Nick Saban is considered by many to be the greatest coach in college football history.
41 Facts About Nick Saban
2.
Nick Saban led the LSU Tigers to the BCS National Championship in 2003 and the Alabama Crimson Tide to BCS and AP national championships in 2009,2011,2012, and College Football Playoff championships in 2015,2017 and 2020.
3.
Nick Saban has won seven national titles as a head coach, the most in college football history.
4.
Nick Saban became the first coach in college football history to win a national championship with two different Football Bowl Subdivision schools since the inception of the AP Poll in 1936.
5.
Nick Saban and Bear Bryant are the only coaches to win an SEC championship at two different schools.
6.
In 2013, Nick Saban was inducted into the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame.
7.
Nick Saban has coached four Heisman Trophy winners at Alabama: Mark Ingram II, Derrick Henry, DeVonta Smith, and Bryce Young.
8.
Nick Saban grew up with a sister, Dianna, and graduated from Monongah High School in the small community of Monongah, West Virginia, about 25miles southwest of Morgantown.
9.
Nick Saban's paternal grandfather, Stanko Saban, was born in 1895 in Gospic, in the Lika region of Croatia.
10.
Nick Saban played quarterback on the 1968 West Virginia state championship team.
11.
On December 18,1971, Nick Saban married Terry Constable, from West Virginia.
12.
Nick Saban played defensive back for Kent State under coach Don James.
13.
In 1975, Nick Saban earned his master's degree in sports administration from Kent State.
14.
Nick Saban's father died during his son's first year of graduate school.
15.
Nick Saban had not intended to enter the coaching ranks until Don James hired him as a graduate assistant at Kent State, while Nick Saban waited for his wife to graduate.
16.
Nick Saban later served as an assistant coach in NCAA Division I-A, at several schools: Syracuse in 1977, West Virginia in 1978 and 1979, Ohio State in 1980 and 1981, Navy in 1982, and Michigan State from 1983 to 1987.
17.
Nick Saban was then hired as an assistant for the Houston Oilers in the National Football League.
18.
Nick Saban began his career as a head coach when he was hired by the University of Toledo on December 22,1989.
19.
Nick Saban helped lead the 1994 defensive unit for the Browns that was the best in the NFL in points allowed.
20.
Nick Saban later said these four years were the "worst of my life".
21.
Nick Saban became head coach of Michigan State prior to the 1995 season.
22.
Future NFL head coach Josh McDaniels served as a graduate assistant on Nick Saban's 1999 coaching staff.
23.
Nick Saban accepted the head coaching position for the Miami Dolphins on December 25,2004.
24.
Nick Saban was the sixth coach in the franchise's history.
25.
Nick Saban later said that the team's decision to pass on Brees was the moment he knew that he would leave the team.
26.
Nick Saban was rumored to be at the top of Alabama's wish list, but Nick Saban refused to discuss the job while his NFL season was still underway.
27.
On January 3,2007, following a meeting with Dolphins owner Wayne Huizenga, Nick Saban announced that he had accepted an offer to become Alabama's 27thhead coach.
28.
On January 4,2007, at a press conference on the Alabama campus, Nick Saban was officially introduced as the head football coach of The University of Alabama.
29.
Nick Saban finished the regular season undefeated for the first time in his career as a head coach as he led the Crimson Tide to its first undefeated regular season since 1994.
30.
Nick Saban is the only coach in college football to win three BCS Championships and the first coach since Nebraska's Tom Osborne to win three National Championships.
31.
Extra time wasn't necessary as Nick Saban decided to attempt a 56-yard field goal instead of either running out the clock or attempting a Hail Mary from Auburn's 39-yard line.
32.
Nick Saban tied Coach Bear Bryant with six National Championships for most all time in the poll era.
33.
On October 14,2020, Nick Saban tested positive for COVID-19, along with the university athletic director, Greg Byrne.
34.
On June 7,2021, Nick Saban agreed to a contract extension with Alabama.
35.
Nick Saban is a devout Catholic who attends Mass before games.
36.
Nick Saban made a cameo appearance as himself in the 2009 film The Blind Side, and requested to simply repeat a conversation he had with Michael Oher rather than follow the script, which director John Lee Hancock allowed him to do.
37.
Nick Saban owns a vacation home on Lake Burton in northeast Georgia.
38.
Outside of football, Nick Saban keeps in touch with his players, taking a mentor role to his former players.
39.
In 2022, Nick Saban co-signed a letter directed at Senator Joe Manchin, voicing support for the passage of the Freedom to Vote Act, while including a footnote that he does not support the removal of the filibuster in the Senate.
40.
Nick Saban's coaching career encompasses the Bill Belichick coaching tree, having worked as his defensive coordinator during Belichick's tenure as head coach of the Cleveland Browns.
41.
Nick Saban worked with Belichick's father, Steve, while on the staff together at Navy in 1982.