It was announced Wednesday that legendary college football coach Nick Saban is hanging up his headset after 17 seasons at the helm of the Crimson Tide football program.

Saban, 72, calls it a career with an all-time record of 292-71-1.

Prior to his arrival in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, in 2007, Saban’s coaching career dates all the way back to the 1973-74 season, where he was a graduate assistant at his Alma Mater, Kent State University.

In 1975, he took over the linebackers at Kent State where he was until 1978-79 when he returned to his home state of West Virginia, to take over as the Mountaineers’ Defensive Backs coach.

During the 1980-81 season, he took his talents to Ohio State as their defensive backs coach and found his way to Annapolis, Maryland to serve the Navy Midshipmen in the same capacity.

His head coaching career, however, began in 1990, when he was hired as the head coach of the Toledo Rockets in Toledo, Ohio.

From Toledo, he found his way into the NFL as the Defensive Coordinator of the Cleveland Browns.

He would soon lay aside his coordinator duties to pick up a head coaching position with the Michigan State Spartans in Lansing, Michigan, perhaps, that’s where his headset-slamming temper tantrums were born.

He served as the Spartans’ head man from 1995-99. In 2000, he found himself down in the Bayou as the head coach of the LSU Tigers, where he served until 2004.

In 2005, Saban would return to the professional football ranks to roam the sidelines with the Miami Dolphins in Miami, Florida.

He finally found his way to Tuscaloosa, Alabama in 2007, where he would go on to win six national championships and nine Southeastern Conference titles, along with sending 49 first-round picks to the NFL.

You can’t talk about the greatest coaches without mentioning Nick Saban’s name. His career numbers can only be rivaled by those of the legendary Paul “Bear” Bryant.

As a Tennessee fan, I’m elated at this news, but the sports lover in me knows that there will never be another one quite like the man from Fairmont, West Virginia.