When former Alabama star Bryce Young recalled his reaction to hearing Nick Saban’s retirement news

Bryce Young had a successful college career under Nick Saban at Alabama. The Carolina Panthers quarterback is one of the four players to win the Heisman Trophy under the coach and the last to achieve it. He's also the only Saban player selected as the first overall pick in the draft.

A day after Nick Saban announced his retirement in January 2024, Bryce Young appeared on the “Always College Football” podcast to discuss his career under him at Alabama. The first question Greg McElroy asked him on the show was his reaction to Saban's retirement news:

"I was just happy for him,” Young said (timestamp 2:25). “Obviously, as we both know, he's done so much, he's changed so many lives, he's helped so many people, he's done so much for virtually the city, the state.

"I'm happy that now he kind of gets to sit back and enjoy it and close that chapter of his life and move on to his next. So, yeah, I was super happy for him.”

During his time in Tuscaloosa under Nick Saban, Bryce Young threw for 8,358 yards and 80 touchdowns in 34 games. He won the SEC title and the national championship while also earning other individual awards aside from the Heisman, including the Manning Award, Maxwell Award, Davey O'Brien Award and a host of others.

Bryce Young explains how Nick Saban's potential retirement was used against him during recruiting

The rumors of Nick Saban potentially retiring had been circulating for a couple of years before it eventually happened. Greg McElroy asked Bryce Young if that perception was used by other recruiters to influence his decision after it looked like he was going to Alabama.

“It was definitely used a lot in recruiting,” Young said (timestamp 3:12). “Everyone's always trying to predict when he is going to retire. But obviously, he was there throughout my whole time. He told me that he would, that he didn't have any of those plans for when I was there.

“And also just, it kind of speaks to Coach Saban, just the infrastructure he built, where it's obviously Coach Saban at the head of it all. But he built such a strong infrastructure and a strong rest of the program. Everything else was great as well, so it wasn't really obviously anything that deterred me.”

With his performance for the Crimson Tide, Bryce Young is in the conversation for the best quarterback to ever play under Nick Saban in Tuscaloosa. He remains the only quarterback in the history of Alabama to win the Heisman Trophy while also holding the school's single-game passing yard record with 559.