"Most of the time, they're so immature": Nick Saban calls out CFB players' issues while discussing his Miami stint

Nick Saban recently called out some college players' issues while he was discussing his failed NFL stint.

Saban lasted two years as coach of the Miami Dolphins before taking the head coaching job at Alabama. On the "Pivot Podcast", he said coaching college was more impactful for him as he was able to make a difference on their lives, despite some being immature.

"It wasn't coaching the players, it had nothing to do with that," Saban said on the Pivot Podcast at 47:30. "You have problems with guys in college too, for different reasons, most of the time they are so immature, they can't make the right choices and decisions for whats best for them. You are arguing with them about that. It's being in the position to have a bigger impact when guys are 18 to 22."

As Saban said, some college players are immature but seeing them develop from boys to men and reaching the NFL was special.

Saban went 292-71-1 as a college football head coach while winning seven national titles, with six coming at Alabama. He was named to the College Football Hall of Fame in 2025.

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Nick Saban says he'd coach NFL before he returns to college

Nick Saban retired after the 2023 college football season, but many have wondered if he would coach again.

However, Saban has been happy in retirement. And, with how college is with NIL and always needing to recruit, he said he'd coach NFL before he returned to college.

“I loved coaching pro ball, and if I was going to coach today, based on the circumstances in college and in the NFL, I would coach in the NFL, because all those things in college have changed,” Saban said on the podcast, via NBC. “The whole idea of what college used to be is not there anymore. It used to be you went to college to develop value for your future. Now people are going to college to see how much money they can make.

"And I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with that, but you change the whole dynamic of the importance of getting an education, making good decisions and choices about what you do and what you don’t do to create value for your future. You changed that whole dynamic.”

Nick Saban did coach two years in the NFL, but he said it would be much better for him to coach in the NFL than go back to college.