Throughout the entire in-depth piece, revelations about Saban\u2019s final days as Alabama\u2019s coach were by far the most fascinating.<\/p>\n
\n
\u201cI was really disappointed in the way that the players acted after the game,\u201d Low quotes Saban as having said on the Rose Bowl loss.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou gotta win with class. You gotta lose with class. We had our opportunities to win the game and we didn\u2019t do it, and then showing your ass and being frustrated and throwing helmets and doing that stuff\u2026that\u2019s not who we are and what we\u2019ve promoted in our program.\u201d<\/p>\n
Many have speculated\u00a0since Saban\u2019s retirement that the changing landscape of college football was one of the reasons he decided to walk away.<\/p>\n
And while Saban denied those claims initially, new quotes from the article confirm the fact that it was at least some factor, particularly in the wake of the Rose Bowl loss and meetings with players that ensued after.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought we could have a hell of a team next year, and then maybe 70 or 80 percent of the players you talk to, all they want to know is two things: What assurances do I have that I\u2019m going to play because they\u2019re thinking about transferring, and how much are you going to pay me?\u201d Saban said.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo I\u2019m saying to myself, \u2018Maybe this doesn\u2019t work anymore, that the goals and aspirations are just different and that it\u2019s all about how much money can I make as a college player?\u2019 I\u2019m not saying that\u2019s bad. I\u2019m not saying it\u2019s wrong, I\u2019m just saying that\u2019s never been what we were all about, and it\u2019s not why we had success through the years.\u201d<\/p>\n
As we continue to enter what is an entirely new world in the sport of college football, Saban simply decided that the game today is not what it once was, and who could blame him?<\/p>\n
While Saban\u2019s age and desire to spend time with family were undoubtedly huge factors, and likely the biggest factors, it is unfortunate to see the fact that the greatest to ever do it simply did not want to put up with the way things have become anymore.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
(Photo by Jeff Moreland\/Icon Sportswire) No member of the media has a better \u201cin\u201d with former Alabama head coach Nick Saban than\u00a0ESPN\u2019s Chris Low. Low […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":4874,"featured_media":1049959,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,91,147,33],"tags":[170,225,24,86],"class_list":{"0":"post-1049958","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-crimson-tide-bama-tide","8":"category-alabama","9":"category-featured-news","10":"category-sec","11":"tag-alabama","12":"tag-alabama-crimson-tide","13":"tag-alabama-football","14":"tag-nick-saban"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/wnsp.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/168231111010_bama_at_uk.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wnsp.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1049958","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wnsp.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wnsp.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wnsp.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4874"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wnsp.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1049958"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wnsp.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1049958\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1049960,"href":"https:\/\/wnsp.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1049958\/revisions\/1049960"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wnsp.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1049959"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wnsp.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1049958"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wnsp.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1049958"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wnsp.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1049958"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}