Three prominent football coaches are 65. One (Bill Belichick) has a boss who want the coach to stay into his 80s. Another (Pete Carrol) said in response to that, “Why stop there?”
The third recently addressed when he may decide to pack it in.
“As long as I feel good, I love doing it,” Alabama coach Nick Saban said Thursday when speaking to reporters at his annual golf tournament, via TideSports.com. “I’ve said this before. I’ve been a part of a team since I was nine years old, and it scares me to death to figure what it’s going to be like when I’m not a part of a team.”
That answer arguably implies there’s a chance Saban at some point won’t be part of the Alabama team, but that interpretation may be fueled by my own desire to see him return to the NFL and attempt to rectify a pair of failed seasons in Miami. Regardless, if Saban plans to coach for another 10 or 15 years, maybe he won’t finish his career where he currently is.
Wherever he ends up, he plans to keep going.
“As long as I feel healthy and I can do it, we certainly have every intention of trying to do it,” Saban said. “If I felt like I couldn’t do it to the standard that I want to do it then I think that would be time not to do it. But I certainly don’t feel like that’s any time soon.”
Saban also was asked whether he thinks about the reality that, at some point, he won’t be coaching.
“I don’t think that anybody can not have those thoughts,” Saban said “But my thought it that I want to do it as long as I feel like I can do it. I really enjoy being around the players. I really enjoy trying to create value for them and their future whether it’s their personal development, seeing them graduate, seeing them develop as football players and have opportunities in life. I think we do it as well at Alabama because of the team that we have as any place, and I’m really proud of that.”
He should be. Saban has become one of the most successful college football coaches ever. Only he knows whether the lack of success at the NFL level will draw him back there.
