ETF Summary

Three elite Russian fencers who fled the country after Russia invaded Ukraine are seeking to become U.S. citizens in time to represent America at the 2024 Olympics in Paris.

They now have the backing of the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee (USOPC) and USA Fencing.

Both organizations have written letters in support of the Russians – Konstantin Lokhanov, Sergey Bida and Violetta Bida – according to copies of the letters obtained by USA TODAY Sports.

‘All 3 of these individuals have made sacrifices at great personal cost,” wrote Phil Andrews, CEO of USA Fencing, in a letter to Congress dated Jan. 5, ‘and put their lives at risk to be able to represent our nation and we ask you to make every effort to support them in the extraordinary circumstance.”

But in an email to USA TODAY Sports, Andrews wrote, ‘Olympic selection is hotly contested, and of course simply the acquisition of citizenship is urgent to be selected through the ranking system used to decide the majority of Team USA.”

Jack Wiener, a New York attorney representing the fencers, said he and his co-counsel at the law firm Covington & Burling have begun reaching out to senators and representatives. ‘We have to move fast,” Wiener said.

For the fencers to become American citizens in time for the Olympics, set to start July 26, the Senate and House of Representatives would have to pass a bill granting the fencers U.S. citizenship, according to Wiener. He said President Biden would have to sign the bill.

Wiener said the Russian fencers have signed documents, required by USA Fencing for them to compete in events sanctioned by USA Fencing, renouncing the invasion of Ukraine.

Last month the International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced it would allow Russian athletes to compete at the Paris Olympics as neutral athletes as long as they meet a list of conditions, including that they refrain from signaling any support of the war in Ukraine.

Russia was technically barred from competing at the Tokyo Olympics due to a widespread doping scandal, but its athletes were allowed to represent the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC).

Russian fencers face obstacles

The fencers would be “behind the eight-ball’’ even if they gained immediate citizenship, said Bryan Wendell, Director of Communication for USA Fencing. He said qualification for the U.S. fencing team began in July, meaning the Russians would have less than half of the allotted time.

But Andrews pointed out another route for qualification – a discretionary selection spot for the team competition. By email, he added, “we would emphasize that spot needs to be earned and is available to those with high performance in competitive records only, making the case coming before Congress urgent for these individuals who have given up so much to support this great nation, to be available to be considered.”

Sergey Bida, who was ranked No. 1 in the world for men’s epee in 2019 and 2020, won a silver medal at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics in the men’s team epee competition. He also won a silver medal at the 2019 World Championships in the individual epee competition.

Lakhonav, a two-time junior world champion, competed at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. He finished seventh in the men’s team saber competition and 24th in individual saber.

The Russians also face other potential challenges, said Jon Mason, Vice President of Strategic Communications for the USOPC.

For the purposes of Olympic competition, he said, athletes are allowed to change nationalities only once. Typically, the first country, in this case Russia, must release the athlete to make that change, Mason said.

The executive board of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) rules on these matters, said Mason, who noted a New Zealand cross country skier recently switched nationalities to compete for the United States.

Citing an exception in the Olympic Charter, Wiener said Russian approval for the fencers to compete for the United States would not be required because the fencers have not represented Russia in competition for three years.

The feeling of freedom

Married for less than two years, Sergey Bida, 30, and Violetta Bida, 29, arrived last weekend at a café in northern California. Both of them wore USA Fencing apparel.

“We’re ready,’’ Violetta Bida said with a smile about the possibility of representing the United States. She later added, “When I stepped on American soil, I feeling freedom.’’

But the Bidas requested their exact location not be disclosed. Pravda, a state-run newspaper in Russia, reported Dec. 27 that the Ministry of Internal Affairs had put the two fencers on a wanted list.

It is unclear what criminal code the government has accused the Bidas of violating, Pravda reported. The couple said they will not discuss the invasion of Ukraine or the Russian government on the advice of Wiener, the lead attorney.

Despite the situation, both fencers smiled easily during an interview with USA TODAY Sports. Violetta Bida also smiled while looking down at her midsection.

She said she is six months pregnant.

As a result, Violetta Bida said, she will not compete in the Paris Olympics.

While preparing to welcome their child, the Bidas said, they have settled into a one-bedroom apartment and are teaching at a fencing club. Sergey Bida expressed surprise about getting letters of support from the USOPC and USA Fencing for citizenship.

