Nick Saban’s biggest moments at Alabama: Titles, marches and miracles
Nick Saban's finest hours at Alabama weren't always when he hoisted a trophy, though he did plenty of that, too
During his 17 years at Alabama, Nick Saban created some of the most memorable moments in college football history. His six national championships lead the list, but just as important were Saban’s works off the field, both for his players and his community. As Saban heads off into the sunset, here's a list of his finest:
2007: In one of the great what-ifs in college football history, Rich Rodriguez turned down Alabama’s head-coaching offer, so Alabama boosters and athletic department officials looked to the Miami Dolphins sideline. Alabama was familiar with Saban from his national championship-winning work at LSU, and on Jan. 3, Saban agreed to leave Miami. It would prove to be one of the most pivotal decisions in college football history.
December 2009: Saban’s influence brought Alabama accolades it had never received before. Running back Mark Ingram, a key component of Saban’s first title run, became the first Alabama player to win a Heisman Trophy. Three other Alabama players — Derrick Henry, Devonta Smith and Bryce Young — would later win the trophy under Saban.
2010 BCS title game: After a 2008 season in which the Tide went 12-0 but lost to the Tim Tebow/Urban Meyer Florida Gators in the SEC championship, the Tide reloaded and stormed all the way to a BCS title. Alabama walloped Texas 37-21 in the Rose Bowl to claim Saban’s first title at Alabama. "I want everybody here to know, this is not the end,” Saban said at a rally afterward in Tuscaloosa. “This is the beginning.” No one could have predicted how right he was.
April 2011: Tornadoes tore through central Alabama, devastating Tuscaloosa and killing 65 people there and in Birmingham. Saban was everywhere the morning after the storm, handing out water bottles and offering financial support to the beleaguered city. Eight months later, the Crimson Tide helped heal the wounds the best way they could: by winning a second national championship, this one with a 21-0 rout over Saban’s old team and SEC rival, LSU.
2013 BCS National Championship: No. 2 Alabama simply demolished No. 1 Notre Dame 42-14 for its third championship under Saban in four years. In the streets of Tuscaloosa, signs read “Tebow Cried / Cam [Newton] Lied / Trees Died / ROLL TIDE.”
2016 College Football Playoff: In the second of what would be eight appearances in the four-team CFP, the Tide knocked off Clemson in a 45-40 shootout to clinch Saban’s fourth title at Alabama. The coach once known for block-and-tackle football and a punishing run game dubbed “murderball” by fans had transformed into a throw-it-deep offensive artist, observing the sport’s change and, once again, getting ahead of it.
2018 College Football Playoff, second-and-26: In a preview of what would become the fiercest head-to-head battle of the early 2020s, Saban battled former assistant and new University of Georgia coach Kirby Smart at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. In overtime, backed up to second-and-26, Tua Tagovailoa found a wide-open Smith in the end zone for a walk-off, national-championship-winning touchdown. The victory marked Saban’s fifth national title.
2020: As COVID and social unrest roiled the country, Saban’s Alabama team gathered in Tuscaloosa to prepare for the upcoming season. When players, spurred to action by the summer’s protests, wanted to record a video promoting Black Lives Matter, Saban lent not just his approval but also his voice. “In this moment in history, we can’t be silent. We must speak up for our brothers and sisters, for our sons and daughters,” Saban said. “Until I listen with an open heart and mind, I can’t understand his experience and his pain.” In a profession that routinely chewed up young athletes while keeping social justice as far away as possible, Saban’s embrace of his players’ efforts was remarkable. The team went on to win every game in a murderous, SEC-only schedule and capture Saban’s sixth national championship at Alabama, at last equaling Bear Bryant’s Alabama total.
2023 Iron Bowl, fourth-and-31: Ten years almost to the day of the worst coaching decision of Saban’s career — a field-goal attempt in the Iron Bowl that led to the famous/infamous “Kick Six” — Alabama redeemed itself. Down to the last play and 31 yards from the end zone, Alabama’s Jalen Milroe found Isaiah Bond in the Auburn end zone on a play called “Gravedigger.” As it turned out, the play didn’t just beat Auburn; it also effectively eliminated both Georgia and Florida State from the playoff. Beating three teams with one play? Only Saban could pull that off.
“Give him enough time, and he’d figure out a way to win ‘American Idol,’ the Iditarod and the North Dakota gubernatorial race,” Paul Finebaum, the poet laureate of the SEC, once wrote. “Saban could coach a lingerie football team to the Big Ten championship game.”
