we haven't mentioned, a coach who hasn't been in his current school very long but has got them into a bowl game in their first season in the fbs, and that is Rich Rodriguez. [01:00:20] Speaker C: Oh, dear God. [01:00:24] Speaker A: He wouldn't turn it down a second time. [01:00:27] Speaker C: Surely not. [01:00:27] Speaker A: No, but I'm kidding. I don't think that's on Greg Burns list of calls to make, but he is still pretty good coach. [01:00:35] Speaker B: You know who is praying for that call right now? Dabo. He's waiting by the phone. He's like trying to manifest. [01:00:42] Speaker A: I've heard every year that I was going to be the guy. [01:00:45] Speaker C: Yeah, it's that time. [01:00:47] Speaker A: Do we think anybody from the NFL would leave a head coach? [01:00:52] Speaker C: I don't think any active NFL head coach would leave a job unless you're looking at like, I think the only. [01:00:58] Speaker B: Guy would be like, D'Amiko. [01:01:02] Speaker A: Any coordinators that y'all can think mean, usually somebody that we don't know. [01:01:08] Speaker B: I pitched this during our break while we were chowing down in our couple of minutes that we had in the NFL, when you got to do the search for the guy, right? Like the quarterback, you get a stopgap quarterback. What if you got a stopgap head coach in like, I don't know. Bill Belichick. [01:01:34] Speaker C: Bill Belichick. [01:01:36] Speaker B: It would be absolutely. What's next? Bill O'Brien? [01:01:47] Speaker C: Apparently golding was a great recruiter. But yeah. I will say, though, this is an interesting tweet I saw from Blake Byler. I'll just quote it. He said, if there's one thing Alabama athletic director Greg Brune does, it's move quickly. And he's noted that Avery Johnson was fired on March 24, 2019. NATO was hired on the 27th, three days. Dana Duckworth steps down as gymnastics coach four days later. Ashley Johnson's hired. And then in baseball, after the big scandal with Bohannon on June 10, the baseball season was over. June Twelveth, Alabama hired Rob Vaughn away from Maryland to be their baseball coach. So I'm not going to say he knows who's going to be the head coach right now, but it seems like Greg Byrne has a way of doing things and it's very. [01:02:43] Speaker B: Okay, I'll go there. I definitely think he knows. I think he knows who it is. Okay. Pure speculation, right? But I do not think that Nick Saban would retire from the University of Alabama without at the very least giving a couple names and saying like, yeah, here's who I would pick because I would imagine that there's not a person on the planet whose opinion matters more in this moment to Greg Byrne than Nick Saban. [01:03:14] Speaker A: So, you know, in the NFL, when teams are, know, coaching search and stuff, they usually ask the teams like, oh, can we interview this? We usually know beforehand who it's going to be. College. It's a little bit more know, like when Alabama hired, like, everybody had heard that he was going to be hired, but Nick said at the press conference, like, no, I'm not taking the job. I haven't talked to anybody about the job and stuff. And then all of a sudden he's the head coach at Alabama. Do we think that it was a point to where without the official offer, without it being signed and everything, do we think Nick Saban talked to Greg Byrne and gave him like a couple of days to where Greg Byrne could get an answer from somebody's agent? [01:04:03] Speaker B: Like, yes, they will mean, yeah, I think mean, it's pretty crazy. Also, one thing I want to say before we continue in the head coaching, real, the people who you have to feel for in this circumstance is the players and a lot of the guys who said they were coming back, even the guys who were going to be here regardless, Caleb Downs, Jalen Milrow, Malachi Moore. Malachi Moore. And I wonder if some of those guys are going to make different decisions now that this is on the table. One thing that I will talk about, and we'll get into the recruiting stuff in a minute, but now that Nick Saban has retired, a new 30 day window opens for players from Alabama to transfer. Not just they can transfer in the SEC and play next season. [01:05:05] Speaker C: Because of this, Tyler Buck is almost kicking himself. [01:05:09] Speaker A: So that's something that I've mentioned a couple of times. You mentioned how fast Greg Burn has hired people. That's very important here because you need him there so he can start talking to people. Well, obviously one higher defense coordinator, and then talking to the current players and convincing them as to why they should stay and play for them. Because Caleb Downs, you know, he was just freshman all american and everything, freshman of the year, you know, Kirby smart is just waiting for him to say he wants to transfer and pull him over there because people were making the joke that that's what he was doing at the SEC championship game right after when he went and talked to him. And I would not blame him if Caleb Downs made that decision to go. But I hope that a new coach