Nick Saban responds to Terrion Arnold's claim Caleb Downs is most like him

When Terrion Arnold joined On3’s Andy Staples for a wide-ranging interview, he claimed Caleb Downs was the player most similar to Nick Saban. The freshman safety has been a force on the Crimson Tide defense and, according to Arnold, shares plenty of characteristics with Saban.

During his press conference Wednesday, Saban responded in a way only he can.

“You can ask Terrion what his opinion is about a lot of things,” Saban joked.

Arnold called Downs a perfectionist and “very, very serious” when describing his similarities to Saban, who has a unique relationship with the defensive backs. A former DB himself at Kent State, Saban still coaches the defensive backs. As a result, he forges fun bonds with players such as Arnold and Kool-Aid McKinstry, which also came up in Arnold’s response.

Saban offered a similar sentiment about Downs’ personality, but joked he’s not sure if those traits apply to him.

“I don’t evaluate the personalities of the player in the room,” Saban said. “I like Caleb Downs, I think the’s got a lot good characteristics as a person. He’s got a great, competitive attitude about how he goes about things, how he prepares. He’s very serious. He pays attention to detail, really has a lot of pride in performance.

“I don’t know if anybody could say that about me, so I’m not comparing myself to him at all. But I like the intangibles that he plays with and that he has as a person.”

Terrion Arnold: Alabama DBs get ‘the full Nick Saban experience’

Arnold ran through the defensive backs room while describing “the full Nick Saban experience,” as Staples called it. He said McKinstry is the closest with Saban, while Downs is most similar to him. But the ringleader is Malachi Moore, who goes with the flow.

“The one who is like Coach Saban the most — as far as being a perfectionist, as far as not laughing, very, very serious — Caleb Downs,” Arnold said. “Now, the people who get Coach Saban going [and] bring out the personality in him? Me and Kool-Aid. … Coach Saban, the one who is most like him and similar to him would definitely be Caleb Downs. Kool-Aid and I, we bring the personality out of him.

“Malachi, he’s kind of like — Malachi’s the leader of the group. Malachi don’t get too high, he don’t get too low. He’s just chill. Like, almost like a chaperone. He’s just like, ‘What are these guys doing?’ Like, he’s just chill.”