Nick Saban, retirement and the bittersweet taste of ketchup and mustard

Nick Saban didn’t know what kind of ketchup or mustard to buy.

He hadn’t been at Publix more than five minutes when he had to call his wife, Terry Saban, and family back home to ask.

OK, I’m standing in the aisle, there’s 12 different brands of mustard and there are 12 different brands of ketchup.

Preparing dinner, the Sabans didn’t need 12, though. They just needed one of each. They told him they didn’t care which.

OK, I’ll pick this one.

Terry had sent Nick to the grocery store when they were at the beach in Boca Grande, Florida, a small island community. So he wasn’t likely to get swarmed while running errands like he would in say, Tuscaloosa.

After he picked up the ketchup and mustard, the legendary Alabama football coach needed to get gas. Once he arrived at the station, he called back home again.

What’s our zip code?

Saban needed it for the credit card.

And what’s the pin?

“I’m like, ‘Dad how are you going to retire one day when you’ve got to do the little things like this on your own?’” his daughter, Kristen Saban Setas, told The Tuscaloosa News. “So that’s always been my running joke with him like, ‘How are you going to do this?’”

Nick is finding out as we speak.

That day in Florida was several years ago, but now retirement is Nick’s reality. His half century in coaching and 17 seasons with the Crimson Tide ended on Jan. 10 when Nick, 72, decided to call it a coaching career.  No college football coach has won more national championships (seven) than him, with six of those at Alabama. He also won nine SEC championships with the Crimson Tide, with 11 total. Nick’s career was historic and unparalleled, but now it’s over.

There’s a new era in Tuscaloosa with Washington coach Kalen DeBoer taking over. Meanwhile, there's also a new chapter for the Sabans, filled with nostalgia, gratitude and anticipation.

“The biggest emotion I’ve been feeling is probably relief for my dad,” his son, Nicholas Saban, told The Tuscaloosa News. “Just that he’s got a chance to kind of enjoy the next chapter of his life and not have to grind just 24/7 like he has. At the same time, there’s a sadness to it. There’s nothing really as exciting as being in sports.”

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NICK SABAN STORIES: Epic Nick Saban stories, as told by Alabama football players who'd know as he retires

Like watching a movie

Nicholas walked around the concourse at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta and heard the barking. The Georgia fans making dog-like noises at halftime, directed toward anyone wearing Crimson on Jan. 8, 2018. Alabama was trailing 13-0 in the national championship game.

Nicholas also remembers the fist bumps. The Crimson Tide fans who hadn’t lost faith. Nicholas heard the same refrain from the faithful.

60 minutes. 60 minutes. We’re going to get this.

They were right. Freshman quarterback Tua Tagovailoa entered the game in the second half and soon silenced the barking. He won the national championship when he hit DeVonta Smith on second-and-26 with a 41-yard touchdown pass in overtime.

“To finish the way we did and to see the jubilation on everyone’s face after that was absolutely incredible,” Nicholas said. “Gives me chills just thinking about it.”

Kristen doesn’t think she slept that night. “It was like watching a movie,” she said. Nicholas still remembers the hug on the field with his dad, too.

“Just to see how stressed he would get throughout the season … not a lot of people see the lows,” Nicholas said. “He doesn’t let people see the lows. Just to see how far he had come that season and to be able to see the smile on his face after the game and my mom and my sister, it’s just a huge relief and very gratifying. Very gratifying.”

So, too, was the 2011 national championship shutout of LSU. Nicholas mentioned that win as one of his favorites, especially after the loss to the Tigers in overtime during the regular season. Another gratifying one? The 2023 win over Georgia in the SEC Championship Game, which snapped the Bulldogs’ 29-game win streak.

“That felt like it vindicated our team a little bit this year,” Nicholas said. “I think this year was one of his best coaching jobs just in the way we turned it around.”

Nick Saban, Dad and Papaw

Nick could tell something was wrong with Kristen.

The Sabans were at their place on Lake Burton in Georgia one summer, and the sun was setting. Nick walked up and sat next to Kristen, who had just finished her freshman year at the University of Alabama. She had been upset, bummed really, about her first year of college. It hadn't gone the way she hoped.

So Nick gave her some advice.

Stop trying to make everyone else happy, and for once, make yourself happy. People aren’t going to put your feelings first, they never will, and it will hurt you. They won’t care. Put your feelings and happiness first, and I guarantee you will find yourself. Sometimes who we are is more important than what we do. And if you find who you are, you will be happy, and everyone will see it.

Nick wasn’t the Alabama football coach in that moment. He was Dad. In retirement, he will have the opportunity to fill the latter role more often.

“It’s incredible to see all these things that he does, but at the end of the day when he comes home, he’s just Dad,” Kristen said. “We don’t really talk much about the things he did that day or maybe a win he just had. We just kind of shift and go back into family mode.”

