After 17 years at Alabama and six national championships, Nick Saban is retiring, ESPN’s Chris Low first reported Wednesday afternoon.

For Auburn first-year head coach Hugh Freeze, news of Saban’s retirement doesn’t just mean a rival head coach is retiring — it also means a longtime friend and mentor of Freeze’s is retiring.

“Hard to express how much Nick and Ms. (Terry) have meant to Jill and I as friends and you have forever set the mark for many to chase in this profession,” Freeze wrote in a post to X, the social platform formerly known as Twitter. “Enjoy retirement!!”

Back in July, as Freeze returned to SEC Media Days in Nashville for the first time since his bumpy exit from Ole Miss in 2016, the first-year Auburn head coach recognized Saban as “the king.”

“I want to measure ourselves against the gold standard,” Freeze said of comparing Auburn to Alabama during SEC Media Days.

Meanwhile, when asked of the new coach down on The Plains, Saban was complementary of Freeze.

“When the game is over, you’re still friends and that’s the way it will be probably with this,” Saban said of Freeze during SEC Media Days.