comes in and can convince them to stay because the pieces are there to still be a successful team right and. [01:06:06] Speaker B: That'S the other thing about needing to move so quickly is that every minute that you don't have a new head coach announced or here could be another player that leaves. And if you're Greg Burn, for lack of a better term, you got to stop the bleeding. Right. We've already seen, I believe it was Ryan Williams, the wide receiver, five star, like number nine recruit in the country, like a couple of minutes after it happened, had decommitted from Alabama. And you are going to continue to see that happening in the hours leading up to the new head coach being announced and even after the new head coach is announced, because a lot of the recruits, a lot of the guys who said they were going to come back, even players that were considering transferring in, they are making that decision with the expectation that Nick Saban was going to be the head coach. So things could change very rapidly here. You could see somebody get hired and oh, well, all of a sudden now you've got multiple guys from whatever school they were coming from transferring into Alabama. The coaches bring in some of his guys or guys leaving. It's going to be very interesting. We haven't really talked a lot about the roster impacts that this is going to have, but you would be a fool to not think that Jalen Millrow is not getting some calls with some serious nil money. [01:07:46] Speaker A: It's funny because all the casuals out there, as some people like to call, they've, they make jokes about how poorly Jalen Millro played in the Rose ball or earlier in the season, like the guy still finished six of the highest in voting teams and coaches know what he brings to the table. So he's definitely already getting some messages from maybe players that he knows, possibly coaches that have recruited him in the past. We all know college football is a little shady anyway, and as soon as there's blood in the water, everybody is going to want to get a piece of Alabama. [01:08:28] Speaker C: Yeah, well, and especially like in this era of college football, you can build a roster very quickly and it can get stripped down really quickly. And like you said, nick, I really like that analogy of stopping the, and especially when you look around like guys like or a lot of the offensive players, I would imagine their decision might not be necessarily tied to Nick Saban retiring, but it's going to be whether Tommy Reese is still going to be that know because he was a guy who grew a lot as a coordinator and kind of his growth and milroe's growth kind of essentially had the same pattern of an early dip against Texas and USF and then kind of came back and got to that high of a level. So it'll be interesting to see how those guys on the offensive end with Tommy Rees still there, whether they hang on regardless of the coach. And then obviously the defense because they don't have any coordinator. Right. [01:09:31] Speaker A: You know, you just had Malachi Moore and you know, they're saying that they were coming back and now, oh, defense coordinator retired. Okay, we still got Nick Saban. Nick Saban retired. [01:09:41] Speaker C: I do wonder how much they really knew. I mean, I know that the word is that it sounds like no one in the facility really knew that Nick Saban was going to retire. But I got to wonder, I mean, Malachi Moore decided to come back to Alabama for, I guess, what, his fifth season. [01:09:58] Speaker A: The official statement he put out the imac was literally last night. [01:10:03] Speaker C: Yeah, I can't imagine that they didn't know nothing. [01:10:09] Speaker A: We know for sure, like Nick Saban, he know Terry, we assume Greg Byrne knew. I don't know if anybody else after, like when he met with know individually, like those players that wanted to enter the transfer portal like Seth McLaughlin and stuff, he might have told. [01:10:28] Speaker C: Hey, yeah, well, McLaughlin might not have needed any. [01:10:31] Speaker A: Well, yeah, but I'm just saying he might have told people that were trying to decide whether to come back, if he was going to be here or not. [01:10:37] Speaker B: See, but I don't think that if you're Saban. I don't think that you're telling anybody because it is such a. You're talking about college kids who do not make the best decisions sometimes. And I think that if he would have been telling people, it would have gotten out. I legitimately think that there might have been two people who knew when Chris Lowe found out, it would have been Greg Byrne and him. And even then, he was probably asked to wait until a certain time to report it just to kind of hold off. But interesting thing, Nick Kelly from Tuscaloosa News was writing that as of this morning, Nick Saban was interviewing candidates for openings on the staff. So he was working up until the very minute. And Eli Drinkwitz, the head coach at Missouri, said that he was also on an SEC coaches Zoom call today. [01:11:46] Speaker C: Yeah, well, they had like a