Nick now has more opportunity for that to be the primary mode. Time has always been a scarce resource during his career. When he was coaching, Nick had to be intentional to find windows of time for his family. Perhaps an hour after games. Or maybe he’d get an hour on Sundays. Sometimes, there might be a couple hours during the week. But extended periods of time seldom occurred.

“I’m just excited to be able to spend more time with him,” Kristen said.

She’s hoping to go on some trips with her father and family. Europe or somewhere outside the country for several weeks is one thing she's mentioned. Kristen would also like to return to West Virginia with her dad and get a tour of places such as his neighborhood, the field named after his father and other stops. Kristen has always known about those places, but she hasn't seen them with her dad.

“We’ve never been able to do anything more than a couple days, maybe at the lake,” Kristen said. “Something grand like (a trip abroad) where we can really have some cool experiences together.”

Retirement will allow him not only more time to be Dad but also Papaw. His grandkids, Amelie (10) and James (3), will have a chance to have real time with their grandfather. It’s been a struggle to find consistent opportunities throughout their lives.

“I would think she just wants to spend time with her grandpa,” Nicholas said of his daughter. “It’s going to be great.”

Golf, Bridge and an atypical retirement

Nick’s retirement has not yet looked like a normal retirement. Frankly, it probably never will.

He has already played a bunch of golf, but not like the average retiree. Just this week, he participated in the Mr. October celebrity golf classic at the Floridan National in Palm City, Florida. He golfed with the likes of Travis Scott and 50 Cent. A long list of celebrities took part, including Lawrence Taylor, Jack Nicklaus and Warren Moon, to name a few. Next week, Nick is going to play in the Annexus Pro-Am at the Phoenix Open.

“I know he’s going to find a way to keep himself busy,” Nicholas said. “He’s not one to do nothing.”

Nick and Terry are already making friends in Jupiter, Florida, as well. That’s where their relatively new 1.68-acre, $17.5 million home stands. Nick is playing golf every day, his son said, as well as getting together with some of their new friends to play games such as Rummikub and Bridge.

“It’s definitely going to take some time for him to just kind of be normal I guess,” Nicholas said. “I can’t remember the last time he had to go order fast food or something. Just do stuff regular people do. He’s always been working.”

Nick will keep working, albeit in different ways than he has the past 50 years. There will be more opportunities for business trips to Europe as it relates to Mercedes and Ferrari (he has ownership stakes in dealerships that sell both). Also, Nick will have an office at Bryant-Denny Stadium, and Alabama athletics director Greg Byrne said in January that Nick will have a role as an adviser.

“He’s going to handle (retirement) just fine,” Kristen said. “He’s got some things under his sleeve he’s going to want to continue to do things with and stay in sports in some kind of way and keep his foot in the door. He’s having a great time, and I think he’s handling it pretty great.”

Nick and Terry still expect to be around Tuscaloosa and the state. Their kids and grandkids are in Birmingham. Plus, they want to continue building Habitat for Humanity houses, Kristen said.

“This is the longest we’ve been anywhere,” Nicholas said, “and this is our home.”

The flight out

The journey ended for Kristen the same way it began.

Almost exactly 17 years after she and the Sabans arrived on a plane on Jan. 3, 2007, Kristen was flying on a plane out of Alabama when news broke of her dad’s retirement on Jan. 10, 2024.

“That was a really bittersweet moment,” Kristen said. “I felt really, really sad. But at the same time, I felt kind of relieved. Everything he accomplished just hits you all at once and you’re like, ‘Wow I really got to witness this and see this unfold right in front of me the last 17 years,’ and for all that to come to an end is kind of a hit to the heart. Then you have the happiness right after because you got to be part of that.”

Kristen has received all kinds of messages and stories from people about her dad. Some personal, some from witnessing him from afar. Overloaded with messages, her phone shut itself off the day Nick retired.

She eventually regained access. Soon after, Kristen viewed the clips on Jan. 12 of DeBoer and his family getting off the plane at the airport in Tuscaloosa. There, hundreds of Alabama fans waited to meet the next football coach, his wife and his two children.

“It was a bittersweet thing watching the clips of him and his family land,” Kristen said. “Bitter because our moment of that is over, and we’ve had all this time here. And sweet because you’re seeing someone else come in and do an amazing job. He’s a great coach and he’s accomplished a lot. I think our team is in really good hands. Just seeing all that, it was kind of like ... I lived that too.”

Nick Kelly is the Alabama beat writer for The Tuscaloosa News, part of the USA TODAY Network, and he covers Alabama football and men's basketball. Reach him at nkelly@gannett.com or follow him @_NickKelly on X.

This article originally appeared on The Tuscaloosa News: Nick Saban, retirement and the bittersweet taste of ketchup and mustard