While children across the country will be making their way up and down the streets of the neighborhood in search of as much candy as possible, Nick Saban will be celebrating his birthday the way he probably prefers; by trying to form a game plan to beat LSU.
Saban turns 65 years old today, and he still shows no signs of slowing down in the coaching game. The king of college football has five national championships to his name, including last season’s title, and he appears to be the easy favorite to add another championship this season. Winning back-to-back national championships is quite a rarity, but Saban is making strides to do it a second time this decade.
At this point in Saban’s career, we do not need to spend much more time glossing over his list of accomplishments. And we certainly do not want to shove him off into retirement before he is ready to do so, because he is still the best at what he does. But once a coach hits the mid-60s, it begins to be more and more fair to ask just how much more Saban will have in him. Steve Spurrier retired at 70. Bill Snyder is still going at 77. Bear Bryant retired at 69, and Joe Paterno was forced out at 84 and Bobby Bowden stepped into retirement at 80.
There is no age limit to coaching, and when you win at the level Saban continues to win, there is no need to start making retirement plans just yet. Saban may not coach into his upper 70s or early 80s, but if he did he just might have 15 national titles.
Happy birthday, Nick!