“This kind of letter, it’s impossible in Russia,’’ he said.

Expressing views by tattoo

Wearing a hoodie and baggy jeans, Lokhanov, 25, sipped coffee at a café in San Jose last weekend. He was there for the January North American Cup fencing event – not to compete but to coach his students.

It’s part of his journey that began the day before Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022.

Lokhanov said he flew to Germany to have surgery for a hip injury the day before he got news of the invasion he said he strongly opposes.

“They started the war, killing the peoples and thinking it’s normal,’’ Lokhanov told USA TODAY Sports of his decision to flee.

At the time, Lokhanov was married to the daughter of the president of Russia’s Olympic Committee. Lokhanov said he flew to the United States after undergoing surgery and hoped his wife would join him.

She refused, and they subsequently divorced, according to Lokhanov, who has settled in San Diego and teaches at a fencing club owned by a Russian-born coach.

Shortly after arriving in the United States, Lokhanov had “Liberty’’ tattooed on his right forearm.  In July, he found another way to express his views.

At the United States Summer Nationals – Lokhanov’s first competition since signing a document renouncing the invasion – he won the gold medal in the individual saber competition. A Ukrainian fencer won the bronze, and they later posed together while holding a Ukrainian flag.

Lawyer, a former fencer, spearheads efforts

The Russian fencers have expressed gratitude for support not only from the USOPC and USA Fencing but also from Jack Wiener, a former junior Olympic fencer and the lead attorney representing the Russians, pro bono.

He called it “the right thing to do.’’

After working with the fencers on his own for several months, Wiener said, he partnered with a team of lawyers at Covington & Burling.

‘We are happy to join Jack in representing the Russian Olympians as they seek US citizenship so they can compete in the Olympic Games for Team USA this summer,” the law firm said in a statement provided to USA TODAY Sports.

Wiener said he reached out to the USOPC and USA Fencing after beginning discussions about approaching senators and representatives. “I think the natural question for them is what does the U.S. Olympic Committee think,’’ Wiener said.

Both organizations quickly responded with letters of support that Wiener said the attorneys will show when meeting with politicians.

“Our intention in endorsing their cause is to enable them to proudly represent our remarkable nation in the upcoming 2024 Olympic Games and other forthcoming international competitions,’’ wrote Sarah Hirshland, CEO of the USOPC, in a letter dated Jan. 4.

Recently, Wiener said, he met the Bidas for the first time when they visited the city and stayed at his home. He met Lokhanov for the first time earlier this year when the fencer visited New York.

Lokhanov has said he hopes Wiener will be in Paris if the fencers end up competing and representing the United States. Of the efforts to make that a reality, he said, ‘If there’s no Jack, there’s nothing.’’

Pat McAfee is as relieved as the rest of us that the Aaron Rodgers circus is headed for the offseason.

McAfee acknowledged the headaches the four-time NFL MVP’s appearances on his show each Tuesday have created for him, with none bigger than those of the last week, and said he’s glad to get a break from his Wednesday clean-up duties.

‘We’ve given a lot of people who’ve been waiting for us to fail a lot of ammo in things to attack us for over the last week. And we would love to get back to the point where we just move on,’ McAfee said Wednesday during the intro to ‘The Pat McAfee Show.’

‘Aaron Rodgers is a Hall of Famer. He’s a four-time MVP. He’s a massive piece of the NFL story (and) whenever you go back and tell it, he will be a huge part of it. We’re very lucky to get a chance to chat with him and learn from him,’ McAfee said. ‘But some of his thoughts and opinions do piss off a lot of people. And I’m pumped that that is no longer gonna be every single Wednesday on my life, which it has been for the last few weeks.

‘On Friday, obviously, I throw us into the fire as well. Forever stand by that,’ McAfee said, referring to his accusation that an ESPN executive was trying to sabotage his show. ‘Everything else, though, just can’t do that, and it’s not what we want to be known for. And I’m also pumped that I don’t have to do these types of talks anymore. So with that being said, sports are alive right now.’

It was a refreshingly introspective take from McAfee on the firestorm Rodgers created last week with his baseless suggestion Jimmy Kimmel would be linked to Jeffrey Epstein, who trafficked underage girls to the rich and famous. Rodgers has courted controversy before, but this attempt at a sick burn of Kimmel was irresponsible at best, defamatory at worst, and it brought McAfee and his show an onslaught of deservedly negative headlines for a solid week.

