The greatest college football coach in history has walked off the field for the final time.

Nick Saban, longtime head coach at the University of Alabama, has announced his retirement.

Nobody here is an Alabama fan. And that’s the best part.

You don’t have to like someone to respect them.

Salesgirls can appreciate greatness in all of its many forms.

To celebrate an iconic career, we’ve put together 7 of our favorite Nick Saban quotes, one for each national championship he won:

1. “Mediocre people hate high achievers, and high achievers hate mediocre people.”

2. “I think everybody should take the attitude that we’re working to be a champion, that we want to be a champion in everything that we do. Every choice, every decision, everything that we do everyday, we want to be a champion.”

3. “It’s not human nature to be great. It’s human nature to survive, to be average and do what you have to do to get by. That is normal. When you have something good happen, it’s the special people that can stay focused and keep paying attention to detail, working to get better and not being satisfied with what they have accomplished.”

4. “Success doesn’t come from pie-in-the-sky thinking. It’s the result of consciously doing something each day that will add to your overall excellence.”

5. “We kind of have a younger generation now that doesn’t always get told no. They don’t always get told, ‘This is exactly how you need to do it.’ So, they have this illusion they have all these choices. But the fact of the matter is, if you want to be good, you really don’t have a lot of choices because it takes what it takes.”

6. “What I would like for every football team to do that we play is to sit there and say, ‘I hate playing against these guys. I hate playing ‘em. Their effort, their toughness, their relentless resiliency to go out every play and focus and play the next play and compete in the game for 60 minutes in the game -- I can’t handle it.’...That’s the kind of football team we want.”

7. “I don’t think it’s about who you play, I think it’s about who you are.”

If those don’t light your fire, your wood’s wet.

I’m even more sure today than I have ever been that good coaches are national treasures that should be protected at all costs. They challenge us, push us to our limits and bring out our very best... Tell us the best advice that you’ve ever received from a coach.

We’ll feature your answers in tomorrow’s newsletter.

Xo, The Salesgirls

Ps. If you want more of Nick Saban, check out The Capability Gap on the blog - it was a subscriber favorite!