TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Around the time Bear Bryant was building the University of Alabama into a dominant force in college football, Nick Saban was a boy washing cars in West Virginia.
Back then, in the early 1960s, Saban did not want to be a football coach. But he traces the quest for perfectionism that has defined his coaching career to the service station, where his father would make him rinse and scrub automobiles until no streaks could be seen.
Now 69 years old, Saban is Bryant’s most celebrated successor, with a 170-23 record at Alabama. After the Crimson Tide’s national championship in January over Ohio State, he has more titles — one at Louisiana State and six at Alabama, where Bryant also won a half dozen — than any coach in major college football history.