The college football season came to a close earlier this week when the Michigan football team defeated Washington to win the national title. One week before that game, Michigan and Alabama football battled things out in the Rose Bowl College Football Semifinal for a spot in the national title game. It was another fantastic edition of the bowl game with the richest history, and the Wolverines squeaked out an overtime victory against the Crimson Tide. What we didn't know at the time, however, was that it would be the last game that Alabama head coach Nick Saban would coach. News broke on Wednesday that the college football legend was retiring, and now, the Crimson Tide are in need of a new head coach.

First of all, even though Alabama didn't win the national title this season, this might've been the most impressive coaching job that Nick Saban has ever had. If you're a fan of the Crimson Tide, you might disagree because of all the national championship seasons that Saban had in his time with the program, but what he was able to do with this group and the turnaround that the team had was extremely impressive.

When Alabama lost to Texas football by double digits at home early in the season and then had to bench quarterback Jalen Milroe the following week at USF, everyone wrote the Crimson Tide off. They simply didn't look like a Nick Saban coached team, and they seemed destined to lose another game. They surely didn't look like a team that could knock off the two-time defending national champion Georgia Bulldogs. However, they just kept winning. The Crimson Tide took care of business week in and week out, and they eventually found themselves hoisting the SEC title trophy after knocking off the two-time defending national champion Georgia Bulldogs. That earned Alabama a spot in the College Football Playoff.

Obviously, the playoff didn't go as planned for Saban and Alabama as they fell in the Rose Bowl to Michigan, and the standard and expectation in Tuscaloosa is to win a national championship. However, if you're a Crimson Tide fan, take a step back for a minute. No matter what happens in your CFP semifinal game, it is very hard to be one of the only four teams to make the College Football Playoff. There's a reason why final fours are celebrated the way they are in college basketball. In college football, you can't lose more than one game, and sometimes even if you do lose one, your season is over. Think of all the fans that would be thrilled to have their team make the CFP just once even if it means they get blown out in the semifinal. You can't win em' all, and Alabama didn't win this year, but getting to the playoff is always something to be proud of, and Nick Saban had one of his most impressive appearances in his final season of coaching the game.

Now we are into the offseason in college football, and there were a lot of potential coaching changes that everyone had their eye on, but this was not one of them. Saban is arguably the best coach to ever do it in college football, and now Alabama has to find someone else. Good luck to whoever gets this job. You have some massive shoes to fill.

The initial names for potential replacements include a lot of Saban's assistants that now have other big head coaching jobs, and there are some other coaches from big schools mixed in as well. It doesn't sound like Alabama is going to go with an internal hire, and that seems like a good call. There isn't anyone on the staff right now that is ready to step into this massive role. Some potential replacements that have been floating around are Steve Sarkisian, James Franklin, Marcus Freeman, Kalen DeBoer, Dan Lanning, Lane Kiffin, and more. Those coaches have all been successful at their current schools, but one of them seems to make a lot of sense.

Marcus Freeman

Marcus Freeman is currently the head coach of the Notre Dame football team, and his name has been mentioned as a potential replacement for Nick Saban. This would be a good hire for Alabama football. Freeman has been a good recruiter at Notre Dame, the Fighting Irish have been a solid team since he got there, and Freeman might be wanting to make a move like this this anyways. In this era of college football with conference realignment and the Big Ten and the SEC emerging as the two top conferences, it would make sense if Freeman wanted to go to one of those conferences. Notre Dame doesn't have a conference, and they could get left behind.

First off, Marcus Freeman is only 38 years old, and that is likely something that Alabama is considering ahead of this coaching search. Saban was with the Crimson Tide for a very long time, and what they want to do with this hire is get someone that can best replicate what Saban did in Tuscaloosa. Obviously, that's going to be very hard to do. Saban had the best coaching run the sport has ever seen. He didn't go three years without a national title until his final three seasons. It's going to be tough to replicate, but a young guy that can win is what Alabama needs for this job.

Freeman and Notre Dame haven't been anything special in the last two seasons, but ever since the dreadful start to the 2022 season, they have been a consistently solid team that can compete with the best teams in college football. He has recruited there as well. The point is, it would be easier for him to win at Alabama than at Notre Dame. The Crimson Tide have built something special and they have the resources to recruit like no other and win like no other. Now, it's just a matter of finding the right guy that can keep that going. It could be Freeman.

Nick Saban retiring from Alabama football was not expected by the college football world, but it instantly has become the biggest story in the sport's offseason. It's going to be very interesting to see who gets this job, and like I said before, good luck to whoever it is.