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Nick Saban regrets one thing in his coaching career: This is his heartfelt message on ‘The Pivot’ podcast

The Newly selected Hall of Fame Coach revealed his thoughts about the media, his humble beginnings and his biggest regret.

The Newly selected Hall of Fame Coach revealed his thoughts about the media, his humble beginnings and his biggest regret.
Kirby LeeUSA TODAY Sports via Reuters Con

No coach has racked up more College Football’s National Championship title wins than Nick Saban - seven in total: six in Alabama with the Crimson Tide one with LSU Tigers, his first.

The 73-year-old was recently selected to be a member of the 2025 class of the College Football Hall of Fame. Saban will be officially inducted at the 67th NFF Annual Awards Dinnerat Bellagio Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas on December 9, 2025.

Saban had no desire to be a football coach

In the meantime, he sat down to chat on the Pivot Podcast about his remarkable career - and his life before it, “working on cars” at his father’s service station and the moment he realized that coaching was his true vocation - a way of shaping young men’s futures. “I didn’t even want to be a coach, I was talked into it”.

And of course, his anecdotes with his characteristic humor and wisdom. Like when he was asked about his wariness with the media. “He used to tell us in meetings, ‘The media is not your friend’” recalled Ryan Clark.

“It’s not!” Saban retorted to much laughter before explaining. “You are and you aren’t. You are in the sense that it creates interest, for fans and everybody, but there’s also a side of it where they’re going to judge you for almost everything that you do - and that’s the thing that I never wanted to affect the players. If you’re getting criticized because you missed a tackle or the quarterback played bad... I never wanted the players to get criticized, to affect who they were, their performance and that type of thing”.

“I didn’t criticize anyone all year,” he continued. “Because when you mess up, nobody feels worse than the player. So why have you got to beat him up on TV?”

As for his own career and how he started out, Saban revealed that he soon discovered that coaching was not only something he was very good at, but something he enjoyed. He was hired as a graduate assistant at Kent State before taking on several assistant roles.

“My college coach [Don James] talked me into it and I loved it. It was like playing, you’re involved in the competition, the relationship with the players, being part of a team... all of the great things that we all experienced playing. Even though it was hard, there were a lot of great things so I just kept doing it. Fifty years of it. I loved it”.

Saban: “The biggest mistake of my professional career”

There was just one regret though - leaving LSU to take the Miami Dolphins coaching job in December 2004. He was in charge during a difficult first season in the NFL which the team ended 9–7 and narrowly missed the playoffs.

But deep down, his heart wasn’t in coaching NFL teams but developing promising players at college level. When asked whether he would have done anything differently in his career, he answered: “You’re not going to like it when I say this. But, I think sometimes you have to learn about yourself. And you might think things... when I left LSU, that was probably professionally the biggest mistake that I ever made. Not because we didn’t have success in Miami - because I enjoyed coaching in Miami.

“But I found out in that experience that I like coaching in college better because you could develop players - personally, academically, athletically and all that. A little more than in pro ball. Even though I loved the status of coaching in pro ball and the kind of players you coach and you’re coaching in the best league against the best players - I loved all that. So then, I can’t go back to LSU, go to Alabama and no disrespect to Alabama, it’s not Alabama versus LSU. It’s just, Jimmy Sexton stood on the balcony when I was getting ready to leave LSU, make to decision to whether I went to Miami or stayed at LSU. And he said, ‘What do you want your legacy to be as a coach? Do you want to be Vince Lombardi or Bear Bryant?’ And without hesitation I said Bear Bryant… And he said, ‘What are you doing going to Miami then?’ That’s the truth. I went anyway".

Saban coached the Dolphins from 2005 to 2006 before returning to college football by accepting the Alabama job in 2007. He would guide the Tide to six titles in 16 years. Just one small regret that still lingers but would it have turned out differently if he had stayed?

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