Tuscaloosa coffee house has Nick Saban's favorite breakfast up for grabs as tribute to 'GOAT' Alabama HC amid retirement

The sudden retirement of former Alabama coach Nick Saban caught everyone by surprise as he indicated in an interview that it was a last-minute decision before a team meeting.

The Tuscaloosa community took it harder than most, with the Sabans a part of the furniture after a silverware-laden 17-year stint with the program.

Fans bade their farewells in different ways, with a Tuscaloosa coffee house, Scooter's Coffee, extending a unique gesture to customers by providing the legendary coach's favorite breakfast for free between 5 a.m. and 12 p.m. on Friday.

The breakfast consists of a small brewed coffee and an oatmeal creme pie.

Image via Instagram

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Did college football changes chase away Nick Saban?

The face of college football has evolved quickly, and nothing has changed more than the introduction of name, image and likeness, which has brought about player power.

NIL, combined with the flexible use of the transfer portal, has allowed players to wield a lot of power and put teams with resources on the path to willingly snagging top talent.

After the news about Nick Saban retiring broke, Colorado Buffaloes coach Deion Sanders, a longtime ally of the former Alabama coach, had a typically outspoken take on the matter on his X account.

“WOW! College Football just lost the GOAT to retirement. Wow!” Sanders wrote. “I knew it would happen (one) day soon but not this soon. The game has change(d) so much that it chased the GOAT away. College football let's hold up our mirrors and say HONESTLY what (do you) see.”

There was speculation that the coach or his wife, Terry Saban, was ill, but he dismissed those concerns in his first tell-all interview with ESPN's Rece Davis.

"There’s no illness. Miss Terry’s fine. I’m fine," Nick Saban said. "But it was the, can you sustain the season–just from a mental grind standpoint. When I was young, I could work until 2 in the morning, get up at 6, and be there the next day and be full of energy and go for it.

"But when you get a little older, that gets a little tougher. And I'm sure a lot of people can relate to that."

Nick Saban further highlighted one factor that could have crippled the Alabama Crimson Tide for years to come, recruitment at his age.

"I actually thought that in hiring coaches, recruiting players, that my age started to become a little bit of an issue," Saban said. "People wanted assurances that I would be here for three years, five years, whatever. And it got harder and harder for me to be honest about [it]."

Whether or not the changing face of college chased away the charismatic Nick Saban, the football fraternity was united in its tribute to probably the greatest college football coach to have ever lived.