National Signing Day 2024: How Nick Saban retiring from Alabama has impacted college football recruiting

Heading into the 2023 college football season, the hot-button topic the entire offseason centered around conference realignment. The season eventually began and attention turned to the on-field storylines. Georgia remained No. 1 throughout the entire regular season. Alabama returned to the College Football Playoff field. Michigan defeated Ohio State for the third consecutive season. Everything had remained as it’s been the past few seasons. 

On Monday, Jan, 8, nobody had it better than Michigan after the Wolverines defeated Washington in the College Football Playoff National Championship. For the previous 17 years, nobody had it better than Alabama.

On Feb. 1, however, neither program had their national championship-winning head coach any longer.

Two days after Jim Harbaugh led his alma mater to its first national title since 1997, the greatest coach in college football, Nick Saban, announced his retirement. That triggered quite possibly the craziest January in the history of the sport. 

You thought the coaching carousel during Thanksgiving weekend in 2021 — Lincoln Riley leaving Oklahoma for USC and Brian Kelly bolting Notre Dame for LSU — was something? The craziness of the past three weeks have made that look like a random MAC game on a Wednesday night in November.

Saban retiring from Alabama led Kalen DeBoer to leave Washington for the gargantuan task of replacing the legend in Tuscaloosa. DeBoer’s move opened the door for Jedd Fisch to leave Arizona for the Huskies job. Fisch’s departure gave way to Brent Brennan leaving his post at San Jose State to lead the Wildcats. 

Oh, and then, Jim Harbaugh decided he was ready for an NFL return. That paved the way for offensive coordinator Sherrone Moore to take over the reigning national…


Source link : https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/national-signing-day-2024-how-nick-saban-retiring-from-alabama-has-impacted-college-football-recruiting/

Author : Brandon Huffman

Publish date : 2024-02-06 19:32:26

Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.