big. It's like the FBS coaches meeting today in, I think, Nashville or somewhere in Tennessee. [01:11:53] Speaker A: Can you imagine who upset Nick Saban enough during his interview process of all these candidates? So he was like, I'm done. [01:12:00] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:12:01] Speaker B: Imagine the absolute dunks that Nick Saban was throwing in there. If they were having the big all of college football meeting, and he knew that, hey, I could say whatever I want because some guy from like, yukon. [01:12:17] Speaker C: I think we should do this. You don't matter. [01:12:20] Speaker A: He's sitting in there and he's like, I can't go back and forth with Jimbo right now. What's the point anymore? [01:12:26] Speaker C: Yeah, he got bored. But I did want to make a note. I just wanted to say this because I talked about c. Sarcasian before and I think I said his bio was like, 13 million. It's five. His buyout is 5 million in 2024. So I just wanted to clear that up. [01:12:43] Speaker A: I just expect the extension within the hour. [01:12:46] Speaker C: Yeah. Either the extension or the dismissal. [01:12:50] Speaker B: Athletics directors at Oregon, Ole Miss and Texas are working overtime tonight, folks. They got the checkbook out and they are sent. Yeah, seriously. [01:13:01] Speaker C: Okay, real talk, the guy Clemson might be a little waiting. [01:13:05] Speaker B: Not worried if you're an athletic director right now. Right. Not an athletic director if you're a head coach at one of the names that's up here. What a great time to negotiate a contractor extension right before anybody knows. [01:13:23] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:13:24] Speaker B: Anyway, absolute chaos. [01:13:28] Speaker A: I think we can determine Nick Saban himself when he would always hire the people that you didn't expect. Right? Like he would hire people from some smaller schools to come in and be coordinators and stuff, or the bigger schools after they were fired to be analysts before eventually moving up into the spot. But Greg Byrne has, obviously, I've talked about some people not wanting to be the next guy after one of the greatest coaches of all time, but Greg Byrne has to make, like a splash name. Like, it has to be a big name. It can't just know some guy. It can't be like when Penn State hired James Franklin from be. It's got to be somebody big. [01:14:18] Speaker C: Yeah. I mean, you'd have to think because the reception that Nick Saban got when he was hired at Alabama was like people going to the airport. You need someone with that type of stature who's going to come in and essentially immediately calm not only the fans, but the staff, the players and the recruits. [01:14:36] Speaker A: That three guys on a radio show. [01:14:39] Speaker C: Yeah, but say you go out and hire Dan landing or Lankivin or Sarkeesian, even those guys, whichever order you want them to get hired in. If it's those guys, you're looking at three guys who have won a lot, have had a lot of success, especially recently in instances of Lane Kiffin. And you're getting guys who, for example, the guy that decommitted Ryan Williams, he might look and say, okay, they got Lane Kiffin coming in. I can recommit. Or, oh, they got Dan Landon coming in. I can recommit, or whoever that is. It has to be someone with that level of, I guess, clout to get it to where everyone's calmed down. [01:15:30] Speaker B: Right? Okay, we're going to take one more break. When we come back, we'll kind of wrap up as best as we can. Our closing thoughts on this wild night and Alabama head coach Nick Saban's retirement. When we come back here on the low tide on 90.7. The capstone. Nicholas Persley, Joe Schiatt, Adam Hambright breaking down all of the fallout from Nick Saban's unexpected retirement after 17 seasons as the head coach of the Alabama Crimson Tide. If you aren't already aware, we have a statement from Greg Byrne saying that the coaching search, the next time you hear from him, he will have the next head coach of the Alabama Crimson Tide. So there might not be very long to wait. [01:16:51] Speaker C: Everyone has released statements. I saw the senator, Katie Britt released a statement. Nick Saban's boundaries, there's no limits. [01:17:01] Speaker B: I mean, I might be releasing a. [01:17:03] Speaker C: Statement next, the official WVUA capstone statement on Nick Saban retiring. [01:17:10] Speaker B: But just, I know I've said it a hundred times today and I will not stop saying it. It has been a wild day at the University of Alabama, and really, this entire season has been insane. I talked about it when we first came on the air. You want to talk about a storybook season, about that kind of like movie type season? The 30 for 30 is going to be insane about this season for the Crimson Tide. But I think truly it would be hard to come by a better way for Nick Saban to go out, save for maybe winning a national championship. But that's a very high bar, and you never know when that opportunity is going to come around again. And just