Former Alabama head football coach Nick Saban is launching a career development program for former Crimson Tide football players.
According to 247Sports, Saban announced the program at his annual Nick Kids Golf Tournament on Thursday.
Former Alabama head football coach Nick Saban is launching a career development program for former Crimson Tide football players.Â
According to 247Sports, Saban announced the program at his annual Nick Kids Golf Tournament on Thursday.Â
The program is a joint venture with the University of Alabama and aims to help former football players develop the skills to find jobs outside the sport.Â
"We have so many great resources to help these guys move on to the next career," Saban said. "That's something we want to get organized and do a better job of. I have never had a chance to do projects like that before. Now I have a chance to do it."
Alabama associate athletic director Molly Dowd will lead the program, while Saban and his wife, Terry, will help fund it.Â
"One of the things that we wanted to do with the program was that we always wanted the players to have a better chance to be more successful in life because they were involved in the program," Saban said. "That's helping them develop as people, helping them develop a career off the field, which means graduating from school, and see if we can help them develop a career on the field and maybe play at the next level someday. But that last one doesn't last long, so eventually, you've got to have that next career, and you're preparing yourself for when you can't play football when you go to college."
Saban retired from football this offseason.Â
"I didn't want to ride the program down," Saban said. "I tried to hire three coaches — every one of them wanted to know how long I was going to be there at the end of the season. Every recruit wanted to know how long you're going to be here. Well, when you're 72 years old, it's harder to say I'm going to be here for the next four years. A lot of coaches left — for good reason, they got better opportunities, because we won — and a lot of players left because they thought they had better opportunities someplace else. That became more difficult but we managed it."
