When Nick Saban walked into a team meeting in January of 2024, and retired as Alabama’s football coach, Caleb Downs was as shocked as anyone. The safety, who had just wrapped up an excellent freshman season and planned on continuing his career with the Crimson Tide, had to figure out his future quickly.

Downs, speaking to reporters Saturday in Atlanta ahead of Monday’s national championship game, said he was disappointed by Saban’s decision.

“That came as a huge shock to me,” Downs said. “I didn’t see it coming at all. Even when he said it, I was still like ‘Did this really just happen?’ That was one of the main reasons I went there to Alabama and it was a really difficult time for me.”

The Buford, Ga. native, who had earned second-team All-SEC honors as a freshman, along with the league’s newcomer of the year award, eventually hit the portal after Kalen DeBoer was hired to replace Saban. He landed at Ohio State, where he has continued as a star of the OSU defense, which will face Notre Dame Monday for a championship.

Downs said his leaving Alabama wasn’t predetermined when Saban retired.

“I didn’t know right away that I was gonna hit the portal,” Downs said. “They gave me the opportunity to stay. I stayed for actually six days, five days, just to feel out the new coaching staff, see who they were gonna hire and see if I could stay.

“At that point I really didn’t want to leave and I wanted to stick to the choice I made in high school to stay here. And it didn’t turn out that way.”

Downs had plenty of suitors out of the portal. He could have stayed in the SEC, telling reporters Saturday that he’d heavily considered Georgia.

But now, he has a chance to win a national title in his home state. His old coach will be there too, albeit as part of ESPN’s broadcast.

“I can tell that he’s really enjoyed it,” Downs said of Saban’s broadcast career. “And every time I’ve talked to him about it, he’s like ‘I’m having so much fun doing it right now,’ so it’s a good thing.”

The national championship game is scheduled to kick off at 6:30 p.m. CT Monday in Atlanta on ESPN.