Nick Saban Reveals What He Misses Most About Coaching

The former Alabama coach says there's one key element of coaching that he misses the most.

Jul 11, 2024; Los Angeles, CA, USA; Former Alabama head football coach Nick Saban and his wife Terry Saban arrive on the red carpet before the 2024 ESPYS at Dolby Theatre. Mandatory Credit: Kiyoshi Mio-USA TODAY Sports / Kiyoshi Mio-USA TODAY Sports

Former Alabama head football coach-turned-ESPN college football analyst Nick Saban covered SEC media days for the network this week, his first media event in four decades where he was not coaching in some capacity.

Saban spoke with a small pool of reporters on Wednesday morning and was asked if there's anything that he misses about coaching as his first fall camp off the field in decades quickly approaches.

"I miss relationships with players. That part I miss," Saban said. "I think this thing that I'm doing now, like I did the [NFL draft], I'm doing SEC media day, gonna do [College] GameDay in the fall, it keeps me involved in the game. So I watch film, make my own evaluations of players...so the technical aspects of the game, I still do to some degree. The biggest thing I miss is the relationships with the people, the players, the coaches, the staff and all the people that you work with. Being part of a team, that I miss. I also got to the point where it was difficult for me to sustain things the way I needed to sustain them to be satisfied with myself that I was doing a good job. So the last year was hard, so I said, 'Maybe it's time for somebody else.' And I don't regret that."

Does Nick Saban miss coaching? His answer pic.twitter.com/oGQWeWlA3l

— Nick Kelly (@_NickKelly) July 17, 2024

Luckily for all involved, Saban, who is widely considered to be the greatest college football coach of all-time, will be squarely in the mix as a media member moving forward and will certainly still have plenty of influence within the sport every fall.

However, it will still be very strange to see Kalen DeBoer, not Nick Saban, leading the Crimson Tide out of the tunnel on Aug. 31 at Bryant-Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa.