Details About Saban’s Last Meeting with Alabama Football Revealed

"We were gonna kick that can down the road as far as we can."

Anytime Alabama Athletic Director Greg Byrne was asked about how he would handle Nick Saban's retirement, that was his answer. Keep kicking the can until he couldn't anymore.

In January 2024, the can came to the end of the road as Greg Byrne sat in the back of the meeting rooms at the Mal M. Moore Athletic Complex. Even Byrne did not know whether Saban would deliver the news that would break college football or begin preparation for spring 2024.

"I said to Coach Saban, 'if you start talking about offseason workouts and academics and priorities, then I'm going to disappear out the back of the room,'" Byrne said on the latest episode of Fox Nation's "The Tides that Bind" documentary on Alabama football. "Nobody knows I was going to be there. But I said 'if you start doing the retirement speech, that's when the plan starts going into place.'"

As the words left Nick Saban's mouth, it set off a chaotic three days for Alabama football that led to Washington Huskies head coach Kalen DeBoer being hired as the Alabama football coach. Byrne and other staffers shared their perspectives and the final details as the Nick Saban era at Alabama came to a close.

"It seemed like a normal day," said Jeff Springer, associate AD of equipment operations.

At 4 p.m., the energy shifted.

“When Coach Saban first got on stage, he was having his normal conversations like we were getting ready to go fight for another championship,” said Ha Ha Clinton-Dix, director of player development. “Towards the end of the conversations in this meeting, he started stumbling a little bit. Like started getting kind of teary eyed. You can feel the energy change in the room.”

Then Saban dropped the bomb, announcing that his seven-time national championship career and 17 years at Alabama were over. He was retiring.

“The players are like shocked,” said Denzel Devall, director of player development. “I think staff members are shocked. Everybody is in disbelief like it’s a dream. When he walks off the stage, that’s when reality hits like, ‘damn, the GOAT gone.’”

Byrne was the first to take the mic once Saban was finished.

After a round of cheers and applause for Coach Nick Saban, Byrne called out the leaders of the team.

"Are you going to hold this thing together? Are you going to hold the locker room together?"

Byrne asked for 72 hours before players decided to leave. While a handful did not wait that long, teams were already lining up at the door to pick apart a roster that was an overtime away from competing for a national championship just two weeks before.

“I don’t think it’s unfair to use the word panic and understandably so,” said Jeff Allen, senior associate AD for health and performance. “For the players, I think for a lot of us in the building.”

Byrne asked for 72 hours. He beat his timeline by 23 hours, hiring Kalen DeBoer to begin his era of Alabama football on Friday evening.

Wyatt Fulton is the Tide 100.9 DME and Brand Manager, primarily covering Alabama Crimson Tide football and men's basketball. For more Crimson Tide coverage, follow Wyatt on X (Formerly known as Twitter) at @FultonW_.