Nick Saban comments on his all-time record against former assistants
The student doesn’t often best the master when it comes to Nick Saban’s coaching tree. In fact, it’s quite a rare occurrence as Alabama’s head coach boasts a 28-2 record against his former employees who have become leaders of their own programs.
Still, ahead of the 31st matchup in that assistant series against Steve Sarkisian and Texas tomorrow, Saban didn’t put much into that streak. As he said on ‘The Pat McAfee Show’ on Friday, playing former members of his coaching staff doesn’t do anything extra for him. His only focus right now is on the opportunity for his team as well as Sarkisian’s.
“I mean, look, I’m proud of the guys that have done a great job for us. Sark did a great job when he was here. I’m proud of the fact that he’s building a good program at the University of Texas,” said Saban. “This is gonna be an opportunity for our players to play against a great team and see where they are as a team, see how we respond to this challenge. But there’s not a motivation.”
Saban went on to add that some of his former staff members didn’t always leave for great jobs. It’s only now with situations like Kirby Smart in Athens, Jimbo Fisher in College Station, and, now, Steve Sarkisian in Austin that he feels this record can really be sorted out fairly.
“I think the record is misleading because a lot of the assistants who got head jobs? They didn’t get great jobs. They were in rebuilding mode, they didn’t have the same advantages that we had,” said Saban. “Now you talk about Georgia, A&M, Texas? Those guys have had a chance to build programs and they have really good teams.”
“I think the record is going to be a little more challenging to try to keep it in the mode that it has been in the past,” Saban said.
Smart and Fisher are the only two who have been able to best their former boss in Saban. Each came in 2021 as Fisher knocked off a top-ranked ‘Bama in College Station. Then, in the postseason, it took Smart until another championship appearance versus Saban to pull one over on the Tide.
Now, in 2023, Sarkisian will look to join that exclusive club inside Bryant-Denny Stadium tomorrow night when he stands across the field from Saban for the second consecutive season.
McAfee: Jalen Milroe has ‘shades of Lamar Jackson’ to his game
Pat McAfee is throwing some big praise the way of Jalen Milroe ahead of Alabama’s showdown with Texas.
During an appearance live on ‘Get Up’ on Friday, McAfee compared the Crimson Tide QB to Lamar Jackson. He then revealed that he’s expecting another fantastic performance out of Milroe against the Longhorns.
“That Milroe guy, and the flashes we’ve seen from him in the past…it’s hard to compare anybody to Lamar Jackson. And I guess it’s going to happen all the time. Any time a quarterback can run and can make people miss? They’re going to say, ‘Oh, it’s Lamar Jackson’. Just like people did with (Michael) Vick back in the day, just like it probably happened with Steve Young back in the day. But there are shades of Lamar Jackson in this Milroe,” McAfee said. “When you have him on a college football field, he looks like an adult outrunning everybody else.