re: How long until Nick Saban retires?

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I wonder if he will continue to coach when he clearly doesn’t have it, like a Paterno or Bowden. I will love those seasons when they finally arrive. If they arrive.

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Saban is such an obsessive, detail-oriented guy committed to perfection that I can't even remotely envision him becoming the slightest version of what Bowden and Paterno were in the last decade of their tenures. Both were basically faces to the media who pulled half day schedules most of the year and bankers hours during the season. I don't even think he'll evolve to be a Bear Bryant in the tower sort of coach.

However, I'm not sure Saban is a "coach til I die" type of guy either. He lost his dad at a fairly young age and has been open about the effect it had on him.

I think when he reaches the point he can't give 100% of himself to every detail, he'll retire and go be a full time grandpa at the lake or something. He also seems like he wouldn't want to give the impression that he's lording over his successor, either, so I don't envision him taking some coach emeritus position in the athletic department or something to that effect.