What's next for Nick Saban?
— -- TUSCALOOSA, Ala. -- All those people a decade ago who had Nick Saban coaching in his 10th A-Day spring game this Saturday at Alabama, please stand up.
If we were all taking truth serum, there would be a lot more people sitting than standing. Probably enough to fill Bryant-Denny Stadium.
Saban flashed a wry smile when told somebody could have made a fortune in Vegas back in 2007 betting that he would have stayed at Alabama (or anywhere, for that matter) for 10 years. The odds were heavily against it for a nomad who had never stayed anywhere longer than five years in his coaching career.
"Yeah, maybe so, but I think you get to a station in your life, whether it's family or relationships, a combination of all the above, that you just feel like you're entrenched," Saban told ESPN.com in a wide-ranging interview Monday. "You can't even visualize being somewhere else, and that's where I am right now."
He's also back on top of the coaching world after his fourth national championship in seven years. To truly appreciate what a monster Saban has created in Tuscaloosa, consider that fans and media alike were suggesting that Saban's best days were behind him and that his once-mighty program was starting to see cracks in the foundation after a loss to Ohio State in the College Football Playoff after the 2014-15 season and then a home loss in September to Ole Miss.
Never mind that Alabama won the SEC championship in 2014, that Ohio State went on to win the national title that season and that Ole Miss won 10 games in 2015 and had a 5-0 advantage in the turnover department when the Rebels outlasted the Crimson Tide 43-37.
Two years had passed without Saban bringing home college football's top prize. And as Ryan Fowler, host of "The Game" sports talk show in Tuscaloosa, said, "We had a funeral around here after the Ohio State game."
The real funeral in Tuscaloosa will come when Saban decides to walk away. He's won either a national championship or SEC championship five of the past seven seasons and is 39-5 against SEC competition over the past five seasons.
Saban, who will turn 65 in October, is insistent that he hasn't pondered retirement, at least not on his own. But he does concede that for the first time since he can remember, his age is starting to be used against him on the recruiting trail.
