Nick Saban praises Texas A&M's secondary, details what makes them dangerous
The Alabama Crimson Tide and Texas A&M Aggies are finally getting together this weekend. It’s a matchup that has been circled on the college football calendar for several months now for a number of reasons. One of the biggest is due to the verbal sparring this offseason between Alabama head coach Nick Saban and Texas A&M head coach Jimbo Fisher over NIL. Ahead of Saturday’s highly anticipated game, Saban had great things to say about safety Antonio Johnson and the rest of the Aggie secondary.
You can listen to the audio from Saban from 2:37 to 3:04 below or read the transcribed version below the video.
“Oh, their secondary’s good. They’re big. They’re physical. They’re very athletic at corner. They’re long. They got good size. Tackle well. [He] Antonio’s a really, really good player. So, they move him around some. He plays in different spots. They’re a good defensive team, really good defensive team,” Saban said.
CLICK HERE to subscribe for FREE to the On3 YouTube channel
The Aggie secondary features the likes of Jaylon Jones, Demani Richardson, Antonio Johnson, and Tyreek Chappell. While it hasn’t been as good as many were expecting coming into the 2022 campaign, the Texas A&M defense still ranks in the top 30 in the country in a number of statistical categories: scoring defense (17.8 points allowed per game) and passing yards per game allowed (188.4).
Jones was banged up in the Mississippi State game, but is “doing fine”, according to Jimbo Fisher.
The Aggies’ defense has gotten severely gashed on the ground this year, allowing 170.2 rushing yards per game–ranking them 98th in the country out of 131 qualifying teams.
Offseason feud between Jimbo Fisher and Nick Saban
Texas A&M head coach Jimbo Fisher has no interest in rehashing the back-and-forth that took place between him and Alabama head coach Nick Saban this offseason.
With the Aggies set to travel to Tuscaloosa this weekend to face Saban and the Crimson Tide, Fisher was asked once again about his comments from May. But before the reporter could even finish the question, Fisher cut him off with a firm answer.
“That’s over with,” Fisher said in his Monday press conference. “He and I are in great shape. We’re great things and we’ve moved on.”
When the reporter then attempted to go in for a follow up, Fisher made it clear he did not want to discuss it any further as he reiterated his previous statement.
“We’re in good shape, we’ve moved on,” he said.
Although Texas A&M enters Saturday just 3-2, the matchup will be highly anticipated for more than just the offseason feud between the two coaches. The Aggies handed Alabama a 41-38 loss in 2021, winning on a last-second field goal as Jimbo Fisher became the first former Nick Saban assistant to beat his old boss. With that in mind, the Crimson Tide will come in with revenge on their minds.
More on the NIL controversy between the two head coaches
The quarrel between Nick Saban and Jimbo Fisher began when the Alabama coach claimed that A&M “bought every player on their team” through the use of NIL. That led Fisher to fire back in a press conference the next day, calling Saban’s character into question “We never bought anybody,” Fisher said.
“No rules were broken. Nothing was done wrong. It was all – the way in which we do things, the ethics of how we do things. And these families, it’s despicable that a reputable head coach can come out and say this when he doesn’t get his way or things don’t go his way. The narcissist in him doesn’t allow those things to happen and it’s ridiculous when he’s not on top,” Fisher said.
“It’s amazing, some people think they’re God. Go dig into how God did his deal, you may find out about a lot of things you don’t want to know. We build him up to be the czar of football, go dig into his past, or anybody who’s ever coached with him. You can find out anything you want to find out. What he does and how he does it, and it’s despicable,” the Texas A&M head coach said.
After that, the two coaches realized that things were getting out of hand, and publicly buried the hatchet at SEC media days in July. Based on Fisher’s comments from Monday, it appears that the drama is well behind them, and the focus is on the field.
Texas A&M and Alabama are set to kick off at 7 p.m. CT on Saturday in Tuscaloosa.
On3’s Chandler Vessels also contributed to this article.