Breaking: Former Alabama football stars thank departing coach for assisting them achieve the NFL Combine

Some Alabama athletes spotted hints of Nick Saban’s probable retirement from collegiate football well before his January announcement.

Others were equally surprised as the general public.

Nonetheless, the Crimson Tide players at this week’s NFL annual scouting combine expressed one sentiment: without Saban’s guidance, they might not be here preparing for a professional career.

“It kind of hurt a lot of people’s hearts,” linebacker Dallas Turner said when asked about his reaction to the decision. “A lot of people think you can coach college football forever, but you really can’t. I feel like he opened up a lot of opportunities, touched a lot of hearts and touched a lot of minds, the players he’s coached.”

Turner’s ties are deep.

He credits Saban for assisting him in developing the self-discipline to change himself from a highly ranked prep prospect into a collegiate star, and eventually into a 6-foot-3, 247-pound edge rusher predicted to be a first-round pick in April’s draft.

Turner also saw changes in his college coach during the previous three seasons, and he wasn’t alone.

Defensive tackle Justin Eboigbe, who survived a career-threatening neck injury to get one of the coveted combine invites, noticed a difference when he saw a photo of a rain-soaked Saban walking slowly toward the locker room before a game last season.

“When I saw that picture of him when we had that rain delay against USF, I kind of knew something was up,” he added. “But it’s like anything. If you can’t give it your all, you’ll never cheat the game. I believe he stepped away when he realized he couldn’t give it his all.”

The players clearly understood the decision.

Saban had nothing left to prove at 72 years old, having won 297 career games and seven national championships — six at Alabama and one at LSU.

They just didn’t expect the Saban era to end nine days after the season concluded with a rare loss.

“I believed he’d coach till the wheels went off; I didn’t anticipate he’d resign. “When I saw it on Twitter, I thought it was a meme,” defensive end Chris Braswell explained. “Just his love and passion for the game, he’s always talking about football, he lives, breathes, eats, sleeps, football, so I didn’t think he was going to retire.”

Neither did defensive back Jay Key, who also learned about the decision via social media.

Key explained that he came to Alabama to push himself to play at a better level in the SEC and boost his pro prospects. But he also learnt a key lesson from Saban: success comes at a price.

Key hopes that new coach Kalen DeBoer will be as influential to the next generation of Tide players as Saban was to everyone who named him their coach. Mostly, Key had a simple goodbye message for Saban.

“I thought he would coach a couple more years,” Key was quoted as saying. “He’s unquestionably a legend, but he didn’t show it. He continued to do the same thing for so many years, winning at the level he is now, and he didn’t show it.

“The guy was getting old, he’s a legend, so hey, enjoy retirement, coach.”