For more than 50 years, Nick Saban barely had time to look up. Saturdays were all pressure, tunnel walks, and another game that had to be won. Then, instead of pacing Alabama’s sideline, he’s sitting on ESPN’s College GameDay set. Now, retirement has finally let him enjoy a part of college football he never really got to see while he was busy winning it.

Asked by CNN’s Kaitlan Collins in an interview featured by Garden & Gun Magazine whether fans treat him differently now, Nick Saban couldn’t help but laugh.

“It’s a lot more positive,” he said. “Don’t get booed when you get off the bus. I have a lot of admiration and respect for the passion people have. You never see the outside of the stadium when you’re coaching. You get off the bus, you walk through a tunnel, you go in the locker room.

“Now I see what happens outside. It’s a lot more fun sometimes than what’s happening inside.”

That response shows how retirement has changed his football life. For 51 years, Nick Saban’s routine was consumed by coaching. His college stops included Toledo, Michigan State, LSU and Alabama, where he built a dynasty that produced six national championships in 17 seasons. 

If you count the title he won at LSU in 2003, he finished with seven national crowns, plus a 297-71-1 record (292-71-1 after record adjustment by the NCAA) across 28 years as a college head coach. Then, there was also a two-year NFL stint with the Miami Dolphins and time working under Bill Belichick with the Cleveland Browns. Now, entering his third season on College GameDay, Nick Saban prepares differently but with familiar habits.

“I do it almost like when I was coaching,” he explained. “I look at film. If they give me a project about a player, I’ll try to develop a story and pull out some plays that tell that story.”

The biggest difference, he said, is perspective.

“When you’re coaching, you look at everything through a straw: at your team and who you’re playing that week,” he added. “On GameDay, you’re looking at everything from a thousand feet. You develop an appreciation for players all over the country.”

Broadcasting wasn’t something he ever pictured for himself. He admitted the only time he ever got a D in music was in eighth grade when he was too shy to get up and sing. And now, he’s a legend both on and off the football field. His media career has also given fans a different look at the man many viewed only through sideline outbursts. 

Away from football, Nick Saban says he and his wife, Terry, spend more time with their children and grandchildren while continuing work through Nick’s Kids Foundation and a new STEM learning center in Tuscaloosa.

For a coach who measured life by kickoff times for more than half a century, retirement hasn’t pulled him away from the sport. It has simply moved him to a different seat, one where the boos are gone, the view is wider, and, for perhaps the first time in 51 years, Saturday feels a little more enjoyable.