Age is just a number, and Nick Saban is living proof of that. The Alabama head coach will turn 67 during the 2018 season, but this upcoming campaign will not be his last. Not even close.
Saban told ESPN's Chris Low that he is not considering retirement within the foreseeable future.
"That's what everybody keeps saying, that I'm not going to be doing this for much longer, and all the people who say it have no idea what I'm going to do," Saban told ESPN. "I've been involved in some fashion with football and being a part of a football team ever since I can remember. I don't know what it would be like not doing it and don't want to know."
Saban led Alabama to its fifth national championship in a 9-year span in January, the most dominant run during the most competitive era in college football history. The '18 season will be his 12th in Tuscaloosa, making him one of the longest-tenured active head coaches in FBS.
Overall, Saban is 127-20 at Alabama with five national titles, five SEC championships and an ongoing run of 10 consecutive seasons with top-10 finishes. Saban's Alabama is the first program in college football history to earn at least one No. 1 ranking in 10 consecutive seasons.
Though Saban has earned the right to retire when he chooses, he said he will not, for lack of a better term, pull a Bobby Bowden or a Joe Paterno.
"The way I look at it is, as long as I'm healthy and as long as I feel that I can do a good job, I want to keep doing it because I enjoy doing it," Saban said. "What I don't want to do is just stay forever, forever and forever and ride the program down where I'm not creating value. I would never want to do that, and I think I'm a long ways from doing that. I don't want to talk about anybody else, but there have been a couple of coaches where their legacy was tarnished by them maybe doing it longer than they should have. That won't be me."