Nick Saban's Retirement

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Overview

Nick Saban's Retirement refers to the retirement of University of Alabama football coach Nick Saban in early January 2024 after 17 years leading the football program. Saban was widely renowned as one of the best college football coaches of all time. The announcement of Saban's retirement came as a surprise to many, leading to considerable memes about his exit and his distinguished career at the head of one of the most successful college football programs in American history.

Background

Nick Saban started coaching football at the University of Alabama in 2006. During his nearly two-decade tenure, the program never had a losing season, with a win-loss record of 292-71-1 and six national titles.^[1]

On January 10th, 2024, 72-year-old Nick Saban announced his retirement to Alabama's players and staff in Tuscaloosa privately before later making a public announcement.^[2] Later that day, Saban's announcement was released in which he said:

The University of Alabama has been a very special place to Terry and me. We have enjoyed every minute of our 17 years being the head coach at Alabama as well as becoming a part of the Tuscaloosa community. It is not just about how many games we won and lost, but it's about the legacy and how we went about it. We always tried to do it the right way. The goal was always to help players create more value for their future, be the best player they could be and be more successful in life because they were part of the program. Hopefully, we have done that, and we will always consider Alabama our home.

Also on January 10th, the official X / Twitter^[9] account of Alabama Football posted a thank you image and tweet about the retirement, receiving over 3.3 million views, 42,000 likes and 11,000 reposts in 18 hours (seen below).

The news was quickly picked up by the media that same day, with ESPN heavily covering the story.^[10] On its YouTube channel, ESPN's coverage reporting on Saban's announcement received over 174,000 views, 1,900 likes and 1,100 comments in 19 hours (shown below).

Online Reactions

The online response by fans of Alabama football was immediate and immense as users across social media began posting tributes, memes and other reactions to Nick Saban's retirement. On TikTok, numerous fans posted their responses to the news, including the TikTok account @alabamaftbl, which posted a series of interviews with people at the University of Alabama on January 10th, 2024 (seen below, left), receiving over 500,000 views and 35,000 likes in 16 hours.^[3]

That same day, TikToker @plugged.in.sports posted about his father's reaction to the news (seen below, right) earning over 1.9 million views and 211,000 likes in less than a day.^[4]

Others posted jokes and memes expressing their emotional reactions to the news. For example, on January 10th, X user @SickosCommittee posted a Selena Gomez and Taylor Swift Gossiping at the Golden Globes meme that earned over 4,200 likes in less than a day (seen below, left).^[7] The Unnecessary Roughness X account then posted a Vince McMahon Crying meme focusing on Saban's retirement that same day, earning over 4,000 likes in a similar timeframe (seen below, right).^[8]

Speculation About Senate Race

Online, many made memes joking about a possible Nick Saban run for Senate in Alabama. The current senator for Alabama, Tommy Tuberville, is a Republican and former coach of Auburn University's football team. The Auburn and Alabama teams have an intense rivalry, and many online joked that Saban beating Tuberville in an election would be a continuation of this football rivalry.

For example, on January 10th, 2024, the X account @CNLiberalism posted a photoshopped version (seen below) of possible election results for a Tuberville/Saban race, earning over 29,000 likes in less than a day.^[5]

Saban, who is thought to be a Democrat and is close friends with Senator Joe Manchin, is also one of the most popular figures in Alabama. Following his retirement announcement and discourse about his potential political future, the Democratic Party of Alabama posted on X that it would be open to a Saban candidacy.^[6]