What Nick Saban Said in Introduction of President Donald Trump at UA Commencement Event

The former Alabama football head coach introduced Trump inside Coleman Coliseum on Thursday night.

May 1, 2025; Tuscaloosa, AL, USA; Former Alabama football coach Nick Saban introduces President Donald Trump. Trump delivered a special commencement address to University of Alabama graduates at Coleman Coliseum. Graduation occurs over the weekend. / Gary Cosby Jr.-Tuscaloosa News

Legendary former Alabama football coach Nick Saban introduced United States president Donald Trump at a University of Alabama commencement event inside Coleman Coliseum in Tuscaloosa on Thursday night.

"It's certainly an honor for me to be here and participate in this historic event to be able to introduce President Trump to address the graduates here today," Saban said. "It's a special moment for me, but I gotta be honest with you, I feel like I'm the warmup band for The Rollings Stones. And the first song they're going to play is 'Start Me Up.'

"But really, to all the students here, I want to congratulate you on the hard work and commitment that you made to be able to graduate, create a future for yourself. But I want you to remember something. You've created an opportunity to create a legacy now."

Saban coached for 17 seasons at Alabama, winning six national championships with the Crimson Tide. This included many visits to the White House after winning championships, including one when Trump was president in 2018.

He not only introduced Trump but shared some encouragement with the University of Alabama's 2025 spring graduating class. You can read the full transcript of Saban's remarks below.

Full Transcript

"It's certainly an honor for me to be here and participate in this historic event to be able to introduce President Trump to address the graduates here today," Saban said. "It's a special moment for me, but I gotta be honest with you, I feel like I'm the warmup band for The Rollings Stones. And the first song they're going to play is 'Start Me Up.'

"But really, to all the students here, I want to congratulate you on the hard work and commitment that you made to be able to graduate, create a future for yourself. But I want you to remember something. You've created an opportunity to create a legacy now."

"And if you remember, back in 2009 when we won our first national championship here, we had a celebration in the stadium, and I said, ‘This is not the end, this is the beginning.’ And the reason I made that statement is I wanted our players and the people in the program and our supporters at the university to realize that we wanted to create a legacy of success. Well, that's what you have the opportunity to do now.

“You know, you’re going to face new challenges. This is going to be a new beginning for you–– new challenges, new horizons, new opportunities, new obstacles to overcome. And I’m sure the University of Alabama has provided in the future. But I always tell people that you need to be very wise about the goals that you set. But more importantly, you gotta define what do I need to do to accomplish those goals? That’s called the process— the very things that you need to do on a day-to-day basis to be able to accomplish the goals that you have. 

“You need to define that for yourself, and then you have to have the discipline to execute it every day. And I'm talking about self discipline, because we make hundreds of decisions every day that come down to two questions. Here's something I know I'm supposed to do that I really don't want to do. Can you make yourself do it? On this hand, there's something you know you're not supposed to do, but you want to do it. Can you keep yourself from it? If you can make those choices and decisions the right way, you'll be able to always make progress toward the goals and aspirations and things that you want to achieve. So making the right choices is very, very important.

“When you embark on this journey, there’s three things that I think always really help me. First of all, have compassion for other people. Treat people like you would like to be treated. Treat people nicely on your way up. You might meet them on the way down. So it's nice to be important, but it's also more important to be nice. So that was the first thing— compassion for other people. 

“The second thing is, be responsible for your own self determination. You got to earn it. Don't look at somebody else. Don't blame somebody else. You be responsible for your own self determination and have accountability for what your job is and what you need to do. 

“And the last thing, it’s not about beating the other guy. It’s not about being than somebody else. It’s about being the best that you can be. You know, we won 26 games when I played Pop Warner football in a row. Then we won 30-something in a row in high school, and it was never good enough, and I could never understand that. But my dad said it's not about beating the other guy, it's about you being the best that you can be at whatever you choose to do.

“And I'm going to leave you with this, the first speech that I gave in 17 straight years here was I used to get the players to understand how important it was for them to be their best as I paraphrased Martin Luther King's old street-sweeper sermon. And he started out saying, there's only one guy in the green stamp store at Montgomery, Alabama that I'll let shine my shoes, because the pride that guy has in shining shoes and the smile he gets on his face when you told him he did a good job. Then he goes on to say, if you’re gonna be a street sweeper, be the best street sweeper in the world. Sweep the streets like Michelangelo painted the Sistine Chapel, like Shakespeare wrote literature. Let them put a sign up that says, ‘the best street sweeper in the world lives here.’ And if you do that, you’ll accomplish the best there is in life. 

“So, from Miss Terry and myself, we want to congratulate the 2025 graduating class of the University of Alabama and wish you the very best in the future.

"And before I introduce President Trump, I have to tell you a story. You all know that when we won the national championship, we got to go to the White House, and it's great experience for our players in each and every year. But when we won in 2017, President Trump was there in 2018. Very gracious host, and he’s the first president that invited us to come into the Oval Office. 

“So I take the three captains in the Oval Office, and president's really nice to everybody, and he's got this very big, good looking, auspicious box on his desk that has a red button on top. And one of the players said, ‘Is that what you launch the missiles with?’ And he said, ‘Well, push it and find out.’ Player said, ‘Nah, I don’t want to do that.’ He said, ‘Oh, go ahead. Go ahead. Go ahead. Push it. See what happens. Find out.’

“So Rashaan Evans finally got the guts up, went over, pushed the red button. Some lady came in with a coke on a tray. 

“I really want to express my appreciation to President Trump for choosing the University of Alabama for his commencement address and making time to speak to our graduates. Now, it is my distinct honor to introduce our next speaker. Please join me in welcoming the 45th and 47th President of the United States, Donald J. Trump”

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