Nick Saban has retired from his post as head football coach at the University of Alabama.
The announcement sent shockwaves through college football Wednesday, from people who thought he had a few more years left at Alabama or wanted to see him give the 12-team playoff at least one go.
Not Mike Johnson, who was an All-American at Alabama and a captain on Saban's first national championship team with the Crimson Tide. "I don't know how shocking it actually is," said the former lineman, and current host of The Morning Shift on 92-9 the Game, to Dukes & Bell.
As the college football world hears from Saban eventually and learns why he chose now to retire, decision-makers at Alabama must move on. Who is going to be the coach to directly follow Saban?
Johnson said he'd always thought it would be Dabo Swinney, who's currently head coach at Clemson. Johnson said he's met Swinney 3-4 times at different Alabama events and said Swinney has been "at more Alabama functions then most people realize he's even been to in the last 10 years."
But Swinney might not be the right fit for the Crimson Tide.
"I always thought Dabo would be that guy, but college football has changed so much in the last three years, I dont know that that's him anymore," Johnson said. "I don't know that he's the same guy he was three years ago. I don't know that he has the roster management skills that are needed for this spot."
If not Swinney, then who?
"I've heard through the grapevine that Dan Lanning has already maybe received that phone call," said Johnson. "I don't know if he's given an answer, but Dan Lanning, I think, is going to be A1. That's intriguing to me because he's young, he's youthful, he understands NIL, he operated a pretty good ship at Oregon, and he's familiar with the SEC, he's familiar with Alabama, he's familiar with Georgia. I think that's an intriguing name.
"You have to have someone with that energy, you have to have someone that's willing to go through this every single year at the college level to be able to restack your roster, because these guys that have been doing it a long time I think a lot of them are going to start stepping away saying 'I just don't have it anymore.'"