Hours After Nick Saban’s Retirement, Alabama Dealt Another Blow in Pursuit to Steady the Ship

Nick Saban’s undying passion for his job is what made him so special and successful at Alabama. Even on the day he announced his retirement, Saban came to his workplace to fulfill one last obligation. Reportedly, just an hour before Saban retired, he was interviewing deserving candidates to take over the job he managed for 17 seasons. Well, they did not get exactly lucky in their first try at the recruitment process.

Top head coaches from across the conferences were called for the process. However, there were only a few on whom the authorities, especially Nick Saban, had his eyes set on. Per The Athletic, the top candidate for Saban was Dan Lanning. Lanning is a graduate who trained under Saban in 2015. He has enough maturity to handle a heavily talented team like Alabama. Unfortunately, Bama would have to drop their expectations after he made a rather unpleasing announcement for the team.

Dan Lanning opts out

On Friday, an Insider Oregon player revealed that Lanning had a word with his team about the possibility. Per Blue Bloods Bias, Lanning assured Oregon that he would not leave them, canceling out all chances of working at Alabama. The Oregon head coach is currently in Eugene, contrasting to the reportedly ‘fake news’ of him being in Tuscaloosa as revealed by the Oregon commit who recently joined X.

“I want to be here in Eugene, Ore., for as long as Eugene will have me,” confessed Lanning in a video. This place has everything I could possibly ever want,” confessed Lanning in an X video. “There is a little bit of a problem in society today with people looking for what’s next and where there is an opportunity. The reality is, the grass is not always greener. In fact, the grass is [expletive] green in Eugene.”

Hired by Oregon in 2022, Dan Lanning led Oregon to a commendable record of 12-2 in 2023. The Ducks averaged 44.2 points per game this season, second-best in college football, under Lanning’s leadership. Saving themselves from more humiliation, Alabama will now move towards other candidates on whom they have their eyes set.

Who has a chance now?

Well, Alabama would have to choose from the remaining candidates. Top among them is Texas’s Steve Sarkisian, who beat Bama with Texas. Dabo Swinney from Clemson is next. Per many, Washington’s Kalen DeBoar is also favored, looking at his undefeated record with Washington in just the second season with the team.

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Many also claim that Colorado’s Deion Sanders might also be an option. But considering all his efforts in the transfer portal to cherry-pick the players across the conferences, the chances of him leaving Colorado despite a 4-8 record is improbable. With this, Alabama’s turmoil continues.

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