Rodgers’ lame attempt at an explanation Tuesday did nothing to quiet the noise, given it wasn’t an apology and he continued to spout conspiracy theories and easily debunked nonsense.

‘The way it ended, it got real loud. Real loud,’ McAfee said. ‘I’m happy that that is not going to be my mentions going forward, which is great news.’

To be clear, this wasn’t McAfee dropping Rodgers from his show. Rodgers has typically only appeared during the regular season and into the playoffs – though he was usually still playing during the postseason. The New York Jets are, obviously, not a playoff team.

But McAfee should consider making the hiatus permanent. For Rodgers’ sake.

As host of the Pat McAfee Show, it’s understandable why McAfee wants Rodgers as a regular guest and pays him handsomely to be one. Just as people gawk at traffic accidents, so, too, do they tune in every Tuesday to see what kind of dumpster fire Rodgers is going to start. His off-base assertions on COVID-19 treatments and Dr. Anthony Fauci and his F-bombs might create some uncomfortable moments for McAfee, but it’s a ratings boon.

And McAfee is no dummy. Say what you want about his show, but he’s been a genius when it comes to building his platform and his brand. McAfee was a punter for the Indianapolis Colts. A Pro Bowler, but a punter for a small-market team, nonetheless. Yet he’s made himself ubiquitous in the sports landscape and done so in a very short amount of time.

Passing on guaranteed ratings gold is not a smart business move, especially when you’ve just moved to ESPN.

But as Rodgers’ supposed friend, McAfee has to know the long-term damage this is doing and his role in it.

Rodgers was once an appealing and relatable superstar, in your living rooms and local watering holes at seemingly every commercial break. It wasn’t hard to imagine him having a career like Peyton Manning’s when he was done playing. Now Rodgers is considered by many to be a kook, someone who let himself get hoodwinked by junk science and conspiracies. He’s fast becoming the NFL’s version of Curt Schilling, and no one should want that for someone they call a friend.

Rodgers is a grown man and can make his own choices. Be held responsible for them, too. But true friends don’t enable destructive behavior, and that’s exactly what McAfee is doing. Has been doing.

This isn’t ‘censorship’ or ‘canceling’ or any of the other ridiculous ways Rodgers has characterized holding people accountable when they say and do stupid things. This is a friend recognizing his friend has lost the plot and it’s costing him his legacy, and deciding he’s no longer going to aid and abet that.

Follow USA TODAY Sports columnist Nancy Armour on social media @nrarmour.

Nick Saban is retiring after a 17-year run at Alabama, one of the most impressive stretches for a coach in the history of college sports — and maybe sports overall. 

Saban leaves Alabama with a 206-29 record, a staggering 87% winning percentage. A seven-time national coach of the year who won four titles in a seven-year stretch, Saban said after the Tide’s loss in the 2024 semifinals that he was immensely proud of the way this group had grown, even if it had fallen short of its goal for a championship. 

Winning titles became the expectation in Tuscaloosa, and it’s easy to see why. During his time at Alabama, he won six national championships: in the 2009, 2011, 2012, 2015, 2017 and 2020 seasons. Additionally, he led LSU to the title in the 2003 season. 

Here’s a rundown of each of his national titles:

2003 season

Maybe Saban’s most impressive title given what he inherited — LSU had totaled seven losing seasons throughout the 1990s — Saban led the Tigers to a 21-14 win over Oklahoma in the BCS title game. The 2003 LSU squad was dominant on both sides of the ball, ultimately helping catapult Saban to the NFL, where he spent two mediocre seasons and compiled a 15-17 record. He returned to college football in 2007, taking over at Alabama. 

2009 season

Behind Hesiman winner Mark Ingram’s 116-yard, two-touchdown performance, Alabama beat previously undefeated Texas 37-21 in the Rose Bowl for Saban’s first championship at Alabama. The Tide had a monster second quarter, outscoring the Longhorns 24-0 to take a 24-6 lead into halftime before cruising to victory. Alabama finished the season 14-0. Also of note: Ingram’s Heisman was the first ever awarded to an Alabama player, and the first for Saban in his coaching career. 

