Nick Saban went 15-17 in two seasons as head coach of the Miami Dolphins before returning to the college ranks at Alabama. He’s been there ever since, and has never returned to the NFL or even seemingly been all that tempted.
Saban explained the reason for this in a recent appearance on The Sean Pittman Show, saying that he saw the NFL as the ultimate destination at one point. That, however, was before the widespread advent of free agency, and Saban disliked the immense roster turnover with Miami.
“I just felt like we could control our own destiny in college a lot better, and I love college football because I thought you could have a greater impact on young people at the 18- to 22-year-old timeframe, alright,” Saban said, via Saturday Down South. “And I love the NFL and I love the players … but your leadership and your influence and the kind of program that you can have to try to get players to do things that are going to help them be more successful in life, probably you can have a greater impact in college than you can in the NFL. I’ve always enjoyed that. My family always enjoyed it. My wife’s always been really involved with it. We’ve been very happy being in college football. But sometimes you learn about yourself when you do things like go to the NFL and you learn about yourself – ‘Oh, this is not exactly what I thought it was going to be. Look what I left. I left something that I loved.’ And I loved it at LSU, when I left LSU to go to the Miami Dolphins. You live and learn, I guess.”
In other words, Saban won’t be taking another NFL job. There have been some fanciful stories linking him to NFL teams, but this does not sound like a guy who ever plans on leaving Alabama for a different position. That has seemed clear for some time now.
