Nick Saban shares incredible story about golfing with Mark Ingram, having to leave early

In 2015, Nick Saban and Mark Ingram were paired together for the Chick-Fil-A Peach Bowl Challenge. The event — a golf tournament — pitted the duo against the pairing of Georgia Tech coach Paul Johnson and former Yellow Jackets basketball star Jon Barry.

The match ended up going into a playoff. Then, it went to another playoff. And another. As they kept playing the 18th hole over and over, one thing was on Saban’s mind.

At some point, he had to get on a plane to go to an Alabama alumni event.

“I’ve got to go speak,” Saban recalled on the “Sugar Bowl Preview Show with Nick Saban” on Thursday. “The plane is on the runway. They’ve got it running ready for me to take off to go speak at one of these alumni functions that we have.”

Saban told the story Thursday night alongside Ingram, who’s dealing with a knee injury and away from the New Orleans Saints. He discussed an exchange he had with Ingram as he was getting ready to tell him he had to leave.

That’s when Ingram gave Saban a taste of his own medicine.

“On the fifth playoff hole, I looked at Mark and I said, ‘You know, Mark, win or lose, I’m really proud of us being in the position that we’re in,’ because I was thinking I’m going to have to break it to him that I’m going to have to go walk out on him pretty soon,” Saban said. “He looked at me and he said, ‘Coach, you didn’t bring me up that way. We’re going to win this thing.'”

Ingram nodded along with Saban’s recollection and again jabbed his former coach for not having a winning mentality.

“He told me he’s got to leave,” Ingram said. “We’re in a battle for the title, man. He’s talking about he’s got to leave. Man, what [are] you talking about?”

Ultimately, Johnson and Barry won, meaning Saban and Ingram finished in second. Almost eight years later, Ingram still knows why the Alabama duo wasn’t able to get over the hump on those playoff holes.

“Because his mindset wasn’t there,” Ingram joked. “… He let the doubt and the other stuff creep in and it got us killed.”

When Alabama plays in the Sugar Bowl Saturday, Ingram will be on the sidelines due to his injury — in an interesting new role. He’ll be the sideline reporter for the radio broadcast as the Crimson Tide takes on Kansas State. That game kicks off at noon ET.