2011 season

Saban’s second title in Tuscaloosa came against his former team, as Alabama dominated LSU 21-0 in the BCS title game, played that year at the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans. Offense wasn’t exactly on display at this championship, as Alabama took a 15-0 lead on five consecutive field goals from Jeremy Shelley. Running back Trent Richardson, a Heisman trophy finalist that season, ran in a 34-yard score with 1:39 to play for good measure, though Shelley missed the point after. 

2012 season

Saban and Alabama went back-to-back in the 2012 season, thumping Notre Dame 42-14 in the BCS title game. The win marked Alabama’s and Saban’s third title in four years, and the school’s ninth championship overall. Though both Eddie Lacy and Amari Cooper scored twice apiece for the Tide — all on throws from Alabama QB A.J. McCarron — the game was remembered more for the hoopla surrounding Heisman finalist and Notre Dame linebacker Manti Te’o, who had been the victim of an intricate catfishing scheme. 

2015 season

In one of the most thrilling title games of the College Football Playoff era, Saban led Alabama to a 45-40 win over Clemson in the second CFP championship, played that year in Phoenix. The Tide reached the final after trouncing Michigan State 38-0 in the semis. Trailing 24-21 at the beginning of the fourth quarter, Alabama reeled off 10 unanswered points before the teams scored a combined four touchdowns in the final 7:31. With the win, Saban became just the second coach to win five national championships in the modern era. The other? Alabama legend Paul “Bear” Bryant. 

2017 season

Down 13-0 to Georgia at halftime, Alabama inserted freshman quarterback Tua Tagovailoa and came back to force overtime, winning 26-23 when Tagovailoa connected with Devonta Smith for a 41-yard touchdown reception in the extra period. The winning play came just after Tagovailoa had been sacked for a 16-yard loss, and is the stuff of legend in Tuscaloosa. The win came over Saban’s protégé Kirby Smart, Alabama’s longtime defensive coordinator.

2020 season

Saban’s last title came against Ohio State, when Alabama once again used a huge second quarter to take a commanding 35-17 lead into halftime. The Tide went on to win 52-24, putting Saban — with six national championships at one school — in rarefied air. Alabama quarterback Mac Jones completed 36-of-45 passes for 464 yards and five touchdowns, while Devonta Smith grabbed 12 passes for 215 yards and three touchdowns. 

Saban spent countless hours with them at practice, in the facility, in transit to games, on the field and in their living rooms when recruiting them. That has translated to all kinds of memories and stories. Each player who has donned the Crimson uniform has some. There won’t be any more of those memories added after the 2023 season, though, after Saban announced his retirement Wednesday.

Sure, winning six national championships alongside Saban created plenty of memorable moments, but the ones that often stick with players the most happened in smaller venues on a one-on-one level.

Here are some memories former Crimson Tide players shared with The Tuscaloosa News from their time playing for Saban.

Bradley Bozeman, offensive lineman (2013-17)

Saban stopped practice. He didn’t understand why JK Scott wasn’t punting.

Said Bradley: ‘He goes, ‘JK what’s going on?’

Scott explained his knee was a little sore and wasn’t going to be able to punt.

‘(Saban) takes a second, looks around,’ Bozeman said, ‘and he goes, ‘JK, my (behind) hurts every day and I still wipe the (expletive).’

The team cracked up, laughing. As for Saban? ‘I think he chuckled a little bit afterward,’ Bozeman said, ‘but in the moment, he was pretty serious.’

Scott, who Bozeman said is quieter, kept his response short and sweet. ‘Yes sir,’ he said to Saban. And just like that, Scott was off to punt.

‘It’s always been one of my favorite stories,’ Bozeman said.

Ross Pierschbacher, offensive lineman (2014-18)

Saban bounced his leg, kept his arms crossed and didn’t touch the food as he sat in the home in Cedar Falls, Iowa.

He had flown to the Midwestern city with offensive line coach Mario Cristobal in January 2014 to make an in-home visit to see Pierschbacher. A couple of the lineman’s high school coaches sat in the room, talking with the two Alabama coaches.

‘They didn’t leave super early, but I know they had to run so they didn’t get caught in good ole Cedar Falls, Iowa,’ Pierschbacher said.

A snow storm had hit.

