To say that college football is changing is an understatement. Now, arguably the greatest head coach of all time, Alabama football's Nick Saban, is retiring, per Chris Low of ESPN.
This will undoubtedly send shockwaves throughout the sport of college football that maybe not even the likes of NIL or the transfer portal has done. Then again, those things could partly be why the 72-year-old head coach is going off into the sunset.
As head coach, Saban is a seven-time national champion, winning one at LSU and the other six at Alabama, where he arguably changed the entire dynamic of the sport in his 17 seasons there. In that time, most have tried to replicate him and his vision, but have fallen well short, and in most cases, lost to him along the way.
He single-handedly ran off more coaches in the SEC in his nearly 20-year stay than most athletic directors would have liked. That was because he set a benchmark of success that, quite honestly, was terribly unfair to any head coach that faced or now will succeed him.
But now, after 28 seasons as a head coach, where he went 292-71-1, his time is apparently done, and the Alabama football program will venture off into a new era, one without the greatest coach in college football history. But who can rightfully succeed Nick Saban?
Dan Lanning, Oregon
Dan Lanning is going to be a hot name for a while with any big head coaching vacancy, especially in the SEC, where he was the former defensive coordinator at Georgia before joining the Ducks. In two seasons in Eugene, he's 22-5 and was the runner-up in the Pac-12 Championship this season.
Kalen DeBoer, Washington
DeBoer has proven to be a winner wherever he goes. He won the Pac-12 title in its last season this year, won the Sugar Bowl over Texas, and competed for the national championship. He did that all in two seasons, where he is 25-3. Before that, he was 12-6 in two seasons at Fresno State. He's also a winner of three NAIA national championships.
Lance Leipold, Kansas
No one has done a better job possibly in the country than what Lance Leipold has done at Kansas. In three years, he's 17-21 with a bowl game victory in this year's Guaranteed Rate Bowl over UNLV. They may come off as not-so-great to the average person, but the Jayhawks had only won 21 games since 2010 before he arrived in 2021. He's also a winner of six Division III national championships at Wisconsin-Whitewater where he finished with an overall record of 109-6.
Dabo Swinney, Clemson
The long-standing rumor once Swinney started competing for Saban for national titles was that the Alabama alum would eventually be the successor to Saban once he retired. Those rumors have since cooled given that Swinney seems loyal to Clemson, not to mention also being loyal to the ways of old in college football that were void of things like NIL and the transfer portal.
Mike Norvell, Florida State
If Florida State can't get out of the ACC soon enough, then everybody associated with it might be, and that includes Mike Norvell, who was obviously displeased with his team being left out of the College Football playoff. Norvell has proven to make great use of the transfer portal when he basically built this year's Seminoles team from it. In four years in Tallahassee, he's 31-17. Good news is, he can doesn't have to go undefeated at Alabama to make the playoff.
Lane Kiffin, Ole Miss
Saban basically rebuilt Kiffin's career when he brought him on to be the offensive coordinator years back. Kiffin has since gone on to make a promising career as a head coach again, specifically at Ole Miss, where he got the Rebels to their first 11-win season this year with a win over Penn State in the Peach Bowl. In four seasons, he's 34-15, going 2-2 in bowl games.
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