Former Alabama football head coach Nick Saban gave ESPN his first public comments since announcing his retirement Wednesday. According to the story, Saban said age was catching up with him, and it was hard to keep working the 14-hour days needed for coaching the Tide.

Saban said he decided to retire after a weekend trip to Florida with his wife Terry. He told the team in a meeting Wednesday, after spending the morning working.

“Last season was difficult for me from a health standpoint,” Saban told ESPN. “Not necessarily having something major wrong, but just being able to do things the way I want to do them, the way I’ve always done them.”

Saban was at the Alabama athletics facility Thursday morning. He told ESPN he’ll be helping the Crimson Tide transition to the next coach however he can.

He also said he’ll continue on at UA in some capacity. He also noted he’ll have more time to spend playing golf now that he won’t be running the Alabama football machine.

“There’s life after football, but I’m always going to be here for Alabama however they need me,” Saban said in the story

Alabama’s head athletic trainer, Jeff Allen, who was with Saban for all 17 years of his Tuscaloosa tenure, said the coach spent time Thursday thanking UA staffers.

“He’s been doing that all morning with everybody, literally walking around and thanking people,” Allen told ESPN. “One of our custodians came up to me and said how much she was going to miss him and miss cleaning his office and how well he had treated her. People don’t always see that side of him. But all this being said, we also know what he wants us to do is to move on in the right way and help the new coach to continue to be successful, and that’s the way we can best honor Coach Saban.”

Saban’s meeting with players reportedly lasted less than 10 minutes. He said in the story that he asked the players to get “100 percent committed to coming back.”

Alabama’s search for his successor began immediately. Oregon coach Dan Lanning, who had been mentioned publicly as a candidate for the job, released a video Thursday taking himself out of consideration.