Former Alabama football head coach Nick Saban took a moment away from retirement on Saturday to speak at the Crimson Tide’s A-Day Walk of Fame ceremony. Saban was there to see the hand and cleat ceremony for the permanent captains of his final UA team, Jalen Milroe, Dallas Turner and Malachi Moore.

Saban gave brief remarks from beneath Denny Chimes in Tuscaloosa. He started out pointing out a notable change since he’s no longer stalking the Bryant-Denny Stadium sidelines.

“This is the first time I’ve got to address a group and I’m not the coach,” Saban said. “But I’m one of you. I’m one of the fans now.”

The ex-coach, who now works for ESPN, praised the tradition, noting how much he enjoyed seeing captains be enshrined in concrete. He also had kind words for the 2023 squad.

His final Crimson Tide team lost to Texas and struggled in a win against South Florida early in the season, appearing dead in the water relative to typical expectations. Alabama then went on a tear, capped off with an SEC championship game victory over Georgia and an appearance in the College Football Playoff’s Rose Bowl semifinal.

“This last year’s team is probably one of the team’s that I’m most proud of,” Saban said. “For the progress that they made. The whole LANK idea of not starting out very well and everybody working so hard to improve. And these three guys had as big an impact on that as anybody with their leadership. The example that they set. They were a person that other players on the team could emulate. Their work ethic, their perseverance. How they cared for the other players on the team and made us a team.”

The ceremony occurred ahead of UA’s 3 p.m. A-Day game, Kalen DeBoer’s first as Saban’s replacement. Event emcee and Crimson Tide Sports Network play-by-play broadcaster Chris Stewart recognized DeBoer, looking forward to 2025, when the new coach will take Saban’s spot at the microphone.

In the meantime, the man who won six national titles in Tuscaloosa thanked the fans.

“For 17 years of your support, which made the program what it is,” Saban said. “When we stepped on this campus 17 years ago and there were 95,000 people for the A-Day game, that set the tone for what Alabama was gonna become, what this program was gonna become. And it was all because of you being a part of the team and the support that you gave us.”

The A-Day game will be aired on ESPN.