Saban didn’t want to get caught in the blizzard, but he wanted to visit Pierschbacher nonetheless right before signing day. Saban had no interest in the chicken parmesan, lasagna or breadsticks Pierschbacher had catered. All he wanted to do was continue building a relationship with a commit who could help his offensive line.

“We had a good spread,’ Pierschbacher said. ‘Think I had a couple servings and some for Coach Saban.”

Dre Kirkpatrick, cornerback (2009-11)

Saban pressed the button on his desk, then the door to his office closed.

‘I was like, ‘Whoa,’ Kirkpatrick said. ‘What’s going on with this?”

Kirkpatrick was scared enough, being summoned to Saban’s office. The door closing with the push of a button didn’t help.

‘I head about him having a temper and going off,’ Kirkpatrick said. ‘I had never experienced it. Then that day, he did. The freshman cornerback had just drawn Saban’s ire outside. The coach had been watching from his office balcony as Kirkpatrick faced receiver Julio Jones in a one-on-one matchup during a 7-on-7 period, Kirkpatrick said. The defensive back knocked down the ball. Then Saban stepped out onto the balcony and cussed Kirkpatrick out.

‘We don’t practice like that,’ Saban yelled.

Soon, Saban called him to his office, and the cornerback ended up being glad he did. The two had a heart-to-heart. Saban helped bring attention to the way Kirkpatrick was acting, thinking and moving. He also showed Kirkpatrick a more subtle, fun side of himself.

‘I didn’t really know who he was as a person,’ said Kirkpatrick, who was relatively new to the program. ‘I only really knew who he was as a coach. He let his hair down, he let me inside (his head) a little bit, told me a couple stories about him, and it was a touching moment.’

Eryk Anders, linebacker (2006-09)

Anders couldn’t remember the year, but he certainly remembered the interaction Saban had with one of the defensive backs.

One day at practice, Saban was trying to correct the defensive back. Then the player ran off and said, ‘I got it.’ Big mistake.

Said Anders: ‘(Saban) just went on for the rest of practice, yelling at him, cussing at him, ‘You got it? You don’t got it.’ Not like berating but doing it in a serious, playful way.’

Anders noted how Saban would yell, scream and cuss in practice but never berate.

‘He definitely got his point across,’ Anders said.

Ryan Kelly, offensive lineman (2011-15)

The video call with Saban was different.

All the other coaches had been making promises to Kelly, many they couldn’t back up. He had offers from the likes of Florida, Florida State, Kentucky and more, and all the schools that showed interest in him told him things like he would start for four years and that he would go to the NFL. Saban didn’t do that during their conversation in 2010 while Kelly was a recruit out of West Chester, Ohio.

Saban didn’t offer Kelly anything. All he promised: An opportunity to make the most of it. Saban told Kelly he would give him all the resources he needed to be successful at Alabama. Past that, it was up to Kelly.

‘Looking back on it now, that was the coolest thing ever,’ Kelly said. ‘Everything else kind of felt sleezy. For whatever reason, in that moment, him saying those words to me, I always felt like that was the biggest thing and the reason I went there.’

Nick Kelly covers Alabama football and men’s basketball for The Tuscaloosa News, part of the USA TODAY Network. Reach him at nkelly@gannett.com or follow him @_NickKelly on X, the social media app formerly known as Twitter.

Alabama head football coach Nick Saban is retiring, two people with knowledge of the situation told the Tuscaloosa News, part of the USA TODAY Network, on Wednesday. They requested anonymity because they were not authorized to share the news publicly.

One chart shows how dominant Saban and his Alabama teams have been in the past 17 years. Between November 2008 and October 2023, Alabama was the nation’s top-ranked team as often as they weren’t in the US LBM Coaches Poll coaches poll.

That time includes six national championships: 2009 2011, 2012, 2015, 2017 and 2020. Also in that time, college coaches ranked Alabama the nation’s top team 113 times.

How Nick Saban’s teams have dominated college football

Saban ends his 50-year coaching career as one of college football’s most successful coaches. The former Kent State defensive back got his first head coaching job in 1990 at Toledo. The Rockets would go 9-2 in his lone season at Toledo before he moved to be the Cleveland Browns defensive coordinator.