with the whole landscape of college football changing, the twelve team playoff incoming, the SEC, the Big Ten making these crazy moves. We didn't even talk about that, about how next year the SEC will be bigger and Texas and Oklahoma joining and just all of these changes, all of these things happening in college football. It feels like the right time for Nick Saban to step down kind of, and go with the old era of college football. [01:18:36] Speaker A: And obviously I've mentioned it how know wanted some more know with him as the head coach of know. I wanted that one more championship. But I will say I am glad that Nick Saban is retiring. While he was still coaching at a high level, he was still recruiting. He was doing everything at a high level and he know so much energy. We didn't have to see him like some coaches who just stay around and stay around, stay around trying to get that last championship or just trying to coach as long as they can. And then you see them and they're barely able to walk on the sideline and it's basically they're just there as the figurehead and everybody else is running the show. Nick Saban was still 100% the head coach and still probably the best coach in college football. Obviously, he's the greatest coach of all time. Some people have said that he's taken a step back, but with the job that we've said that he did this year, he still was able to, even though not winning a national championship, still going out on top, and I'm really happy for him for that. [01:19:43] Speaker C: Yeah, no, I agree with everything you said. I mean, it would have been nice to see like, Nick Saban leave at the top, but yeah, I just think like we've talked about, it seemed right with how much change was going on that there would be kind of a change in the guard of the top of the mean. It seems that Georgia and Texas, and I don't know about Michigan, they might lose a couple coaches and players, but it seems like there are other programs that are really catching up to Alabama at a very accelerated rate just with how college football is and how kind of easy it is to build up that roster. So I think it kind of made sense for Nick Saban to retire. I mean, he's talked about he feels like he, I believe the quote was he was going to retire once the game has passed him by. And I wouldn't say the game passed him by. I think he still could have won a lot of games regardless. But it seemed like it was a fitting end, especially with the job he did this season. [01:21:03] Speaker B: Yeah, that was the thing for me. It feels very fitting. It feels like the right time. Things are crazy. The world is crazy in Tuscaloosa. It feels like the world is ending right now, especially immediately walking out of class after that. I wish I would have been in a more populated area. I wish I would have been in the student center. That would have been crazy. But crazy times. And I'm sure that the next couple of days are going to be wild as well. I would not be at all surprised. I don't think it'll happen, but I would not be at all surprised if multiple teachers, if not the university, had just canceled class tomorrow. [01:21:44] Speaker C: Just give us the day off? [01:21:45] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:21:45] Speaker C: Two days into the semester and we've already canceled a day. [01:21:49] Speaker B: No, that's actually insane. On the first day back at school, Nick Saban decides to retire. [01:21:55] Speaker C: I wonder, I wonder if he even knew, not that I'm going to blame him, but what he just caused. I wonder if he knew. A lot of people just walked out of a class and dropped to their knees. Some teacher who was like, put your phones away. No one. Check your phone. All of a sudden at like 430 students just walk up and immediately slump. That. [01:22:22] Speaker B: And I thought that the worst thing that I was going to hear today was that 100% of my grade was based off of three essays. But it was not the worst thing because then I found that out and truly crazy. But as for what's next for Alabama, I mean, obviously there's going to be some massive press conference at some point with the next head coach of the Alabama Crimson Tide. I'm sure nobody will show up to that. I'm sure you won't hear us talk about that. [01:22:52] Speaker A: Maybe just one or two people, a small gathering. [01:22:57] Speaker C: Yeah, maybe they'll do it in like a little media room. Get like four or five people in a camera. I don't know who'd want to pick it up. [01:23:05] Speaker B: Yeah, ESPN like the decision. They got Greg Byrne in the seat. [01:23:10] Speaker C: With the who will be coaching Alabama football next year. I've taken my talents. [01:23:17] Speaker B: Got the stone cold like the glass break. That's Dan landing's music. My God, it's Fisher. No, please. [01:23:28] Speaker C: The Texas rattlesnake. [01:23:31] Speaker B: Man, I can't. [01:23:34] Speaker A: Nobody said mario Cristobal yet. Stop. [01:23:39] Speaker B: Man. You can tell that we have been on there for almost 2 hours at this point. Yeah, truly. [01:23:45] Speaker