Nick Saban Reveals Billion-Dollar Career He Almost Chose Over Coaching

Roll back 50-odd years to 1973, and you would find a young Nick Saban pondering dropping out of college after playing DB for Kent State for two years. But just like Saban influenced hundreds of coaches in his career, as his coaching tree got bigger and bigger, there was one person who did the same for him. CFB hall of fame head coach, Don James, convinced Saban to stay back and give coaching a chance. But convincing Saban? It wasn’t easy!!

“I don’t want to be a coach, and I don’t want to go to graduate school. So why would I do either one of those?” said Saban to Don James when he offered the now-Alabama legend to be a graduate assistant. It was an idea too remote and foreign for Saban. For him, all he wanted to do and had dreamed about was to follow in his father’s footsteps, who ran a service station. The dream for Saban? Become a general manager of a car dealership, as he reveals in a recent interview.

“I worked at my dad’s service station growing up. So I really wanted to go to General Motors school to learn how to become a general manager of a car dealership when I graduated. And that’s what I planned to do so that I would someday be able to own a car dealership,” recalled the 7 time national championship winner, head coach Nick Saban, in a podcast with Pure Athlete. But call Don James a visionary or a fortune teller, he wasn’t going to let college football miss out on the GOAT.

Saban recalled to ESPN how James had convinced him to stay back by reminding him that his soon-to-be wife, Terry, was going to graduate, and it was better for him to wait for another year. And in doing that, why not give the graduate assistant job a try for just a year? Saban, all these years later, doesn’t call it fate and says, laughingly, “He (James) must have seen something.” And like that, Saban entered the coaching world, and the rest is history. James, on the other hand, did more than make Saban stay back. He had a profound influence on Saban during his tenure at Kent State.

James went on to become the head coach of Washington, where he won six conference titles and earned one national championship. So, as James registered his name in the CFB Hall of Fame, Saban learned the craft while James stayed at Kent State before going to Washington. Longtime Missouri coach Gary Pinkel, in an interview with ESPN, remembered James barking orders to his players while he was passing through the weight room. Why? The guy was ordering players to remove their socks in order to get as accurate a reading as possible. That’s almost crazy, right? Well, this was the head coach who gave Saban his blueprint, which he followed till his last day at Alabama.

From making sure even bathrooms were clean to ensuring the smallest of details at the university during recruit visits, Saban was a perfectionist, just like his mentor James. And the ‘process’ had its effects, because when Saban finally moved out from Kent State, he felt everything felt chaotic to him. “When I went on to my next couple of jobs, I was just like helter-skelter organizationally… I just assumed everybody was that organized. I just assumed everything was so systematic,” said Saban to ESPN. As for Saban’s dream to own a car dealership? It didn’t happen at the time, but now the legend has gone all in and owns a billion-dollar car business.

Nick Saban fulfills his childhood dream with a billion-dollar paycheck

Saban met Joe Agresti after at his Baton Rouge office. At first, the Motor Group owner thought it was a prank call, but it turned out Saban was interested in becoming a partner. So, the two went for a 30-minute meeting, which quickly ran for four hours, and Saban became a minority partner in Agresti’s car dealership venture, Dream Motor Group. Now, the Motor Group sells around 20,000 Mercedes-Benzes a year and several hundred other high-end cars. The revenue? It’s reported to be $2 billion in 2023 as the business is spread in Alabama, Louisiana, Tennessee, Texas, and Florida. Saban calls the investment his “best” decision.

“It’s one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. It’s been really good for both of us,” said Saban about his business venture. As for Agresti? Saban’s and his own connections came in handy, and the business boomed. “Coach and I get deals left and right because of our connections. Right now we’re at our all-time biggest—all our chips are on the table,” said Agresti to Forbes.com.

Saban, in his 40-year coaching career, has earned nearly $150 million in pre-tax earnings and was the highest-paid head coach for a decade. So, right now, Saban is a full partner, and Agresti manages the daily operations. Moreover, their business is even booming as they added two Miami megastores on a $730 million deal. All in all, it looks like Coach Saban is after all fulfilling his childhood dream and raking in billions now. As for his coaching exploits? Don’t thank him, thank Coach Don James!!