Nick Saban announced his retirement after 17 years as the Crimson Tide’s head coach. The front-runner to fill his vacancy is current Oregon Duck’s head coach, Dan Lanning.
Lanning has repeatedly expressed his commitment to Oregon’s football program and has said that his current job will be his last.
Other coaches in the conversation to fill the massive void left behind by Saban include Texas Longhorn’s head coach Steve Sarkisian, Washington Huskies’ head coach Kalen DeBoer, Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin, and Clemson Tiger’s head coach Dabo Swinney.
As the undisputable greatest college football coach of all time, Saban won 7 CFP era National Championships with Alabama in his 8 CFP appearances with the program. As a head coach, he had zero losing seasons in 28 years, including 18 10-win seasons.
Nick Saban is retiring with a trophy case full of hardware 🏆😮💨 pic.twitter.com/1XOzEeAIyB
— ESPN (@espn) January 10, 2024
Lanning had already been in conversations to take the Texas A&M head coaching position earlier this year but was quick to shut down those rumors.
Dan Lanning completely shuts down any rumor of him leaving Oregon.
— Matt Prehm (@MattPrehm) November 14, 2023
"I'm not concerned about getting a better contract. I'm taken care of extremely well here. ...I am not motivated by that. I am motivated by winning. I am motivated by being elite here." pic.twitter.com/HX3qjq8OiA
Saban’s retirement announcement opens up a 30-day window for Alabama players to transfer out of the program. No matter who moves into his vacancy, college football will see movement around the FBS.
Oregon fans, Alabama fans, and fans of college football in general will have to wait and see just who takes on the task of filling Nick Saban’s shoes.