Mark Ingram shares story about his dad and Nick Saban, memorable recruiting visit prediction

When Mark Ingram Sr. was a wide receiver at Michigan State, he’d go back and forth with Spartans defensive coordinator Nick Saban during practice. Saban, however, was also responsible for making sure he made it to class — and calling his girlfriend to track him down when he didn’t show up.

Fast-forward about 30 years, and Saban was recruiting Mark Ingram II to play running back at Alabama. He remembered Ingram’s dad and making those calls to find out why he didn’t go to class.

As he told the story on Ingram’s recruiting visit, though, he wasn’t entirely sure how to tell it because he didn’t know if Mark Ingram Sr. ended up marrying the aforementioned girlfriend. He did — and she was in the room as Saban recalled those conversations.

“They used to go at it all the time. My dad used to tell me, he’d be talking mess to Coach Saban, Saban’s talking back to him or whatever,” Ingram said on the Marchand and Ourand Sports Media Podcast. “But one of Coach’s jobs was to get my dad, when he wasn’t acting right, to go to class. So my dad’s not in class, my dad’s late to this, late to that. So he has to call my mom, like ‘Yo, like where’s Big Mark at? He’s missing class, he’s missing this, he’s not doing this.’

“And so, he’s in my house on a recruiting visit, and he wants to tell his story. But he doesn’t know if the girlfriend is my mother or not. So he keeps going and he tells the story, and she was like, ‘Yeah, that was me. You used to always call me looking for Big Mark.'”

That was just one part of the visit, though. Ingram also recalled the moments when Saban predicted how his college career would play out.

Shortly after Saban looked back on those days in East Lansing, Ingram asked about what he thought Alabama could do once he arrived on campus in 2008. Year by year, Saban thought about how the Crimson Tide would fare.

“I’m like, ‘So, what do you think about the program?’ … Then now, he’s talking about, ‘Your first year, if you come, we’ll be a pretty good team,'” Ingram recalled. “Okay, we went 12-0, lost in the SEC Championship, 1 vs. 2, to Florida. They went on and won the national championship. Then, we lost our [bowl] game to Utah. We were kind of in the dumps, they jumped us in the Superdome. So pretty good, 12-2, right?”

That prediction came true. Saban wasn’t done, though. He had high expectations for 2009.

“But then, he was like, ‘But your second year, I think we win the national championship,'” Ingram said. “The second year, we go 14-0 and win the national championship.”

Ingram was in awe. Saban correctly predicted how Alabama’s 2008 and 2009 seasons would go.

When Ingram asked the legendary coach about it, though, he was just as surprised.

“I’m like, ‘Coach, bro, you sat in my house, in my living room and said this verbatim. How did you know?'” Ingram asked Saban. “He was like, ‘Man, that was just a recruiting pitch. That was just a recruiting pitch, man. I didn’t really know.'”

Of course, Ingram was a big reason for that success. He won the Heisman Trophy as a sophomore in 2009 when he rushed for 1,658 yards and 17 touchdowns along with 334 receiving yards and three touchdowns. The New Orleans Saints then drafted him in 2010, and he played in the NFL until 2022.

Now, Ingram is trying his hand as an analyst, joining FOX’s Big Noon Kickoff. He’ll make his debut this week when the crew head to Colorado vs. TCU.