Nick Saban is keeping busy post-retirement by giving back to the community. While he’s expected to step into a more formal, operational role, advocating for policy reform in college football. But that’s not all that the veteran coach is doing. Saban is also making sure that he can enhance the lives of the people around him. “How do you serve other people? We have quite a few guys who do a really good job in the community doing those type of things and it makes me very proud that they do that,” the HC told WVUA 23.  The veteran HC, now free from coaching duties, is taking on the role of a community leader.

Saban and his wife, Miss Terry, are well known in Tuscaloosa for their non-profit organization, Nick’s Kids Foundation. It raises funds for the educational and recreational welfare of children in the community and other deserving causes. One of their most creative initiatives involved a project called Habitat for Humanity. While he was an active CFB coach, Saban would build a home for each of Alabama‘s Championship wins. Today, those homes stand at 20 (18 National Championship titles and 2 SEC Championship titles). Apart from that, Nick’s Kids also supports the Tuscaloosa County Juvenile Detention Center by running career tech classrooms. Now, he has a dream community project underway.

The former Alabama HC gave an update about the Saban Center, a state-of-the-art learning facility in Tuscaloosa. “The $100 million children’s learning center that we’re doing right now, which is going to be a STEM hub for teachers all over the state, provide education for them to take back to the students, and occupational opportunity exposure for a lot of young people to decide what their career might be,” he told the press at an event hosted by Nick’s Kids.

The Saban Center is dedicated to being a conjunction of STEM and the Arts, a hub for teachers and students alike. While it spearheads creating innovative measures in the sciences and arts, the project also has an imposing recreational facility for its children to unwind. It will also involve the cooperation of the Tuscaloosa Children’s Theatre, and IGNITE, which was formerly the Children’s Hands-On Museum. Proposed to be a leader in learning and innovation, this is one of Saban’s most prized projects as of now.

While attending to the press, he also had some words about Ty Simpson, who is the frontrunner of now-HC Kalen DeBoer‘s QB1 race.

Nick Saban “rooting” for Ty Simpson to win Kalen DeBoer’s QB1 race

Simpson was recruited by Saban in 2022, and since then, he has been patiently waiting for an opportunity to be the starting quarterback. Saban had nothing but praise for Simpson. “Ty was an outstanding high school player, no doubt. “He’s a fine young man. I think his example is a true example of development. He matured and developed for (three) years and now he’s going to get the opportunity, and I think his experiences are really going to help him be successful,“ he said. Saban recruited him as a five-star prospect with eye-popping high school numbers. He scored a total of 2,827 yards, 41 touchdowns, and 862 rushing yards and 92 carries. Simpson, in these three years with Alabama, saw very little action on the field.

It’s a miracle that he didn’t transfer out even after two years of not being able to start. Last season, he was the backup to the star QB, Jalen Milroe. But, there are very high hopes for Simpson to land the starting role this year. In the A-Day game from this spring, Simpson got the first shot at reps, which continued for all the drills. Though fellow QBs Keelon Russell and Austin Mack had their moments. Simpson was the guy who seemed to have it under control. He was the only QB not to cause a turnover. But DeBoer still hasn’t implied who he was leaning towards in the QB1 race, which is likely to go on for longer than expected.

“We’re rooting for him, that’s for sure, and I have every confidence that he’ll do a great job,” Saban added further in his praise of Simpson. Nick Saban is now growing into an element who runs the bigger show in college football. Though no his longer associated with Alabama football, he continues to shape their future and has high hopes for his QB recruit to have a great season in 2025.