C: Exactly. [01:23:46] Speaker B: A masterclass. Let me just say one crazy stat. You want to talk about Nick Saban and all his accomplishments. Nick Saban had more players go in the first round, 44 players go in the first round of the NFL draft, not including anybody from this year. Let's remember that. Then. He had losses at Alabama. He had 29 losses while at Alabama. [01:24:16] Speaker C: Yeah. And there was, I don't know what his exact record is just at home, but I mean, if you're an Alabama fan and you had like, season tickets, maybe outside of that first year, because you had to watch, I mean, there was a pretty good chance that there were seasons in which you didn't see them lose at home. Like multiple seasons, maybe even most of his seasons at Alabama. I don't know what the. [01:24:48] Speaker A: So obviously, the first year you had a few. Second year undefeated, third year undefeated, at home. Fourth year, lost to LSU at home. Fifth year, lost to Texas A and M at home. 2013 was on the road. 2014 was on the road. 2015 was at home. [01:25:05] Speaker C: Okay, right. Now, when was this article put out? So I guess he's at ten home. [01:25:12] Speaker A: Losses right now being in 2007. [01:25:17] Speaker C: Yeah, he was 100. Well, I don't know what the exact number is now because this was written before the season, but he had nine home losses entering the season, so he had ten total. [01:25:30] Speaker A: Because after that 2015 loss to Ole Miss, their next loss at home, 19. [01:25:39] Speaker C: No, we'll see. [01:25:41] Speaker A: So you had 16, was undefeated until the national championship, 17 lost at Auburn. 18, was undefeated in the national championship. So then 19 against LSU and then undefeated 2020, 2021, and then they didn't. [01:25:56] Speaker C: Lose at home again until this year. You're talking about someone who quite literally, I mean, he has numbers that we literally all looked around and we're like, oh, ten total. [01:26:10] Speaker B: Speaking of some numbers, 17 seasons at Alabama, 206 career wins, $120,000,000 in pay. [01:26:20] Speaker A: Is the 206 wins after vacated wins from 2008. [01:26:23] Speaker B: Unknown. 124 NFL draft picks, eleven SEC titles, two time AP coach of the year, five time SEC Coach of the year, six national championships. Also in his career highlights, a Mac title. [01:26:41] Speaker C: Yeah, Toledo. [01:26:42] Speaker A: You know, I saw something. [01:26:44] Speaker B: That's the real crown. [01:26:45] Speaker A: So obviously he didn't spend his whole career at know he won the national championship. LSU. So I just saw something. [01:26:52] Speaker C: Sorry, hold on. Lane Kiffin has tweeted. [01:26:55] Speaker B: Okay, it's a picture of the dog. [01:26:58] Speaker C: No, it's literally a guy, I guess a recruit said he was committed and Lane Kevin tweeted the shark emoji and the dog emoji. Committed to Ole Miss. [01:27:11] Speaker B: He committed to Ole Miss. [01:27:12] Speaker C: It was an Ole Miss recruit who I guess was announcing his commitment. And Lane Kevin tweeted the shark emoji and the dog emoji. [01:27:20] Speaker A: He was not going to take that. [01:27:22] Speaker B: Thank you. [01:27:23] Speaker A: So this was just something that I saw earlier. I can't remember who had shared it, but it was a news article. I don't even know what year it was, but it was Nick Saban as an assistant at West Virginia being selected to be Ohio State's new secondaries coach, replacing Pete Carroll, who left after a Rose bowl game to become defensive coordinator at North Carolina State. Now, it's crazy. That's where those two coaches were at the time. But now Pete Carroll parting ways with Seattle and Nick Saban retiring at Alabama on the same. That's crazy to me. And then also Bill Belichick, who Nick Saban coached with at, uh, Belichick is rumored to be stepping away from the Patriots. Crazy Bill Belichick, head coach. No. [01:28:14] Speaker B: Stop gap. Stop gap. I'm telling you another interesting story. Front office sports was reporting, like, right after the Nick Saban retirement news came out that apparently ESPN looks at Nick Saban being the replacement for Lee Corso on game day. How do we feel about that? Yes or no? Imagine Saban putting on the mascot head. [01:28:36] Speaker C: Imagine him putting on the LSU Tiger hat. Like, imagine he has to do that. [01:28:41] Speaker B: I mean, at least it kind of makes. [01:28:46] Speaker C: Mean because if that's the exact. [01:28:49] Speaker A: Same role, I feel like Nick Saban would give very good football analysis. Some people have said he's pretty good at that sort of thing. I don't want to watch him put on a mask. [01:29:00] Speaker C: I had no, I don't think he'd do that. But, yeah, I wouldn't hate mean because like you said, his, his analysis of football would be, be, it would be kind of interesting to see what the show looks like because Lee Corso is, like, a very charismatic, outgoing. He gets to the college game day set and before the show starts, he holds up the helmets and people cheer and, like, I don't