Nick Saban jokes that being taller than Mickey Mouse helped his ego

Nick Saban can still crack jokes, even about Mickey Mouse, ahead of Alabama’s College Football Playoff game against Michigan.

The Crimson Tide and Wolverines square off at the Rose Bowl, but there were plenty of media day festivities at Disneyland. Naturally, Saban and Jim Harbaugh took a picture with the proverbial GOAT, in terms of rodents.

That’s no insult to Mickey Mouse of course, but Saban was glad to look over top of his head.

“Well you know the only thingIi know about that picture is that Mickey Mouse is the only guy that I was taller than in the picture,” Saban said on the Pat McAfee Show. “That helped my ego a little bit.”

Saban is shorter than Harbaugh, but at least he’s taller than Mickey “MAS,” as McAfee puts it. Walt Disney’s greatest creation doesn’t have anything on the Alabama coach on the football field at least.

As Kirk Herbstreit said, you can talk about any of the national titles won by Saban as his best job. But if you look at 2023 a little deeper, you might find this is the best one.

Especially if another national championship is on the way.

“You know, it’s easy to look at teams where they’ve already won a national championship and say okay that that team was really special and played on this field and beat Texas in 2009,” Herbstreit said on SportsCenter. “So it’s easier I guess for people to just say that was the best year. I think this, go back to who they were after they lost to Texas and then they played USF the next week, and they made a quarterback adjustment. 

“Think about having to go back to that man right there. Jalen Milroe, keep his confidence and both new coordinators Kevin Steele on the defense … And then you had you know, the other side where they had to obviously do a good job with Tommy Rees, kind of re-identifying a new offensive structure and what they wanted to do.” 

Saban emphasized that it’s been important to keep the team focused and avoid distraction amid a holiday and the general bowl festivities.

“I think we’ve tried to emphasize to the players it’s important that there’s a lot of distractions surrounding a game like this,” Saban said to media members while at Disneyland. “Especially being home for Christmas for a few days, traveling all the way out here. We had a practice yesterday and practice today, but got to stay committed to what got your team here, to let your players have some fun.”

Saban and Alabama take on Michigan in the Rose Bowl in the College Football Playoff semifinals Monday at 5:00 p.m. ET.