Nick Saban 'didn't want to ride the program down,' Alabama begins hunt for his successor

Nick Saban finally answered the inevitable retirement question by leaving an Alabama program while it still appeared formidable enough to regularly contend for Southeastern Conference and national championships.

The 72-year-old Saban announced late Wednesday that he is retiring after 28 seasons as a head coach, the last 17 of them at Alabama. He won seven national titles in all.

Saban said he settled on retirement after returning from a trip last weekend to his Florida home.

“The last few days have been hard,” Saban told ESPN in an interview Thursday. “But look, it’s kind of like I told the players. I was going to go in there and ask them to get 100% committed to coming back and trying to win a championship, but I’ve always said that I didn’t want to ride the program down.