Saban jumped back into college when he took over the head coaching job at Michigan State in 1995. In East Lansing, Saban brought the Spartans back to relevance after several losing seasons prior, and taking Michigan State to three bowl games in five seasons. After the end of the 1999 regular season, Saban bolted to LSU, where he became a national championship-winning coach in 2003 after the Tigers won the BCS National Championship Game against Oklahoma.

Nick Saban’s coaching career by the numbers

During Saban’s 28-year career at Division-I schools, his teams won more than 80% of their games. At Alabama, his winning percentage rose to nearly nine in every 10 games.

Nick Saban, who retired on Wednesday as Alabama’s head football coach, will go down as one of the greatest college football coaches of all time.

Winner of seven national championships (six at Alabama, one at LSU), Saban’s name will be mentioned along all-time greats such as Bear Bryant, Knute Rockne, Frank Leahy, Bobby Bowden and Woody Hayes, among others depending on your preferred era and geographic loyalties.

Saban also is on a less desirable list: successful college football coaches who were failures as NFL head coaches. That list includes the likes of Urban Meyer, Steve Spurrier, Dennis Erickson and Lou Holtz.

Nick Saban coached the Miami Dolphins

A year after winning a national championship at LSU, Saban opted to take his coaching talents to the next level. He had NFL experience as an assistant, most notably as defensive coordinator of the Bill Belichick-coached Cleveland Browns. However, this was his first foray into NFL head coaching. It did not go well.

NFL STATS CENTRAL: The latest NFL scores, schedules, odds, stats and more.

The Dolphins did manage a winning record in Saban’s first season (9-7 in 2005), narrowly missing the playoffs. However, things went south fast after that.

Ahead of the 2006 season, the Dolphins were in search of a starting quarterback. The team considered Drew Brees, but opted to trade for Daunte Culpepper instead. Both quarterbacks were nursing injuries (Brees a shoulder injury; Culpepper a knee injury). The Dolphins shipped a second-round draft pick to the Minnesota Vikings (in case you were curious, that pick was used on center Ryan Cook) in order to acquire Culpepper. Culpepper never really recovered from his knee injury and started just four games in 2006, winning one.

What happened with Nick Saban, the Dolphins and Drew Brees?

Choosing Culpepper over Brees turned into one of the greatest personnel boondoggles in NFL history. Culpepper never came close to reaching the Pro Bowl level of play that he enjoyed during his time in Minnesota, and was out of the NFL by 2010.

Brees ultimately signed with the New Orleans Saints, and proceeded to lift a once-downtrodden franchise to its first Super Bowl win and later rewrite the NFL record book.

Had the Dolphins opted for Brees instead of Culpepper, maybe Saban’s NFL coaching career would not have landed on the ‘college coaches who failed in the NFL’ list. Saban recently commented on this ‘what if’ scenario, saying the decision to bypass Brees for Culpepper prompted his move away from Miami.

‘I decided right then when that happened that we don’t have a quarterback in the NFL, we’re not going to win,’ Saban told 247sports.com. ‘I’m getting out of here. I’m not staying here.’

Saban’s Dolphins finished 6-10 in 2006, finishing last in the AFC East. Even before the end of that season, talk swirled over Saban going to Alabama after the school fired head coach Mike Shula. In early January 2007, it was official and college football would never be the same.

Follow Jim Reineking on social media @jimreineking

If there’s any place that is the happiest about Alabama head coach Nick Saban retiring, it’s Auburn. And celebrations are quickly happening in a way that could only happen at Auburn.

After news of Saban’s retirement broke Wednesday night, it didn’t take long for those at Auburn’s campus to celebrate their biggest rival’s coach finally leaving college football. About an hour after the news, people began to roll Toomer’s Corner, the famed Auburn tradition of throwing rolls of toilet paper on the oak trees there.

It seems several Auburn students and fans were happy to celebrate, as rolls of toilet paper are constantly being rolled as the night goes on. A live feed of Toomer’s Corner can be seen here.

The happiness about Saban’s departure goes to show how deeply rooted the hate in college football rivalries can go. Saban went 12-5 against the Tigers as Alabama’s head coach and the Crimson Tide are currently on a four-game winning streak against Auburn. At Auburn’s Jordan-Hare Stadium, Saban went 5-4 with Alabama.

