The coach of Alabama asserted that he didn’t reject change because a certain tactic had worked in the past and that he had to “adapt” in order to win in the NIL era.

Nick Saban argues that after Dabo Swinney defended Clemson’s no-transfer approach, coaches need to change and can’t “look backward.

According to Nick Saban, college football coaches must give themselves over to the transfer portal. The former Alabama coach claimed that in order to continue winning in the NIL era, he had to “adapt” and that he didn’t reject change because a particular strategy had previously been effective.

Following Dabo Swinney’s defense of his transfer portal strategy, which saw Clemson become the only Power Four program to refuse a transfer during the 2024 cycle, comes his remarks.

At the Jimmy Rane Foundation Golf Event on Thursday, head coach Nick Saban stated, “You have to be able to adapt, regardless of the circumstances in college football right now.” We changed as time went on. After Name, Image, and Likeness, we even prevailed. We had to change. We were unable to carry out our daily tasks in the same manner. Every coach ought to be looking ahead rather than back. “Well, we always did it this way,” they are unable to say. That’s not how you can do it anymore, though. To be competitive in the ever-evolving market, you must possess the ability to adjust to the circumstances in which you find yourself. It is the most crucial element.

During Saban’s last years in Tuscaloosa, Alabama didn’t rank among the top teams acquiring transfer talent, but in 2022 and 2023, the team signed five players.