know if Nick Saban would be doing all that. So you might have to supplement. You might have to add something there. [01:29:34] Speaker B: Okay. I think it could be more fun. He's shown he could be pretty fun on, so, I mean, that's true. [01:29:40] Speaker C: And McAfee, well, I don't know what game day is going to look like next year, but McAfee is on game day. Sorry, that was all I was going to say. [01:29:51] Speaker B: I had heard that he's apparently not signed on for next season. I don't know if that's changed since I had. [01:29:55] Speaker C: I don't know exactly that also underrated. [01:29:58] Speaker B: Story that we're not considering here on college game day. Nick Saban, Kirk, Herb street, Ben the dog. This is the content that we are looking for, folks. Can you imagine how many likes that Twitter video would get? I'm just putting that out there. Every social media manager's dream scenario would be that. [01:30:22] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:30:23] Speaker B: So do we have any final words here as we're kind of wrapping up the night? It's crazy. [01:30:33] Speaker C: What are we thinking? Yeah. To wrap it up. Oh, God. [01:30:40] Speaker B: How do you tie the bow on something so wild? Which it doesn't have to be the final word because that's true, obviously. We might be right back in here tomorrow. [01:30:49] Speaker C: Tomorrow at 03:00 in the afternoon. [01:30:53] Speaker A: I'll have to call in, guys. [01:30:55] Speaker C: Yeah, I think it would be. We've talked a lot about Nick Saban and a lot of the wins and losses and titles, and we've talked about who's going to replace them and who we don't want to and talked a lot about who we don't want to. But I just think it's a good time right now to go out and not go out. But look at the stuff that he did for Alabama and especially the University of Alabama, especially if you're a student. Like, I guarantee you that a lot of the students from out of state, had Nick Saban not had this great run of Alabama football, might not have gone to the University of. [01:31:40] Speaker A: Just maybe two people in this room. [01:31:42] Speaker C: I was going to say, I can tell it from my perspective. I grew up in Maryland and I had a family friend who was a big Alabama fan. So I grew up, in a way, watching Alabama games already. But I mean, you're talking about a program that was always on top, never really lost, and was always on CBS and ABC and huge games, nationally televised games. I mean, Nick Saban, for all the games he won and championships he won, really boosted the University of Alabama as like a school and an institution. I'd say to anybody listening who is a student, to go and look around and really think about just how much this one man who realistically probably you don't know and he doesn't know, or he doesn't know you and you might not know him personally, but someone who has influenced your life in that way, I guess that would just be kind of like my parting thing would be look around and smell the roses. [01:32:41] Speaker B: That's even more fitting given that his last game was at the Rose bowl. [01:32:46] Speaker C: Yeah, I will say it's also very cool. I did want to put this in that. I think you brought it up, Adam. Just the fact that we got to see the last ever Nick Saban game and we were all there for his last ever home game without knowing it, Ty Simpson dropped at the 1 yd line. Nick Saban was like, I'm done. [01:33:06] Speaker A: I know I was at that first. [01:33:07] Speaker B: Like eight game, right? [01:33:09] Speaker A: I don't remember if I was there at the first regular season game. I do remember very vividly that I was in the stadium for the game against Tennessee that year, 2007, when Alabama won that game and they were six and two before losing four straight games. We don't need to talk about all that. But being there from the beginning of Nick Saban's tenure, getting to see his last game in Bryant Denny, last game at home, I remembered and I said this earlier, I remember what it was like before him and I knew it wasn't going to last forever. And this next hire from Greg Byrne is going to be very important. We've discussed how important it is. We're going to see a lot of people, like if they were just the bandwagon of the Nick Saban glory days, how is Alabama going to come back from this? They might be good for a couple of years. They might stay good. Depends on who comes in, how stable they're able to keep the program. But I know we're still going to be around. We're still going to be here supporting the team. Even though Nick Saban's not going to be on that sideline anymore, I wish him well in his retirement and hopefully he'll come around once or twice. Say hi to everybody, but it's going to be a lot different, but the real ones will still be there. [01:34:45] Speaker B: So I think how I want to kind of tie this all together. I want to talk about something that I talked a lot about during the season and that I tweeted many times and that I constantly thought of just while I was watching this storybook