Nick Saban discusses complexities of his relationship, rivalry with Auburn's Hugh Freeze

Auburn will bring a new head coach into the 2023 season, after hiring Hugh Freeze. Part of the reason why Freeze landed that job was his history of beating Nick Saban and the Alabama Crimson Tide going back to his time as the Ole Miss head coach.

During SEC media days, Saban addressed Freeze returning to the SEC, explaining how much he respects Freeze as a coach and as a friend.

“Well, I’ve always had a tremendous amount of respect for Hugh Freeze,” Nick Saban said. “He’s a good friend. I thought he did a great job when he was at Ole Miss. He obviously did a really good job at Liberty, and I’m sure he’ll do a very good job at Auburn. So, I have a tremendous amount of respect for him as a coach, and I think his history as a coach sort of speaks for itself. He’s a good recruiter. They had really good players at Ole Miss when he was there and I’m sure they’ll do the same thing in his current position.”

Hugh Freeze is not one of the many head coaches who previously worked for Nick Saban. Despite that, the two are still close and will remain so even as they compete in the Iron Bowl.

“So, look, I’m friends with a lot of guys. There’s a lot of guys that worked for me and did a great job, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t respect them, but you do have to compete against them and that’s part of it. You know, when I play golf, I play with some of my best friends, but they want to beat me and I want to beat them, and that’s okay. When the game is over, you’re still friends.”

Auburn hasn’t beaten Alabama in the Iron Bowl since Gus Malzahn coached the Tigers. That was in 2019. It’s been since 2010, a game sometimes referred to as ‘The Camback’ when Auburn won in Tuscaloosa.

“That’s the way it will be, probably, with this. It’s a great rivalry, the Iron Bowl, and being successful in that game usually has some significant impact on the SEC and the West division. So, it’s a game that’s really, really important to us to try to continue to do the things that we need to continue to do to be able to have success, and when we play down there it’s always been challenging.”

Nick Saban on how Alabama is adjusting to new coordinators

One area of concern at Alabama has been the consistent turnover of offensive and defensive coordinators. In 2023 Crimson Tide will have two new coordinators, Kevin Steele and Tommy Rees. As Nick Saban explained, their ability to develop relationships is going to be important.

“I think the most important thing is probably relationships. When you’re a coordinator, you’re in a leadership position for the players on that side of the ball. So to have good relationships in terms of how you present, how you motivate, and the player’s trust and respect and the things that you’re trying to implement the things that we do, that they trust and believe that that’s going to help them be successful. So that’s number one,” Saban said.

“Number two, we tried to mitigate the changes that a new coordinator would create for players by trying to keep the same system and that’s a little challenging sometimes when you have new coaches because they have to learn a certain amount to be able to implement the system. So it doesn’t change completely for the players. But I’m really pleased with the two new coordinators that we have.”