When Zavier Mincey announced he was signing with Alabama at the All-American Bowl in San Antonio last weekend, he had no clue Nick Saban was going to retire.
In fact, when Mincey, a four-star safety, moved into his dorm in Tuscaloosa earlier this week, he told his high school coach he was looking forward to competing for a spot in the rotation with Saban watching his every move.
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So when the 72-year-old dropped the retirement bomb on his team Wednesday afternoon, Mincey was understandably stunned.
He’s hardly alone. As Alabama looks for Saban’s replacement, some of the nation’s best players are in a holding pattern, waiting to see what happens next with the Crimson Tide.
“That’s why you sign with a school and not coaches. That can change at any moment,” Travis Roland, Mincey’s coach at Daytona Beach (Fla.) Mainland, said Thursday.
“I don’t think Zavier was worried about (coach Saban retiring) at all (during the recruiting process). Obviously, he did choose Alabama because of coach Saban. That had a lot to do with it. But I think he and (his) mom have had a conversation, and they’re in a good space right now as a family with where they’re at. He knows he has 30 days (to enter the transfer portal). He’s a little heartbroken because coach Saban is gone. But he’s OK. I would imagine he’ll let the process play out.”
When there’s a head-coaching change, players have a 30-day window to enter the transfer portal — and that includes early enrollees from Alabama’s No. 2-ranked 2024 recruiting class. The recruits who signed but have yet to enroll also have 30 days to get out of their national letter of intent, freeing them up to sign with another school — if they choose — in February.
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So far, only one of Alabama’s recruits has decided to open his search since Saban’s announcement. No one on Alabama’s roster — aside from the 20 who previously announced they were entering the portal — has decided to depart.
Schools typically allow new students to enroll in classes up to a week after the semester begins. Those who do not enroll in time for spring classes can sit out the semester and enroll in summer classes. Some student-athletes could even stay at their respective schools for the spring semester, complete classes and then begin at their next school in the summer or fall. There’s an advantage, though, to getting into a new school in time for spring football practices.
Julian Sayin, the nation’s top quarterback prospect out of Carlsbad (Calif.) High, was the headliner of the Crimson Tide’s 2024 signing class. Saban was in Sayin’s living room just a month ago, posing for a photo with the quarterback’s family in front of a Christmas tree for his in-home visit.
RTR pic.twitter.com/mfXsXhqbgZ
— Julian Sayin (@juliansayin2) December 11, 2023
Thadd MacNeal, Sayin’s coach at Carlsbad, said he spoke with his former quarterback Wednesday night after Saban delivered the news to his team.
“He’s got 30 days to see. He wants to see who they’re gonna hire, who’s gonna be the OC. Obviously, Alabama’s gonna get someone really, really good at that position,” MacNeal said.
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“(Sayin) was fine. It wasn’t like, ‘Oh, panic.’ It’s kind of the nature of the business a little bit. He’s already started classes, so he’s in it. It’s a matter of his class, of who they’re gonna be able to keep. The coordinator’s gonna be important because he had a good relationship with coach (Tommy) Rees.”
MacNeal said he was just at Alabama last spring and, like so many others, had no indication Saban was thinking about retiring.
“Zero,” he said. “This guy, he’s a machine. He was unreal. And then talking to him various times through the recruiting process, there was no letdown, no slow-down. It was like balls to the wall, recruiting, going to the next national championship.”
Peyton Woodyard, who flipped his pledge from Georgia to Alabama in August, was among Sayin’s fellow early enrollees who began classes Wednesday.
Jason Negro, Woodyard’s coach at Bellflower (Calif.) St. John Bosco, said he has not spoken to his All-American safety since Saban announced his retirement.
Negro said Woodyard signed with the Crimson Tide over USC, Georgia and Texas in large part because Saban, a former defensive back, would be coaching him.
Saban was on campus to visit Woodyard last month before Alabama began its prep for the Rose Bowl and showed no indication he would be retiring.
“Peyton’s not a shoot-by-the-hip decision-maker. So, I think he’s going to let this play out and see what happens,” Negro said. “I haven’t had any other schools reach out yet. Nowadays, recruiting is so much different. They can just go to the athlete or the agent or whoever is controlling the money piece for these guys. It’s a completely different ballgame than what it was two, three years ago.”
The Crimson Tide have seven commitments in the 2025 recruiting class, headlined by five-star receiver Jaime French and five-star edge rusher Zion Grady.
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Saban and his staff were pursuing the top in-state prospect in the Class of 2025, five-star cornerback Na’eem Offord, who visited Ohio State earlier this week.
“Saban did recruit him hard. They wanted him,” Frank Warren, Offord’s coach at Parker (Ala.) High, said. “Right now, I think he’s still kinda open. He still was kinda open beforehand, but losing Saban is a big deal. Nobody can replace Saban, but it’s gotta be somebody that you know can get it done.”
Warren also coached four-star defensive lineman Jeremiah Beaman, a Class of 2024 Alabama signee who was one of the Tide’s 21 early enrollees.
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“He understands,” Warren said. “He said to me it kinda shocked him — shocked everybody in the room. But he’s locked in with Alabama. He’s a loyal kid, a great kid, and I think Bama was where he wanted to play.”
The only loss on the recruiting trail so far is five-star wide receiver Ryan Williams, originally a member of the 2025 class before he reclassified to 2024 last month. Williams decommitted late Wednesday night.
Mincey’s high school coach said Saban was on campus at Mainland in December, one week after the program won the state championship. Saban showed no signs of slowing down, the coach said. Saban made a strong case for why Mincey should leave the state — Florida, Florida State and Miami were his other finalists — and tie his future to Tuscaloosa.
“He’s an inspiring guy,” Roland said. “Just was big on understanding who you are. A lot of schools tried to tell Zay they wouldn’t have to wait a long time to get him on the field. Coach Saban talked about how they’ve played more freshmen than everybody else the last few years. He talked about their environment, how Alabama graduates their guys, nobody gets in trouble and how they put more guys than anybody else in the NFL. It’s stuff you don’t usually get to hear directly from him. I can tell why guys play so hard for him.”
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But nobody at Alabama will get to play for Saban.
And players such as Mincey will have some time to decide whether they want to play for his replacement.
“I think kids do choose schools based on coaches nowadays,” Roland said. “They’ve got to get somebody that makes those kids want to be there. I would imagine as long as the portal doesn’t kill them with kids wanting to leave, I think (Alabama will) be OK. Kids go to play for guys they like.”
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Negro said Alabama needs to hire a coach who is prepared for all the modern-day challenges in college football “in terms of NIL, the transfer portal and recruiting that’s completely shifted and changed.”
“I can see why Nick got out,” Negro said. “‘Why am I doing this? I don’t have any more to prove, and it’s a pain in my ass. I have to deal with this all the time.’ The coaches and the university have lost every bit of leverage they had.
“It’s like the NCAA said, ‘Screw you, we’re going to make you miserable.’ It’s driving people out of the game. It’s shameful they can’t regulate it any better.”
(Photo: Tim Warner / Getty Images)