season for Alabama unfold. You have to have perspective in a moment like this. What happened today with Nick Saban deciding to suddenly retire after 17 seasons at Alabama is shocking. It's wild. And there have been so many things that happened over the course of this season for Alabama that were shocking. And every single one we thought, oh, well, now this is the most shocking thing that's happened this year. No, now this is the most shocking thing. And then how does the season end? You get a crazy twist at the end of it. I think that in this moment, it's a very hard time for Alabama fans. You're coming off a loss in the Rose bowl to the eventual national champions, a very close game, a tough way to end the season. And then just a few days later, Nick Saban retires as the head coach of the Crimson tide. And now you're in this moment where it feels like the world is ending in Tuscaloosa. But you have to keep perspective in that moment and you have to look back and you have to think about all the wonderful things that Nick Saban did for the University of Alabama. Joe, you talked about it. It's very likely that without Nick Saban, neither of us are here. It's very likely that without Nick Saban, I would have never even thought to come to Alabama. Me coming to Alabama, I'll share personal story. Me coming to Alabama was a complete left field thing. I got a thing in the mail one day from Alabama. I hadn't considered them at all. I hadn't even considered going out of state at that. You know, you're watching Alabama on tv, you learn about this legacy of excellence and this know, for lack of better term, the shining city on the hill of the example of Alabama and Alabama athletics and Alabama football, Nick Saban and the national championships and the Heismans, and it pulls you towards Alabama. Before Nick Saban came to Alabama, the university was primarily in state students. Now it's primarily out of state students. And I know we talked about how Nick Saban has made $120,000,000 as the head coach of the Crimson Tide, and he's still underpaid for the value that he brought to the university, to the students, to the fans, to the city of Tuscaloosa. It's truly wild. And whoever the next head coach is going to be, godspeed because it's going to be tough. I mean, could not ask to come into a crazier situation, but there will be more football played at the University of Alabama next season. Somebody else is going to take that walk around the field before the game and there's going to be a new day. And I'll be right back in here on the mic talking about Alabama football, and we'll talk about the new head coach. And I'm sure that as bad as we thought it was going to get after that Texas and that USF game, I'm sure we're going to have even wilder things to say next season. But in this moment, it's all about the perspective. Think about all the wonderful things that Nick Saban has done for the university, for Alabama football, and just enjoy it and enjoy what you had, because it's very likely that the university, nor, not to mention anyone who had the pleasure of watching him coach, will ever see another coach as great as Nick Saban ever again. So I think I speak for not only for us, but for everybody who has had the pleasure of watching Nick Saban, coach at the University of Alabama and saying, thank you, coach, for everything you've done, not only for the university, the fans, the media, who had the pleasure of covering you even when you were angry and didn't want to talk after games. Thank you for all that. And you've impacted more lives than you'll ever know. And I think that's truly special. And shout out, Miss Terry, the queen of Alabama football. [01:40:21] Speaker C: I'm pretty excited. I know we got to go it'll be pretty interesting to see what a day looks like in a couple of months. [01:40:29] Speaker B: Yeah, that's a good. [01:40:30] Speaker C: I mean, this might be like one of those, depending on who they get, another very full house trying to. A lot of fans are going to want to see what that looks like. [01:40:45] Speaker A: I would hope that there was a lot of people there, but it is a little bit different for me, coming from a team that just went to the playoff getting a new coach after a somber retirement than a coach getting fired and then bringing in somebody who's supposed to be the savior of the program. [01:41:01] Speaker C: That is true. That is true. I mean, you're not getting the, quote, savior. You just got him, actually. You just left. But I'm still like, I'm interested to see kind of what the vibe is because that's going to be the first look at the guy. [01:41:18] Speaker B: As tough as it may be right now, there are exciting times ahead for Alabama football. Maybe chunky, maybe some difficult times, but exciting times nonetheless. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you so much for joining us on this emergency episode of the low tide. We hope you all have a great night and we will see you again probably when Alabama has a new head coach here on 90.7 the capstone. Thank you for.