Even a heads up from Miss Terry didn’t prepare Kristen Saban Setas for the realization that her father, legendary Alabama coach Nick Saban, was retiring.

“I got a text message from my mom the morning saying, ‘Hey, I just want to let you know we’ve been having conversations. We don’t know if it’s happening today for sure, but he’s kind of giving himself a timeline. So heads up,’” Setas told WVTM. “I was like, he won’t.”

Well, he did. And Setas, she said, was on an airplane.

“First thing that popped up was (the retirement announcement),” she explained. ‘Hey mom, I’m on a plane. What’s going on?’ She was like, ‘Yeah, I warned you.’

“I didn’t think it was actually happening, so I’m on a plane ad I have to excuse myself to the bathroom, sobbing. It was a bittersweet-happy moment because it just hit me like he’s really doing it.”

Setas did point to positives since her father, winner of six national championships at Alabama and seven overall, called it a career.

“I can actually get him on the phone,” she joked.

In the past, he had 7:30 a.m. team meetings and wouldn’t hear from him until later in the night. Now, she said, she gets a call back in less than a minute.

“That never happened,” she said on the call back.

Saban won six of his titles during his 17 seasons at Alabama. He won his first with LSU in 2003. His Tide teams were ranked No. 1 in the AP poll in 15 straight seasons, breaking the old record of seven held by Miami.

Mark Heim is a reporter for The Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @Mark_Heim. He can be heard on “The Opening Kickoff” on WNSP-FM 105.5 FM in Mobile or on the free Sound of Mobile App from 6 to 9 a.m. daily.