Greg Bryne wasn’t surprised by the news of Nick Saban’s retirement as Alabama’s football coach. He’d been preparing for years, hoping that the day would never come, but getting ready for when it eventually did.

Saban told the team at 4 p.m. Wednesday, minutes after making his final decision. Then, Bryne stepped into the room to ask players to stick with the Tide for 72 hours to allow him to make his hire.

Then, he did it in 49.

There was a plan in place, down to the hour, of what to do. Byrne set it in motion.

“I went and met with the leadership team,” Byrne said. “And those guys have provided tremendous leadership through this, and laid out what I thought a timeframe could be. I also laid out what I thought priorities should be for us in looking for our next coach.”

He met with the football staff, “Because it’s the right thing to do.” Then he gathered members of the athletics department in the conference room by his office, and had the group divide up the roster, be proactive and contact them in an effort to keep the team together.

Then, Wednesday night, he hit the road. As he began the search, he got a text from a friend.

“Every coaching search day feels like the equivalent of seven days,” Bryne said the text read.

He spent Thursday on the road. All the while he stayed in contact with UA president Stuart Bell and the board of trustees, through athletics chair Mike Brock.

He also chatted with Saban throughout the process.

“He was awesome,” Byrne said. “We talked several times during it. It would have been irresponsible on my part if I didn’t utilize coach Saban.”

Coaches who were floated as possible candidates for the job included Dan Lanning of Oregon, Mike Norvell of Florida State and Alabama’s offensive coordinator Tommy Rees. There was also Kalen DeBoer.

Byrne had never met the Washington coach, though they’d been in the same building once when the 2017 Fresno State team that DeBoer was offensive coordinator for came to Bryant-Denny Stadium. But since he had been head coach of that Fresno team, he’d been on Byrne’s short list.

The two, along with Regina Byrne and Nicole DeBoer, met for the first time in a downtown Seattle hotel Thursday.

“I hired Dan Mullen at 2:30 in the morning in an Embassy Suites in Buckhead,” Byrne said, speaking of his days running the athletics department at Mississippi State. “And I’d never met Dan before that day, But early on I’m like ‘This guy’s really good.’ And I sense the same thing again right away with coach DeBoer.”

The two parties hammered out the details. On Friday, they came to an agreement.

DeBoer told his Washington team, then got on the plane. He, Nicole and their daughters landed in Alabama at 8:37 p.m. CT Friday.

On the ground, Bryne was waiting. He drove a black Mercedes SUV off the tarmac at Tuscaloosa National Airport toward Mal Moore Athletic Facility, where the Crimson Tide was waiting on its new coach.