The college football universe tilted on its axis Wednesday afternoon with the shocking news that longtime Alabama head football coach Nick Saban was retiring.
The 72-year-old is arguably the greatest college football head coach of all time, winning seven national titles throughout his career (including the one at LSU and six during his 17-year reign in Tuscaloosa), amassing a 292-71-1 in 28 seasons and capturing 12 conference titles.
So the biggest question now becomes: Where does the nation’s top powerhouse of the past two decades turn from here?
This is without question the most high-profile job in college football in years, and the candidate list should be as strong as any. Alabama football is big business, so what does that mean for who’s next up with the Tide? Here are some candidates.
Part of Nick Saban’s career at Alabama has been defined by shrugging off past issues, giving very good coaches another chance and leading the Great Coaching Reclamation Project in Tuscaloosa.
A couple of big names on this list are products of that, and one of them is Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin.
Despite some missteps throughout his young coaching career that included head coaching stops with the Oakland Raiders, Tennessee Volunteers and USC Trojans (after he got his start as an assistant under Pete Carroll at USC), the brash Kiffin is a brilliant offensive mind.
Saban saw that and brought him to Tuscaloosa from 2014 to ’16 as offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach. He was a terrific play-caller for the Tide, earning a finalist for the Broyles Award, which goes to the nation’s top assistant coach, in 2014.
From there, he took a head coaching job at Florida Atlantic and moved on to Ole Miss, where he has turned the Rebels into an SEC West force. They have played in two New Year’s Six bowls in his four years in Oxford, beating Penn State this year.
Kiffin’s innovative offensive mind, his recruiting prowess and his ability to play the transfer portal to perfection are feathers in his cap that make him a strong option to replace Saban.
Is this why he didn’t take the Auburn job last year? Did Kiffin see this on the horizon and start lobbying for this gig? It will be interesting to see if it is an option for him.
Two years after Kiffin left Alabama, Steve Sarkisian was hired as the Tide’s offensive coordinator.
Now, Sark is the head coach at Texas, and with the Longhorns moving to the SEC next year and so many resources available in Austin, this would be a bit of a lateral move.
Still, Saban gave him his second chance in Tuscaloosa, and you have to wonder if Sark would consider going back there. You have to think there would be some sort of a bidding war if Alabama wanted to go that direction. After all, remember all the Saban-to-Texas rumors year after year several seasons ago?
Sark is yet another exceptional offensive mind who spent time alongside Lane Kiffin on those great USC Trojans teams under Pete Carroll.
With the recruiting pipeline Texas has and so many options in the transfer portal, it’s hard to envision Sark going to Alabama. But he is well-regarded in Tuscaloosa, and he did a fantastic job as coordinator when he was there.
Sitting on the recruiting hotbed that is the Lone Star State and getting the clout that comes with being an SEC program could help the ’23 College Football Playoff participant continue down the path to juggernaut status. But the connection with the Tide is there.
Mama called once, as Alabama legend Paul “Bear” Bryant liked to say, and he came home to coach the Alabama Crimson Tide.
Would Dabo Swinney do the same?
At this juncture, it’s fair to ask if Swinney would even be coveted by his alma mater after a five-year drought during which the Tigers have failed to win a national championship.
Swinney has built his own mini kingdom at Clemson where he won national championships in 2016 and 2018 with Deshaun Watson and Trevor Lawrence under center, and the Tigers also have made it to six College Football Playoffs. But with the new innovations of the game, has it passed Swinney by?
Currently, the Tigers are the only Top 25 program without a transfer portal commitment, and Swinney’s stubbornness to adapt to that new way of thinking perhaps has his program a step behind. He still recruits top 15 classes seemingly every year, but would that be enough in the rugged SEC?
Swinney was a walk-on at Alabama, and early in his career he mentioned time and time again just how crimson ran through his blood. But he has built his own powerhouse program at Clemson, and, quite frankly, it’s not currently on the level where anybody there wants it to be.
That fact has perhaps pushed Swinney further down the list, but it’s not like he has forgotten how to coach.
Another “favorite son” of the Yellowhammer State who would be a potential grand-slam hire in Tuscaloosa is former Crimson Tide linebacker DeMeco Ryans, who has been a revelation in his one season as the head coach of the Houston Texans.
With C.J. Stroud playing quarterback, the franchise was the surprise of the NFL, making it to the playoffs, where they will take on the Cleveland Browns on Saturday.
Would it be a major gamble to hire the former Alabama linebacker and former SEC Defensive Player of the Year who played from 2002 to ’05 in Tuscaloosa? Sure, it would be. He has just one season of head coaching experience and has zero recruiting experience.
It seems Ryans has cast his lot in the pros, and there’s nothing wrong with that. He has become one of the top up-and-comers in the league after a great playing career and a quality tenure as an assistant coach.
The 39-year-old is a native of Bessemer, Alabama, outside of Birmingham, and he is a Crimson Tide legend. He would need to surround himself with some dynamic recruiters who have done it before, but there’s no reason Ryans wouldn’t be a success.
His is the type of contagious personality that recruits would gravitate toward, and there is already a great structure in place for Ryans to succeed. This may be an outside-the-box pick, and Alabama may look for somebody with more of a recruiting pedigree, but there is a lot to love about Ryans.
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