Alabama fans leave Coca-Cola, oatmeal cream pies near Nick Saban’s statue

While celebrations are taking place in Auburn, it is a much more somber scene about 125 miles west in Tuscaloosa. Outside of Bryant-Denny Stadium, people began to leave bottles of Coke and oatmeal cream pies near Saban’s statue.

A bottle of Coca-Cola was often on the podium when Saban would give press conferences, and oatmeal cream pies are a favorite treat of his.

‘Part of my motivation for getting up in the morning is I love to have a cup of coffee and two Debbie cookies every day,” Saban said on Eli Manning’s ‘Eli’s Places’ in 2021. ‘And when I don’t have them, I’m cranky.’

The end is here.

You know, the one that was supposed to come just a few years after Nick Saban took the job in 2007? The marriage was doomed to fail, remember?

The greatest coach in modern college football history is stepping down from Alabama football’s biggest chair after 17 seasons, nine SEC championships and six national titles with the Crimson Tide.

It was never supposed to last.

Instead, it’s a legacy that will last.

It’s hard to blame those who never thought Saban would stick around at Alabama. After all, the school has never been known for patience with head coaches, and churned through four of them in 10 years before Saban’s arrival. Pairing that backdrop with a coach with a reputation for quick fixes and quick exits – Saban had never previously coached anywhere longer than five years – certainly seemed chemically unstable at the time.

WHAT’S NEXT: Five candidates Alabama should consider to replace Nick Saban

Behind the public perception, however, crucial elements to the Alabama-Saban union instead created a bonding effect. After the 2006 season, ahead of late athletic director Mal Moore’s landmark hire, the Crimson Tide was a resource-rich program desperate for a winner. It was also a school ready and willing to back the right man for the job with unprecedented administrative support. Saban wouldn’t have accepted anything less, and fortunately for Alabama, its courting of the coach was impeccably timed just as Saban, after two seasons with the Miami Dolphins, was realizing the college game was his true calling.

A volatile mix? No, as it turned out. Just a victorious one.

Saban dove head-first into college football’s hottest coaching cauldron, and cooled it almost instantly. Winning 12 games in your second year will do that, but if the 2008 turnaround was a surprise, the fact that the coach planted roots is what shocked. With Alabama doing whatever it could to extend Saban’s success, including contract extensions that regularly made him the game’s highest-paid coach, he settled in like he’d never done anywhere else.

The signs that Saban was ready to call it a career, in retrospect, hid in plain view.

From the $17 million home he bought on Jupiter Island (Florida) last offseason – even for college football’s most well-compensated coach, that’s a lot for a summer home – to the way he seemed to soak in the moment as his final Alabama team matured and won and bonded and fought, the hints were there.

Saban won more than 200 games at Alabama and leaves behind all sorts of fun facts that illustrate the Crimson Tide’s dominance during his time at the Capstone.

Among his record seven national championships, he won six at Alabama, which tied Crimson Tide legend Paul W. ‘Bear’ Bryant for the most by one coach at the same school. His teams were ranked in the top 10 of the AP poll for 128 consecutive weeks from 2015-2023, the second-longest streak in the history of the poll. There was a 15-year win streak over rival Tennessee, longest in series history, and five consecutive trips to the College Football Playoff, beginning with its inception. First-round NFL draft picks were produced by the bushel, including a record-tying six in a single draft (2021).

But the most impressive of them all is that every player he signed from 2007 through 2020 who stayed in the program for at least three years has at least one national championship ring. Across those 14 signing classes, there wasn’t a more powerful recruiting tool than that; as close to a guarantee of national-title glory as there was in the sport.

The result was a wave of signing classes ranked No. 1 or No. 2 in the nation that entered Saban’s elite developmental program, then came off that conveyor belt NFL-ready at a stunningly high rate.In sum, it was a coaching run that stands alone in the modern era, and will always draw comparisons to Bryant’s. Just as Bryant’s retirement was a watershed moment for Alabama football, so too is this moment. As Bryant left behind a void that nobody could hope to fill, so too has Saban. He leaves behind a program in so much better shape than he found it, the job has gone from one that top coaches were leery of to one that they would flock to.

And it was never supposed to last.

Tuscaloosa News columnist Chase Goodbread is also the weekly co-host of Crimson Cover TV on WVUA-23 and the Talkin’ Tide podcast. Reach him at cgoodbread@gannett.com. Follow on Twitter @chasegoodbread.